Make Map Skills Come to Life

On the Edmodo Teacher Communities recently, I saw a teacher asking for some creative ways to teach latitude and longitude.  (BTW – If you aren’t a part of the Edmodo Teacher Community Forums, you should stop by, it’s free and there’s a wealth of knowledge and other teachers available for collaboration.)  My suggestion to the activity was Geocaching.  My children (personal, not students) and I have recently started geocaching and they love it! 

Geocaching is a world wide network of treasure hunts.  People from all around the world have hidden “caches”, which are small containers – boxes, tubes, etc. that contain a log book, and often a collection of prizes.  The people who hide the caches then upload the latitude and longitude coordinates into a Geocaching website, where people can log in and find the coordinates to begin their search.

So, how does one go about geocaching, once you have the coordinates?  Well here’s what we do:

1.)  Read the other tips that go with the coordinates, they will give you clues to help you when you arrive at your searching location.

2.)  Enter your coordinates into a GPS device.  We use our regular old Garmin GPS that we use on road trips.  (We did learn that not all GPS devices allow you to enter coordinates though, so check yours ahead of time.)  Many people have GPS apps on their smart phones or tablets – of course that means you MUST have 3G on that same device in order for the device to pick up your coordinates after you have left your house.  If none of these options work for you – there is a website, called XXX, that allows you to enter coordinates and get an address or a map, which you can print out and follow.

3.)  Follow the directions on the GPS until you run out of road.  We have been to a few that are a dead end road, but some aren’t.  You generally have to leave the road and take off by foot to find the final location.

4.)  Once you are at the final location, you have to look around – up, down, etc.  We found one in a whole under a tree, another behind a fence, you get the picture.

5.)  Sign your name on the log book.    We add our location too.  Then, if there are prizes, choose a prize, but be sure to leave something in return.  This trip we have been leaving Moroccan coins behind us.  (I think I’m going to bring a roll of American pennies back to Morocco to spread in Moroccan and European caches.)  There are many types of prizes, toys, post cards, coins etc.

6.)  Go home and log back on to the website to “log your cache” and announce to the world that you have found the cache. 

So, now you’re thinking, this sounds like fun, but is it really educational?  How are you using it to teach map skills? 

1.)  After we returned from our first cache, I sat my boys down and we did some research on latitude and longitude, using this cool website.  We also do a little more research on how a GPS device can actually find our exact location.  Because they had a real life use for this skill, they were both extremely interested in the information at hand.

2.)  Before starting a cache, we pull our current coordinates, look at the desired coordinates and discuss what direction we are going in.  We also compare two or three caches and decide which one is closer or farther, using only the coordinates.

3.)  You can easily keep a map of your caches, using the latitude and longitude coordinates, and comparing distances.

4.)  After doing a few with a GPS device, give the kids a map version and see if they can find their cache that way.

 

Geocaches are available worldwide and would make a great field trip experience, but if you can’t manage to take your class off campus for geocaching, why not hide caches around your school campus and allow students to go geocaching right where you are?  Geocaching brings geography to life by building real life experiences that kids will remember.

Positive Relationships Changing the World

 

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

 

 This week’s video is short, but powerful.  In her 8 minute speech, Rita Pierson declares that every child needs and deserves a champion, and that students don’t learn from people they don’t like.  She talks about the power of positive thinking and showing our kids to look at what they do know instead of focusing on the negatives.  How do you build relationships in your classroom?

  

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.

Featuring Heidi Raki & Family

As many of you know, I am currently traveling around the US with my family.  We are currently in South Dakota, near Mount Rushmore and we’re almost halfway through our journey, which started when we walked off the plane from Morocco to Atlanta (via Madrid & Miami) and took us to Buffalo, NY, and Montreal, Canada, and to short overnight stops in Illinois and Minnesota.  Before we are done, we will have been to Yellowstone National Park, Portland, Oreland, San Francisco, California, the Grand Canyon and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Along our journey, we have often been asked “Where are you from?”  Hmmmm….. That’s kind of a hard question to answer.  It should be simple enough, but lately, it’s really become a case of “Everywhere and Nowhere.”  So, here’s an overview of where I’m from.

1.)  I was born and raised in the general area of Buffalo, NY, with time spent in the city and the suburbs, as well as one year spent in GA.

2.)  I spent 2 years of college in Las Cruces, NM. on the edge of Texas and Mexico.

3.)  I lived for approximately 8 years outside of Atlanta, GA.  This is where I got married and had my kids and if I had to determine a place as “home”, this would probably be it.

4.)  My current residence for the past two years has been Casablanca, Morocco.

 

So, where am I from?  A little bit of everywhere, and I kind of like that, I just don’t love boring others with the story.  However, I am thrilled to be the spotlight teacher at An Educator’s Life, so now that you know a little more about me, stop by and see this great spotlight post put together by John Hughes.

Finding the Answer to Education’s Problems in the Slums

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

As a teacher who taught in a low-income school for 4 years, this video had a great impact on me.  In this video, Charles Leadbeater talks about the lessons we can learn by looking into the programs designed to draw in students in extremely high poverty areas like the slums of Brazil and give students in these areas options other than gangs and the drug trade.  The creativity that comes out of necessity in these areas can teach those of us in luckier, higher income areas some key lessons to teach all of the children of the world.  I’d love to hear what you think after you watch this video!

 

 

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.

Bubble Mania – Use these Questions to Make Playtime Learning Time

My kids (personal children, not students – funny how teachers have to clarify that, huh?) are getting spoiled rotten by all of the family that they haven’t seen in two years.  They have had ice cream, gone to concerts, and received tons and tons of gifts, including nerf guns, books, sidewalk chalk, playdough and bubbles.  My dad bought them tons and tons of bubbles, which kept them so busy!

   While I was watching the kids play with the bubbles, I was thinking of all the things you can teach with bubbles.  Here is a list of what I came up with.

1.) Solids, liquids and gasses – How does the gas get stuck inside the liquid, making a bubble?  Why doesn’t it come out the other side?

2.)  Shapes – Bubbles are spheres, where else can we find spheres?  How do we find the area, circumference, or volume of a sphere?

3.)  Air Power – The wind takes the bubbles and floats them around – what controls where the bubbles go?

4.)  Imaginative Writing – Where do the bubbles go when they disappear?  What would it be like to float around in a bubble?

5.)  Respiratory System – How do we blow bubbles?  What’s going on in our body that allows us to blow out big bursts of air?

6.)  Scientific Method – Bubble mix will work if we add a little water, but not if we add too much.  How much water would dilute the bubble mix too much to make a bubble?

7.)  Procedural Writing – What are the steps one takes to blow a large bubble?  How are the steps for blowing a soap bubble different than blowing a bubble gum bubble?  How are the steps for blowing a soap bubble the same as blowing a bubble gum bubble?

8.)  Research – What is the largest bubble ever blown?  What is the most bubbles every blown at one time?  What is the largest bubble mix container in the world? 

9.)  Problem Solving – How do we make large bubbles?  How do the bubbles made by different bubble wands compare and contrast?  Can you make different types of bubbles using the same bubble wand?

10.)  Art – What do bubbles look like if you blow them onto different colored papers?  Can you make multicolored bubbles?  How?

 

As we are thinking about the beginning of the school year, we must not forget that the weather will still be nice, and kids will be disappointed to leave the “fun” at home.  Use some of these questions to build some fun, inquiry based, creative lessons into the beginning of the school year.

The Connection Between Art and Science

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

 

 Even if this video wasn’t with Mae Jemison, the first female African American to go to space, it would still be amazing!  Mae Jemison compares science and the arts and discusses how the creative process that goes into creating an art piece is the same as the creative process that goes into inventing the newest scientific technology.  On the flip side, she talks about how the analysis that goes into the scientific process is the same as the analysis of an artist for his or her subject.  This argument states that we should be teaching science and the arts (including art, music, dance, drama, etc.) together.  Do you ever do this in your classroom?  The closest I came this year was when created lamps (click HERE to see how we did it.)  I’d love it if you left a comment with a project (even a link to a product) that combines the arts and science.

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.

ISM Spotlight – Collage Seasons

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

I have posted many times about our amazing Pre-K, Jen Kadiri.  She does the most amazing activities with our 3 year olds.  Here is one of the activities she did when they when they were studying seasons earlier this year.  After learning what a tree looked like during the four seasons of the year, they created these collage trees:

Here are the steps Ms. Kadiri took:

1.)  She cut out pieces of magazines in brown, green, pink, grey and orange. 

2.)  She then sorted the magazine pieces by color. 

3.) She also drew an outline of the a tree on four different pieces of paper.

4.)  She had a few pieces of magazine left over that she put in a bag.

5.)  Students then chose a piece of magazine from the bag and had to identify which color went with each season.

6.)  Next, the students glued the magazine pieces into the shape of the tree.

7.)  Finally, Ms. Kadiri trimmed around the edges of the trees and labeled each paper with the name of the season.

Making Movies on an iPad – 4 Apps to Try

This year my class was lucky enough to have an iPad in our classroom.  While we enjoyed using the “learning” apps to play games and do reinforcement of lessons, the most important apps to my class was the movie creation apps.  My students created movies about a variety of math and science activities.  Here are the apps that we used. 
*Disclosure – while many of my app lists are all free apps, this list contains both 100% free, 100% paid and apps with a free version, but a paid upgrade.  All of the apps worked satisfactorily in my classroom at the International School of Morocco.

1.)  Educreations:  This app is a free download.  It provides you with a whiteboard type of format with four different colored “pens”.  This is a great app for creating tutorial videos where you are going to write out an explanation of a math problem or describe a science process.  You can also add pictures from your iPad or Google in this app.  The largest downside to this app for my students and I was that you can’t edit the videos within the app and then, when finished, are saved only to the Educreations website.  This provided students with a link to their site, but not the ability to then go back and edit their videos in a program like iMovie or Movie Maker.  Here is a tutorial created by one of my students in Educreations.

2.)  Puppet Pals:  This app is a free download, but it comes with only a few puppets and backgrounds.  For a fee, you can upgrade to have a a great variety of puppets and backgrounds, and even the ability to add your own puppets and backgrounds with pictures from your iPad.  Puppet Pals allows you to use these puppets and backgrounds to create a virtual puppet show.  This app is great for re-telling a story or creatively telling an imaginary story.  The upgraded version has many caricatures of famous people – alive and dead, so it would be great for making a video about an even in history, or having a mock “current events” debate.  When you are finished with your videos, you can export them as an .mp4 file, to be edited, or you can post directly to YouTube.  Here is a video my kids made using Puppet Pals (edited in iMovie) for Earth Day:



3.)  Explain Everything:  This app does not have any free download that I know of, but is completely worth the fee.  By the end of the year, this was the app of choice for my students when creating math tutorial videos.  It is similar to Educreations, but it allows you 4 different colored backgrounds and many colors of pen.  Also, this app allows you to edit your entire video, or each “slide” one at a time.  When you are finished, you can export your video as an .mp4 file, to be edited, or you can post directly to YouTube.  The biggest downside to this app for my students and I was that you can only add pictures and videos from your iPad or your Dropbox account, not a Google image.  Like Educreations, Explain Everything is perfect for tutorial videos on math topics, grammar points, science processes etc.  Here is a tutorial created by one of my students in Explain Everything:




4.)  Morfo:  This app is a free download, but comes with only a few options.  For a fee, you can upgrade to have a large number of hair, costume, and other options.  Morfo allows you to take a picture and make it talk for 30 seconds.  Then, it allows you to download the video as an .mp4 file, to be edited, or you can post directly to Youtube.  We used this for persuasive writing, but it could also be used to do a brief summary, to do a biography report or simply to explain a topic in a “fun” way.  Here is a persuasive writing created by one of my students in Morfo:



I have put together a sheet that I use with my students to help guide them through the movie making process, including a simple rubric to assess their work.  You can download this sheet from my TPT store for $2.00.   The videos my students made were a great way to show parents their learning, and made a fabulous addition to our Online Portfolios.

Slam – Poetry with Passion

At the end of the year, I always do a poetry unit with my kids.  I love to have the kids work on writing poems and talking about the many genres that poetry can take, and have always just used my poetry writing journal.  However, I never thought – until recently – about having my kids write slam poetry.  Over the last few weeks, I have been exposed to two great “slam poets”, Holly McNish and Taylor Mali and  who have recorded themselves and put their poetry up on YouTube.  After watching quite a few of their poems, I thought about how cool of a project it would be to allow kids to write “slam poetry” of their own – in a poetry unit, or even a persuasive writing unit.  Unfortunately, I won’t be teaching writing next year (although I will pass this on to the teacher who will be), butthought I would pass it on to you all here too

First, show your students some examples of slam poetry.  Here are two examples from the two poets I listed above:

Here are some kids performing slam poetry:

Ask students the question - “What makes slam poetry different from regular poetry?”  If needed, guide them to answers like – Slam poetry is meant to be presented, not read and slam poetry has a specific message.  Record this question and answer session on the board, or in your students’ interactive notebooks.  You could also use this information to create a Venn Diagram.

Next, ask students to choose a purpose for their slam poetry.  Slam poems will be more powerful if students choose a topic that has a purpose specific to them. “Child appropriate” slam poem topics will probably overlap with your persuasive writing topics – why kids should or shouldn’t have homework, or wear uniforms, why smoking is a bad idea, why kids should eat healthy foods etc.  Bullying, media pressure, and sibling rivalry would all also make good slam poetry topics for kids.  If your class is in the middle of a history lesson, they might be able to write a slam poem from the point of view of the “downtrodden” – slaves, peasants, etc.  There are many avenues to get kids writing slam poetry.

Now, it’s time to let them write.  After choosing a topic, kids will need good solid brainstorming time, time to think up words, rhymes, stories etc. to go with their topic.  They will need time to draft as well, and should be encouraged to edit using a good thesaurus – this is a great time to talk about word choice!

Finally, students should have time to rehearse their presentation.  Since presentation is such a big part of slam poetry, students should take the time to perfect their presentation.  Then, have students record their presentations.  It would be fun to also present the poems in front of the class, but since 1.)  video is the presentation mode preferred these days and 2.) many kids get stage fright when presenting in front of the class (especially your language learners!)  Recorded presentations provide students with a great way to share their slam poems.  Once slam poems are recorded, share them with other classes and students (with student and parent permission), and allow students to compare the topics and styles of different poems.

Hope this can help you in your class.  If you end up with sharable video – please feel free to leave me a comment with a link!

Do we need to reform our education system?

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

The format of this video is amazing!  It has a growing, changing drawing that matches the speech going on.  However, the topic is even more amazing.  It discusses educational reform and the importance of of creativity in actual knowledge.  The speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, presents the argument that our schools are taking the creativity of out of our children by standardized testing and our general system of education.  What do you think?

 

 

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.

ISM Spotlight – Cooking with Kids

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

Over the course of this school year, the teachers at ISM have used cooking in a variety of ways to work on math, vocabulary and science. 

First through fourth grade made cookies to learn about rocks.

     

Third and Fourth grade baked muffins to work on doubling and halving recipes.

 

The whole school made orange marmalade after reading the book Bottled Sunshine.

 

 

 

 

Pre-K and Kindergarten made bread and pizza dough during their science unit on how materials change.

  

 

Cooking with kids works on measurement (both standard measurements like cups and teaspoons and ratio measurements as well – like needing more dry ingredients than wet ingredients), vocabulary (ingredient names, textures, verbs like grating, chopping and slicing.) and science (mixtures, chemical reactions, phases of matter etc.).  In addition, students work on real life skills including gathering and preparing materials and cleaning up. 

Some tips the ISM teachers discovered from all this cooking with our students are:

- Be sure to have all the materials you need ahead of time.  (Older students might benefit from creating a shopping list and even heading to the supermarket – great field trip!)

- Have a back up activity for those students whose attention is not maintained, coloring sheets and books to read are good for younger students.  Graphic organizers and additional prep are great for older students.

- Allow for additional time – cooking with kids takes longer than doing it yourself.

- Teach safety rules for dealing with knives, stoves etc.  Lay out the ground rules from the beginning.

- Let the kids get hands on – it’s not beneficial to the kids if they are just watching you, they need time to cut, stir, mix etc.

- Include fruit and vegetables – kids are much more likely to eat these things when they have helped cook them.

- Take time to eat!  Enjoying the fruits of your labors is the best part for you and the kids.

 

Top 10 Reading Websites for Elementary Students

There are so many great websites out there for Elementary students that I decided to put together some Top 10 Lists for websites to use in the upcoming school year.  For the next few weeks, I’ll be posting lists of sites to use for various subjects.  Be sure to see the post I wrote about organizing websites, if you need a way to keep track of all of these.  And feel free to leave a comment with any additional sites that might help everyone with this week’s subject – Reading.

1.)  Storyline Online - This great website has famous actors and actresses reading quality children’s fiction.  You get to see all of the pictures, just as if you were listening to a live read aloud.  This is a great way to expose students to quality read alouds – perfect for ESL students and low income families who may not have access to English books being read aloud.




















2.)  Mighty Book – This website has great, animated stories for kids to listen to.  This is also a great way to expose students to quality read alouds – perfect for ESL students and low income families who may not have access to English books being read aloud.
















3.)  Between the Lions – This website is based on the PBS show Between the Lions.  It has great stories, with the words underneath.  for students to watch.  There are also games based on these stories.

 











4.)  Bitesize – This UK based website has fabulous reading games and lessons on a variety of topic.  The KeyStage 1 site has lessons on phonics, spelling, alphabetical order, and rhyming words.  The KeyStage 2 site has lessons on deductions, poetry, dictionary and finding information.  
 

 















5.)  We Give Books – This website is owned by Pearson Foundation, and has hundreds of e-books available for kids to read for free.  In addition, the foundation donates books to kids in need around the world for all of your time spent on this site.  You can sort the books by content and age appropriateness. 

 















6.)  Andersen’s Fairy Tales – This website has links to Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, games about the tales and information about the author himself.













7.)  Time for Kids -  Real life reading is the most important type of reading.  Time for Kids provides kids with reading about today’s current events.  There are real life articles on topics that interest children.


















8.)  Reading Planet – Kids Books’ Authors – This website gives information about all of the best kids’ authors and illustrators.  The information is written in interview format, which is a great for introducing kids to different reading formats.


















9.)  Giggle Poetry – Read and Rate – This site has hundreds of poems for kids to read and rate.  It’s a great way to get kids excited about reading!



















10.)  Elementary Place – This website has many topics that interest kids.  For each topic, there is a story where kids get to make the decisions, there is also an activity and a list of books about that topic.
 
 
 

For more resources to integrate technology into your classroom, check out my Technology Integration Kit.  You can also check out these blog posts:

Top 10 Writing Websites
Top 10 Math Websites
Top 10 Science Websites
Top 10 Social Studies Websites
Websites to Teach Typing Skills
Websites to Create Videos