My 1st graders have been doing time to the hour and half hour so for our lesson this week, I decided to read one of my favorite books Scaredy Squirrel and do an ipad lesson.
There's just something you have to love about Scaredy Squirrel, his schedule and his fears of the unknown. After reading we made a list of their schedule and what they were doing at different times of the day. Then in strip designer we set to work.
The students loved taking selfies and adding the speech bubbles to their work. I printed them out for the teacher and she hung them in a timeline in the classroom.
I just started reading The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros for a book study with some of my teachers. We are not very far, but innovation has been on my mind.
For three years, my third grades have been doing research about natural disasters and creating an online graphic novel to share their work. You can read about that here.
This year we spent last week doing the research and appsmashing to create the pages and so today I started putting the books together in BookPress as I have for the last 3 years and when I emailed the link to myself - the pages were blank! UGGGGG!
I don't know if this is a sign that I need to innovate and find another project to do or if it is just an update in the Book Press app that prevents me from making the free books but whatever the case, I think this will be the last year for our graphic novels. Time to put on my Innovator's Mindset and as George Couros says in the book "change is the opportunity to do something amazing."
But for this year, I need a Plan B and another eBook creator!
This week my 4th grade students were treated to an introduction to our 3D printer from a pro. Travis Howk, a senior at Hendrix College in Arkansas, and the son of one of my very good library friends, explained 3D printing to my 4th graders better than I ever could! Travis is a math and physics major but got involved in 3D printing when he discovered his campus had one. He learned about it by watching and asking questions and pretty soon was teaching others how to use it.
This week, he spent an hour with each of my 4th grades. First, talking about what 3D printing is and showing them actual models of things he printed (all plastic, of course).
Then he rocked their world when he told them you could 3D print pancakes, chocolate, clothes, and a house in less than a day.
Travis encouraged questions and answered all of them. From the silly ones about 3D printing characters and logos to very thoughtful ones like "What will happen to construction workers if houses can be 3D printed?"
Students then logged in to Tinkercad where Travis walked them through creating a name plate.
The students were so excited and proud of their designs.
The 4th grade teachers and I am thinking of a way we can use the 3D printer with their research project coming up later in the spring.
We had a great day of learning from an awesome young man.
