After they researched and drew pictures of famous people from New Hampshire, NHCS fourth graders produced a slideshow to showcase their work.
Fifth graders in Ms. Sharter-Howe's class read Johnny Tremain, then several worked with Mrs. Bruno to produce a short video of their favorite scene using iMovie.
Fourth graders in Mrs. Stock's class researched famous folks from New Hampshire, then dressed the part for presentations. Pictures taken were then combined with the important facts from their research as each student created a Powerpoint slide to be added to a class slide show.
As part of a grant awarded from the state, BES Intermediate Multiage students and 4th graders from Danbury Elementary posted classroom writing assignments to blogs and peer-edited each other's writing using the rubrics from our Six Traits Writing Program, all the while learning valuable lessons about internet safety.
In March, children in Mrs. Hunt's class (as well as NHCS and BES third graders) followed the Iditarod, the Alaskan Sled Dog Race. Here are some of the links they used.
BES Kindergartners recently produced two classroom books - one a pattern book showing digital photographs of patterns kids made with manipulative materials, the other a number book, featuring sets of manipulative math materials that kids laid on a scanner bed, covered with a cloth - and then scanned!
ABCD-ABCD-ABCD!
NHCS second graders are working with all sorts of graphs - including computer generated ones!
In a BES first grade, children are studying Animals in Winter. They taught each other to scan their animal drawings, then prioritized the facts they had found. Some keyboarding skills were introduced, information was placed in a Powerpoint slide and the entire project was saved as a Quicktime movie. 
BES fifth graders in Ms. Messer's class have been studying the American Revolution. Using print and online reference material, students researched a historic figure and presented their findings dressed as that person. Presentations were filmed and compiled to a class DVD. To view a sample of the student work, click to see Paul Revere and Samuel Adams.
Fourth graders in Bristol recently interviewed and photographed SAU employees to update a page of the BES website. The first thing they did, though, was to organize their thoughts and questions using Inspiration.
DES third graders enriched their study of Regions of the United States by participating in a collaborative online project with elementary students from all over the country. Click here to read all about it!
|
Click here if you need Quicktime Player.
The two latest and last podcasts of this year are now posted: The 4th Grade Rocket Launch, recorded live from the launch pad at the high school and Summer Safety, a compilation of summer tips, some book reviews, and even a few jokes, all brought to you by the third graders at Bridgewater-Hebron Village School.
Mrs. Robert's B-HVS second graders have been studying dinosaurs. They scanned their image-making artwork, then recorded original poems to create a short film which showed their learning. Click here to view a sample.
April's Why Read? contest assembly at New Hampton Community School was recorded for this Newfound podcast #6 as were children's winning essays.
Mrs. MacLean's third graders finished their study of the six regions of the USA by filming the appropriately-dressed literary character, Flat Stanley, talking about characteristics of each of the areas. Guess which region Flat Stanley is in in this short clip.
Live from the Annual Science Fair at Bristol Elementary comes Newfound podcast #5.
The BES Kindergarten has cut a CD! Here's one of the Morning group's selections, Hickory-Dickory Dock! And, not to be outdone, this is the Afternoon class singing The Alphabet Song.
Newfound podcast #4, dealing with BES fifth graders' study of the American Revolution, is posted here. Have a listen!
 On Presidents' Day, DES first graders took the podium and spoke about what they would do if they were President. The next day, they compiled the video clips into an iMovie, formatting titles and colors. Click here to see this president-elect!
In December, NHCS fifth graders filmed each other presenting solar system projects using the miniDV camera and a tripod generously donated by the Greenhalghs. The iMovie was compiled, edited, and produced in January. Here's a clip!
This is the B-HVS 4th grade podcast about the New Hampshire Native Abenaki. Podcasts are just audio so give a listen to this, the third in a series of Newfound online broadcasts!
Here are BES Kindergartners, singing a song called "Thankful" as they read the lyrics from a chart. This was recorded at their morning meeting, using an iPod and a Griffin iTalk microphone.
"Riverday" kicks off a year of New Hampshire studies for all fourth graders, district-wide. Experts in their field come to share their knowledge of New Hampshire's culture and resources with the children in a beautiful natural setting. Throughout the school year, teachers link new learning back to experiences the kids had at Riverday. This fall, DES fourth graders (below) used iMovie to produce a video of the event and each Newfound fourth grade class now has a copy on CD. For you - the Riverday podcast - to give you the flavor of this wonderful learning experience.
BES Media Specialist Pam Plankey worked with some third graders to read and report on a nominated book for the state's "Ladybug Award" for Best Picture Book. The resulting Quicktime movie was shown to all third graders to help them make a voting decision.
Click below to subscribe to
Newfound Elementary Podcasts
You can also subscribe to these podcasts through the iTunes Music Store.
 I'm posting this link in the parent section and hoping that you take a look at the page with your child. Summer Computer Fun is a page of websites that I compiled for kids to use over the summer - with the disclaimer that they should visit it only on days when they can't get outside to play!
Here's another good resource for parents - The Parent's Guide to Social Networking Sites, this one from the Federal Trade Commission. The site also includes a section at the bottom with links to more information for parents about internet safety.
WiredKids.org offers an excellent parent resource in its downloadable booklet Parenting Online. It covers safety issues, how to talk to your child about computer use, and has an "Online Safety Cheat Sheet." I've been thinking about this quote from the site: "The single greatest risk our children face in connection with the Internet is being denied access. We have solutions for every other risk. That bears repeating, over and over, especially when we hear about Internet sexual predators, hate, sex and violence online. But our children need the Internet for their education, careers and their future."
 Last winter, Dateline aired a piece on NBC about mySpace, the online spot that many teens and adolescents use to keep journals, post pictures, and connect with friends. If you missed the segment, the accompanying website is here. Sites like mySpace are examples of a relatively new use of the web called "social networking," where anyone can easily construct a page on the internet and post information to it. Others can read and post comments. There are chat rooms and other interactive features. Remember how you used to hang out with your friends and talk? This is virtual hanging out. Sadly, like all wonderful web-related innovations, this kind of networking has a dark side that's been in the news a lot lately. Even though most of the mySpace members are older than elementary age, you need to know about sites like this and, more importantly, your kids need to learn to use them safely and responsibly. If you haven't seen mySpace, take a look. Read the related articles on the Dateline site. Be informed. But most importantly, know how your child is using your computer.
Are you aware that the Newfound Area School District has an online tutorial site for parent and student use? Atomic Learning at is an extensive website full of short movie clips that demonstrate how to work with common and not-so-common applications. MS Word, Dreamweaver, Excel, Photoshop, Flash, Palm OS - they're all there as well as many, many more. Windows and Mac platforms both are supported. Just call your child's school for the username and the password and get started with this terrific learning tool!
Here's a site I made many years ago that I have fun keeping updated. I called it The Good Morning Site  because, when I was in the classroom, it was a part of our Morning Meeting. It's online now so that others may use it. The page directs kids to internet sites with puzzles, games, facts, information - all that change on a daily basis. I've just added the site on Suduko, a Japanese number and logic game that's growing in popularity among adults, too. Try it - it's fun!
I ran across this article a few months ago. It tells about "leet," a method of online spelling/writing that's gaining popularity among teenagers. Pretty clever method of communication - but also important for parents to be aware of. Take a look. A Parent's Guide to Computer Slang
| |
