Let's Create!

Hello all! Its Ronalea and I am super excited because we leave for the CUE National Conference in about 24 hours!!! Before we leave I wanted to share an awesome lesson I did this week!

As we begin to explore, learn and create with 3D printer software and apps I want to make sure that my students feel comfortable creating, making mistakes, finding fixes, and using their imaginations! I read the book Iggy Peck Architect  (it did pull at my heartstrings and made me shed a tear). In this story a little boy loves to build and his teacher does not allow him to do so at school, which breaks his heart... until one day the class takes a field trip and the class is stranded on an island because the bridge breaks. Iggy saves the day by engineering a bridge to help his classmates get back to safety.

After reading this story to my students we drew our own bridges and explained what we would make our bridges out of, I love seeing how inovative my students are!!!

If you would like a blank template of the bridge pictured above you can download it by clicking here :)

 After we had our plans to build a bridge we went into our computer lab and we used Build with Chrome it was AMAZING! It allows you to build with legos, there are several tutorials your can do in the Build Academy. Before we went to the computer lab I walked them through how to build and we also got out our class legos and practiced building. A great visual for my students was when I took out the green lego base and some red rectangle blocks and I demonstrated each time you click the mouse a block builds on top of the next. When we went into the computer lab all my students were able to get on the Build with Chrome by following a link from our classroom website. This is an example of a bridge!

 This was a wonderful introduction lesson for my students to imagine, plan and create using 3D shapes on a web based platform! This was the FIRST time they used this program, I cannot wait to see what they create next time!

3D Printing in 1st grade... SAY WHAT?

Hello all it's Ronalea!

I have some awesome news to share! My class will be getting a 3D printer, yes that's right a 3D printer! I was very blessed to be picked as one of the LeRoy Finkel Big Idea Finalist! Read more about it here blog.cue.org/leroy-finkel-2016/

My Big Idea was to get a 3D printer for my first grade classroom! Well, my dream is about to become a reality! My students inspire me everyday and they are the reason I was inspired to get a 3D printer. My goal is to have my students make connections between the digital world and the concrete world that they experience.

One of the first things I did was search for 3D printing in primary elementary classes... well I couldn't find much information because this technology has mostly been used in upper elementary, middle and high school levels. I was able to find some suggested texts, these are a few of the mentor texts I will be using to introduce creativity, perseverance, and 3D printing to my class!

Follow me on my journey! I will be sure to post lessons, resources, and share my experiences of using 3D printing in a first grade classroom! Follow me on twitter and use #3Dfirsties! Stay tuned on Friday 3/18 because I will be presenting at CUE for a chance to scale my project!!!

QR Codes to showcase student work!

Hello there this is Ronalea!
In December I decided that I would create at LEAST one lesson that produced a QR code that would link to a student work sample! This was the project we did in December "Techy Santa"

My students love to create art, so I always try to link art to my thematic units. For this assignment I purchased the Techy Santa on TPT by Reagan Tunstall I thought it was totally adorable and my students loved that Santa had glasses and an iPad! If you scan the QR codes you will get a digital wish list! I had my students take a PDF and use PicCollage to add pictures and text for what they would like for Christmas. My favorite part about the QR codes is my students LOVE to walk around and scan each others QR codes and check out their classmates work! 

In January we were practicing writing and reading "How To" so my students used Telligami to record a reading passage about how to build a snowman and I made them a QR code to showcase their awesome work!

In F February we made these sweet little bees and they looked so bright an cheery in our room they made my heart happy! I purchased the bee template on TPT by Kindergarten Smiles. Then for the QR code we used a green screen to get a candy heart background and used photo props to take pictures, my kiddos then made these photos into ChatterKids where the mouth moves and you can record 30 seconds. My students read a fluency passage about Valentines day. I was so sad when I had to take this project down. 

Now for the March QR code! We did a guided drawing of Cat in the Hat, and then wait for it... my kids did a RESEARCH project on Dr. Seuss! It totally knocked my socks off!!!! WE used ShadowPuppetsEdu my new favorite app that allows you to make great "slideshows" and use your voice to narrate, and you can even add background music!!!

Stay tuned I plan to share all my lesson plans and give step by step directions on the "tech" part of each lesson! Let me tell you first graders love to see and share their tech projects!