It Takes a Village

Our First Graders created a community as their summative assessment for our My Space Mapping Unit. As a class we created a list of what communities need and want. They were very creative in creating their buildings. Three students were ill and unable to create a piece at home so I improvised and they had 15 minutes to create a piece using KidSpiration. Students presented their piece (as you can see on our VoiceThread) and the next day, students created the community. They were extremely engaged, eager and collaborative as they built their community. Two students weren't able to complete their project at home, so they were responsible for road development. At the end of the VT there will be pictures of their city along with their final reflections (we'll get this done tomorrow!). Please check out their hard work. They are very proud and their buildings include everything from a bank to a mall!

Class Blog
VoiceThread

Quiet, but on my way back.

Well, I had become somewhat overwhelmed in the fall. I chose to take a step back with how much my students and I produced. We have been working with many of our technological resources, just not showing everyone.

This week Cameron Weise came through and video-taped our first lesson. I'm sure many of you may agree this isn't necessarily the most comfortable situation. The students did well as they navigated through the First Grade Explorations My Space Wiki page.

The main objective was for the students to apply their knowledge of the cardinal directions why gaining an understanding of vastness of the world. As we look at a map the United States, and I already said it was the U.S., the students innocently ask, "Where is the United States?" They still have a long ways to go to develop their awareness of the globe, but this class definitely has had more exposure than my classes in the past!