Second Grade Biome PowerPoints

Second grade students at Parkview Elementary learned about all of the different biomes in the world. Each student then chose one biome to research. After researching, the students created a PowerPoint about their biome to share with others.

Below is one example from a student in Mrs. Calabria's class.

Second Grade biography projects

Second grade is working on completing their unit on biographies.  Students learned about the 921 biography section in the library and, after having time to browse, selected a biography that interested them.  They then completed a graphic organizer which listed at least five facts about their person.  I stepped in for the production portion of the project.

Students selected an image from Britannica Image Quest, a picture database we subscribe to.  We then used Blabberize to make our famous person speak about themselves.

Here are two examples from Mrs. Calabria's class:




And another:



What did I learn from this project?  Blabberize is as temperamental as ever.  I really love their service and the kids do too but I'm not sure I can suggest it's use anymore.  I could get about 5 bios recorded and then it just wouldn't work anymore.  It took many days of a few kids at a time to get this project done.

If you have alternatives to suggest, please do so!  I would love to hear them!

Reading Records

Something we started doing last year was recording student's reading several times throughout the year.  This provides a record of student learning, especially their fluency. I use VoiceThread to do this. I use the website to upload the pictures and I use the iPad app to record their voices.  I love the app for recording!  It is so much easier than the website, in my opinion. 

Here are a few examples:

*Note, rarely does a child get through an entire book.  They read until I tell them to stop, which is approximately one minute.

So what are the logistics of this? 

Things I do:

Create the covers (I use PowerPoint and save as a JPEG)

Upload the pictures

Record the students

Help teachers embed these where they would like them (blog, website, etc.)

What teachers do: 

Prepare the readers

Take a photo of each child each time

Notify parents the videos have been posted

Teach the kids!

What students do:

Read! 

Learn! 

View their recordings to hear themselves

What parents do:

Watch and comment! (hopefully)

I really love this project and so do the classroom teachers.  It is exciting to watch the fluency and reading ability of students growing!  When students view their Reading Records near the end of the year, they are sometimes in disbelief that the first recording is them!

Cynthia Rylant author study

Second grade students studied author Cynthia Rylant last month and wanted to do something with technology as the culminating activity.  Students learned about the author and her books in the classroom.  When they came to me, we:

- Watched the beginning of a BrainPOP Jr. video about Rylant:

- Created a Little Bird Tale as if we were the creators of a Henry and Mudge story.  Check it out here:

• Click to view my tale.

Students had a choice to use the Paint program to create their pictures or to draw them by hand.  Just over half of the class choose the computers while the others preferred their drawing tools in hand. 

I got inspiration for this project from the Van Meter Voice blog's Mercer Meyer author study.  Check it out!