2P Crunching, Munching Caterpillars

Caterpillar Slideshow May 2011

2P students have created a digital picture of a munching caterpillar after studying the picture book The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain.
Using Word 2007, students created the caterpillar picture by:
•Inserting, copying and pasting shapes
•Colouring and shading using drawing tools
•Using fill effects and shape styles

Ms. Tonhauser

Postcards from the Web, Part 3: Peru...Wish You Were Here

Grade three students have completed part three of their four part social studies series studying communities from India, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Peru. Enjoy this social studies journey to Peru!

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3HW Peru…Wish You Were Here


To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3S Peru...Wish You Were Here

Ms. Tonhauser

Postcards from the Web, Part 2: Ukraine...Wish You Were Here

Grade three students have completed part two of their four part social studies series studying communities from India, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Peru. This VoiceThread postcard project allows students to demonstrate an appreciation in the differences among communities with technology infused learning.

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3S Ukraine...Wish You Were Here

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3HW Ukraine...Wish You Were Here

Ms. Tonhauser

Postcards from the Web, Part 1: India…Wish You Were Here

Grade three students have completed part one of a four part social studies series studying communities from India, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Peru. This VoiceThread postcard project allows students to demonstrate an appreciation in the differences among communities with technology infused learning.

“Social Studies provide opportunities for students to use the processes, tools and techniques of various forms of technology. The Alberta Social Studies program of studies includes selected outcomes from its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) program of studies.” The student resource, Many Voices, suggests incorporating technology as a vehicle for inquiring, communication, representing, decision making and problem solving. Technology can be used as a tool to:
• Gather and identify information
• Express and create
• Organize information

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3HW India…Wish You Were Here


To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread, please use the following link:
3S India…Wish You Were Here


All digital pictures used in this VoiceThread project are from Wikimedia Commons which houses public domain educational media files.

Ms. Tonhauser

Pearson Education Canada. (2005). Alberta Social Studies Many Voices. Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada.

Social Studies 7 Project

Student artwork by Pier

Ms. Kwan (Assessment Coach), Ms. Langford (Social 7 teacher) and I (Technology Coach) are working with Grade 7 students on an Aboriginal inquiry-based learning project in social studies. In May, 2011, students will celebrate Education Week by hosting an interactive museum called the L'nu'k Student Expo. As expo presenters, students will share and provide evidence of learning and collaboration through various appropriate mediums of technology.

A social 7 wiki and blog has been created to encourage students, parents, and educational guests to participate in collaboration, information sharing, student engagement, and project communication. Please visit the sites to follow the project, view student work and join in the discussion.

Camilla Social Studies 7 Wiki

L’nu’k: A Tribute to the First Nations Blog

Ms. Tonhauser

1L Animal Research

Kidspiration Animal Research

Grade 1 students have been busy researching animals in science over the past couple weeks with Ms. LaBuick. Students have been studying living things, what they need to survive as well as how to grow within their environment. Through research, students have become familiar with differences and similarities in living things.

General Learner Expectations

Students will: Observe, describe and compare living things.

Specific Learner Expectations

Students will:
•Classify some animals into groups on the basis of visible characteristics; e.g., adaptations for survival, such as claws, beaks, prickles.

•Identify examples of animals that are normally under human care (domesticated) and those that are normally independent of human care (wild).

•Identify the requirements of animals to maintain life; i.e., air, food, water, shelter, space; and recognize that we must provide these for animals in our care.

Kidspiration software was used as the tool to give structure to the research project. This tool gave students creativity to visually organize their research information into web groupings such as:
•Lives
•Eats
•Looks like
•Moves
•Facts

Through the help of a cross-graded leadership activity with 5W, grade 1’s were shown how to import a digital picture in the centre of their web as well as given some assistance typing up their research information.


Ms. Tonhauser

Wonderful Wordle

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Gr 3 Wordle Project

Wordle is a wonderful tool for generating ‘word clouds’ out of text. This online tool does not require a login and allows users to originally design artistic word artowork with the option to print out the colourful creations.

Grade 3 students created their annual fall ‘Introduce Yourself’ Wordle. Students began the project by creating a personalized list of meaningful words in Microsoft Word 2007. Next, students copied and pasted their word list into the Wordle tool where they could customize font style, colour and text layout.

More interesting ways to use Wordle in the classroom include:
•Vocabulary words
•Novel study
•Highlighting key words
•Summarizing
•Writing prompts
•Creating a learning poster

Ms. Tonhauser

Welcome Tech 7 Students to the Blogosphere!

Tech 7 students have entered the blogosphere as student bloggers. They are now web authors and collaborators by newly creating and maintaining individual public blogs. You can access the grade 7 student blogs on our main webpage titled Grade 7 @Camilla School. Please feel free to visit, read their postings and leave comments.

I decided to use kidblog.org as our blogging tool because it is simple, secure and presents straightforward formatting. Blogging is a great way to have an introduction to 21st century literacies, online participation and classroom sharing. Students will learn how to creatively design and edit blog posts, upload media files, and continue to grow as ethically responsible digital citizens.

There is a great article titled 20 Reasons Why Students Should Blog which outlines the power of student voice through this format. Blogging is a powerful learning community where sharing, learning, collaborating and responding is open 24/7. Students are engaged in writing meaningful posts and responding to blog comments, interacting not only with peers but potentially with a worldwide audience.

Take a little time to enjoy the view from our place in the blogosphere.

Ms. Tonhauser

4L Novel Study: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread and leave a comment for 4L through the VoiceThread tool, please use the following link:
4L Novel Study: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing


VoiceThread is one our favourite Web 2.0 tools here at Camilla School. Teachers are using VoiceThread as a digital storytelling tool that can be shared in the classroom, school, and education community. This tool offers online collaboration, interaction, communication and participation from around the world.

4L students read Judy Blume’s book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing as a novel study. Judy Blume is an award-winning author of children’s and young adult literature with over 80 million copies of books in print.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing tells the story of fourth grader Peter Hatcher and his little toddler brother Farley Drexel ‘Fudge’ Hatcher. As a big brother, Peter always has to help his little brother Fudge, who seems to get all of the attention. This makes Peter feels neglected by his parents. Peter feel like a fourth grade nothing! This book is filled with more interesting characters such as Mr. Yarby, Sheila, Jimmy, Sam, Jennie, Dr. Brown, Mr. Vincent, Dr. Cone and of course Dribble, Peter’s pet turtle.

Judy first got the idea for the book when her children’s babysitter showed her a newspaper article about a toddler who swallowed a turtle. This quirky story inspired Judy to write the story as a picture book titled “Peter, Fudge and Dribble.” Many publishers rejected the idea until several years later when it caught the eye of an editor who wanted the story to be told as a chapter book, and the novel was written. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is the first book in her Fudge series.

Ms. Tonhauser

2K Ted Harrison Project: A Flickr Invitation

The Ted Harrison Studio in Victoria, British Columbia has begun collecting student artwork to share via the Internet. We are pleased to report that the 2K artwork from our April 18th Ted Harrison VoiceThread has been invited to be part of the online student gallery in Flickr photosharing. Flickr is a free Internet photo and video hosting website that houses over 4 billion images.

To visit the gallery’s online Flickr account, use the following link:
Ted Harrison Flickr Photostream

Congratulations 2K!

Ms. Tonhauser

5B Novel Study: The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread and leave a comment for 5B through the tool, please use the following link:
5B Novel Study: The Incredible Journey


5B has just completed a novel study using the VoiceThread multimedia tool. The visual component of this VoiceThread project has allowed grade five students to showcase comprehensive volcabulary words, setting/locations and core characters from their novel study captured in a free tool called Wordle. This online tool is becoming increasingly popular in education because its versatility across all subject areas. Wordle creates ‘word clouds’ or a visual display using text.

During the reading of the novel, each student was responsible for creating a Microsoft Word document listing important vocabulary words, significant locations and main character names for each chapter. After the novel was finished, students copied and pasted their assigned chapter list into Wordle and a word cloud was created. Wordle gives users the artistic freedom to customize their image by choosing:
• foreground and background colour schemes
• horizontal/vertical layout of the words
• font style

Once Wordle images were uploaded into Voicethread, students recorded their chapter highlights through the use of an external microphone.

Ms. Tonhauser

5B has just completed technology enhanced project combining Wordle, language arts writing, summarizing skills and their recorded voices. Our VoiceThread focuses on the thrill seeking novel, The Incredible Journey that we read together as a class. Each student was assigned a partner and with that partner they were asked to summarize a chapter of the novel into eight main events. They also had to choose twenty interesting and important words found within the chapter for the wordle they created. We are lucky to also have some very talented artists in our class who recreated a beautiful cover for our project. Many students commented that it was an exact replica of the original on the cover of the book! The students were thrilled to see their finished work on display for the entire world to view! They had a fantastic time working collaboratively and creating their own summaries for The Incredible Journey.

We hope you enjoy our VoiceThread!
Mrs. Berube

2K VoiceThread: Part 2

"I can develop age-appropriate behavior for social involvement as responsible citizens contributing to my community."
Grade 7 Social Studies Learner Outcome

At Camilla School, cross-age learning occurs year round to promote community building. Such activities are mutually beneficial to both younger and older students; resulting in both academic and social gains. For our teenage students, it is an opportunity to model their skills and knowledge for their younger peers. Mr. Paustian’s Grade 7 class provided a wonderful finish to our 2K Ted Harrison project. In Assessment for Learning, descriptive feedback is an important strategy that supports improvement. To provide responses for the 2K VoiceThreads, each 7P student first listened and viewed a presentation with care. After taking notes of key words, they then created responses to express their connections and opinions. Finally, they shared their fine comments using audio, text, and or doodling. The 2K students were delighted with the thoughtful feedback. A huge “THANKS!” goes to Mr. Paustian and his class for taking the time to do extra from their busy schedule. What a great example of student contribution and leadership made possible by VoiceThread!

Ms. Kwan

2K Ted Harrison Project: An Inuit Study

2K has just completed a technology infused project combining original digital artwork in the styling of Ted Harrison, social studies research, language arts writing skills and their recorded voice. For an introduction to the VoiceThread Web 2.0 tool, please visit the following link:
Introduction to VoiceThread

To view a full screen version of this VoiceThread and read visitor comments posted for 2K through the tool, please visit the following link:
2K Ted Harrison Project



Sturgeon School Division has been promoting research-based instructional practices to improve student learning. One area of focus is Assessment for Learning (AfL). In this process, both students and teachers worked together to achieve targeted learning outcomes. This AfL learning journey was infused by the wonders of technology.

This Ted Harrison Project provided the students a purposeful opportunity to share their learning with local and global friends. The students were guided by the Big Question: How do (did) the Inuit adapt to the Arctic? An introduction was made using a previous VoiceThread project. Our class was fueled with enthusiasm. After each child had decided on a topic of interest to address, we studied the remarkable artwork of Ted Harrison on the Internet. The experience was magnified by the use of our Promethean board. Noting the patterns, our class established criteria as to what their art should target:


We analyzed and discussed how best to apply our KidPix skills to create the visuals. While the children experimented with the KidPix drawing tools for appropriate effects, they collected information relevant to their presentation. By assessing examples of grade level VoiceThreads, they determined the criteria for their content and presentation. In AfL, these powerful conversations enable students to understand “quality” and their own capacity to improve. Essentially, the children’s choice and voice scripted the teaching. The on-going references to where “we’re at” and “where we’re going” uncovered instructional needs. When students are involved in the assessment process, they take on ownership of their learning and progress.

Ms. Kwan


Ted Harrison is a Canadian treasure who is an author, artist and teacher. Harrison's work is displayed in art galleries and private collections worldwide. He is also well-known for his best selling illustrative books including The Cremation of Sam McGee. For further biographical information and illustrative examples, visit the following websites:
Ted Harrison Painting Paradise
Official Ted Harrison Website

Grade 2 students created original digital artwork using Kidpix software. This drawing software allows students the flexibility to define their pictures using a variety of art mediums such as a paint brush, pencil, marker, crayons and a colour fill bucket. Students outlined the template of their picture first using a pencil, carefully mapping out the landscape background. It was imperative to the success of the picture that all lines were connected so the colours filling in each section would not spill out into neighbouring landscape sections. The foreground details were the next part of the drawing process. Once pencil sketches were completed, students choose vibrant colours to fill in their artwork in the styling of Ted Harrison. Part of the instructions outlined to students was to create multiple pieces of artwork and then choose which picture would best represent their written text. Once each picture was uploaded to the VoiceThread tool, students recorded their voice with the help an external microphone. Each student was asked to evaluate the quality of their recording, remembering that a clear, articulate voice was needed to capture the listening attention of blog visitors.

Enjoy the VoiceThread!

Ms. Tonhauser

2P Travels on the Polar Express

Polar Express Power Point

In the month of December class 2P studied the Caldecott winning picture book “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg. This book’s rich vocabulary and theme of believing without seeing created many learning opportunities for students. Naturally most of the learning outcomes derived from the use of this book were directly tied to the Language Arts curriculum. This year however, we decided that under the guidance of Ms. Tonhauser that we would integrate the “Polar Express” unit into technology. The students and I were given Microsoft Word as our toolbox and Ms. Tonhauser as our conductor guided us to creating these awesome cars and train. The kids were encouraged to be creative and by the looks of these train cars we were not disappointed. Enjoy the slide show thanks to Ms. Tonhauser!

Mr. Presseau

Digital Storytelling: Tell Me A Story

"Digital Storytelling refers to using digital tools so that ordinary people can tell their own real-life stories” (Wikipedia, 2009). This emerging form connects storytellers and technology through the power of imagery, voice and video resulting in short digital narratives. This digital format gives students the opportunity to enhance their communication skills by exploring storytelling through multimedia platforms.

The Educause Learning Initiative has published a great article titled 7 Things You Should Know About…Digital Storytelling.

The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling serves as a resource for students and teachers interested in integrating multimedia into technology-based projects.

Center for Digital Storytelling is an international organization committed to helping people tell meaningful digital stories.

The Elements of Digital Storytelling website explores five elements essential in each story: action, media, context, relationship and communication.

DigiTales provides resources for schools, families and organizations ready to use digital tools in the storytelling process.

Camilla School has great multimedia applications available for digital storytelling projects:
• PowerPoint
• Photo Story 3
• Windows Movie Maker

Tech 7 students were introduced to Photo Story 3 for Windows in October and asked to create a visual story of the four seasons. Photo Story 3 software was new to students as well as the concept of digital storytelling, so they were eager to explore the digital possibilities of this project. All of the images used in the four seasons presentations were collected from the Microsoft Office Online free gallery. Specific technical and communicative elements outlined in the development of this story included the use of:
• Title frames
• Customized motion
• Cropping, visual effects
• Transitions and timing
• Conclusion collage





Ms. Tonhauser

Reference
Wikipedia (2009) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling

Why I’m Happy To Be In Grade 4! Podcast

Grade 4 students have been working on the process of recording their first podcast the past couple weeks and we are finally done! Students were asked to think about why they were excited to be in grade 4. Their responses were creative and varied. Some thought about favourite subject areas, favourite school activities or what they were looking forward to throughout the year.

The recording application used for this podcast was Audacity. This 'easy-to-use' application is great for recording and editing audio files. Using a microphone and a laptop, small groups of students took turns recording their voice, listening to the quality of the recording and rerecording their audio file if necessary. After the recording process was completed, the audio file was uploaded into PodBeam. This free web tool converts the Audacity file into a podcast sharing format available for upload to the school blog.

Powered by Podbean.com

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

(Image from http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html)

2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Eric Carle is an acclaimed author and illustrator of over seventy innovatively designed children’s picture books. Grade two students at Camilla recently studied this beloved author’s works by reading a few of his books including:
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• A House for Hermit Crab
• I See A Song
• The Very Lonely Firefly

The main focus of the author study was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Students followed the main character’s incredible life-changing journey through the book as well as studying Eric’s various illustrative techniques on each colourful page. Eric produces different textures on coloured tissue by using a variety of brush and fingerpainting techniques as students discovered by watching the author give demonstrations through an educational video. Students were now ready to digitally create their own version of the very hungry caterpillar character.

Using Microsoft Word, students were guided through the creative process by focusing on drawing skills such as:
• Inserting appropriate shapes
• Copying and pasting shapes
• Colouring and shading
• Adding detail to the character (feet, hair, facial features, anntena)

Ms. Tonhauser

Gr 2 Caterpillar 2009

The Marvelous Toy - Grade 3

This project was an extension of The Marvelous Toy song introduced to grade three students in music class. In the first verse of the song, the lyrics describe the toy as “A wonder to behold it was with many colors bright”. Students were asked to create a digital image of their interpretation of the marvelous toy. Using Microsoft Word, students used skills such as:
· Inserting drawing toolbar
· Accessing autoshapes menu
· Drawing using lines, rectangles, ovals
· Colouring and shading using fill colour, fill effects, line styles
· Inserting text
· Copying and pasting shapes/images

Ms. Tonhauser

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Gr 3 Marvelous Toy 2009

2K Magnetized Through VoiceThread

“A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in several ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video via a webcam." (VoiceThread, 2009)

VoiceThread.com gives a wonderful introductory overview as found in their multimedia presentation below:


“Design and produce a device that uses a magnet.”

Grade 2 Science, Topic C: Magnetism
Alberta Education, Programs of Study

Assessment for learning (AFL) is a practice that enhances how we learn. Together, the students and teacher are actively engaged in the planning and assessment of learning. They set criteria to frame the learning, monitor the progress, and think of ways to improve and achieve the goals. For our Grade 2 Science project, we combined the power of AFL with technology. After our study of Magnetism, we came up with criteria for our project using the curriculum outcomes. The children each created a game to show their understanding of what magnets can do. Along with a digital image of the game, each student contributed his/her thoughts using VoiceThread for a class multimedia presentation. This unique technology captures each individual performance; making it possible for the student to self-asses. It also allows us to share our creations with others, and invite collaborative feedback. The capacity of VoiceThread helps students understand that learning is an on-going process. We will use the feedback to help us edit and improve. We are thrilled with this opportunity to practise digital media literacy!
Ms. Kwan

The process of recording 2K students using the online VoiceThread tool was not complicated. A couple weeks before the recording process was going to take place, pictures were taken of each student holding their project as they were manipulating the magnet appropriately. Once all of the digital pictures were taken, they were uploaded into the VoiceThread program. Students were then ready to record their voices in small groups. Each recording session consisted of a laptop, a microphone as well as 2-3 students with prepared scripts. This was an exciting project for students as it was the first time many of them had recorded their voice. It was also just as thrilling for students to stand back and watch the live recording process in motion.

We hope that you enjoy Camilla School’s first VoiceThread!
Ms. Tonhauser