A Time of Thanks

I am grateful for what Abraham Lincoln did in 1863 and look forward to spending time with my family over Thanksgiving. In Lincoln's proclamation he writes, "To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come." It amazes me that even though he said those words over 150 years ago, they could still apply today. We do get so busy that we forget to take time to slow down and appreciate all that we have. 

At Cooley Springs-Fingerville we have many resources to help students understand the history of Thanksgiving. Some books are also written for fun. I have included pictures of some of the books that are available in our literacy room. 

 

"Balloons over Broadway" is a great book about the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It is a picture book filled with nonfiction features of maps, diagrams, and contains the image of the "New York Times" newspaper describing the first parade in 1924. 

It is amazing to read about the individuals that made decisions so long ago, that still impact our lives today. 

Scholastic website provides links so students can take "Virtual Filed Trips to the Mayflower, Pilgrim Village, a Wampanoag Homesite and to Plimoth Plantation." 

I really enjoyed the link to the Mayflower and learned so much about the ship that I hadn't heard before. I hope you are able to view these amazing resources. 

For the Link to Scholastic click here:

Plimoth Plantation Field Trips

I am thankful for my Cooley Springs-Fingerville family and wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Symbaloo

What is it? It's like Pinterest since it allows you to place all of your links/bookmarks in one site so you can access them from anywhere with any device. I used Symbaloo in the classroom so my students could easily gain access the books, videos, and articles we had talked about in class. It was also great to create a board for them to use the links when preparing for research. Here are a couple you might be interested in using in your classroom. All you have to do is click on the link!

National Geographic Young Explorer Books

American Revolution

Biographies

If you wanted your students to have access to several links at once, these boards are great to post on your website. All you need to do is create an account!

You Tube

Have you ever found something on You Tube that you want to share with your students, but hate the links on the right hand side? I sure have. I remember finding a great video called "The States of Matter" where glass blowers showed students how they took glass in powdered form, heated it to a gooey stage, then cooled it to form their solid shape. It even asked questions and gave a ten second pause for students to answer. It was perfect for my students to view during our science unit on solids, liquids, and gas. My students loved it, and wanted me to post it on my school website. I didn't want them to see the links on the side and view something that wasn't appropriate. Then I discovered ss.

If you find a video you want to share with your students, you can type the letters "ss" after the www. and hit enter. It takes you to a site called savefrom.net that allows you to download the video to your computer. It offers several formats for the download; I always chose the MP4 360p version.

Once you download your movie, you can save it to Google docs to access it from school. (ss is blocked in our district so do this at home)

Hope this helps you share information with your students in a safe format!

EdTech

The last week in October I attended EdTech in Greenville learning from different educators the variety of ways they use technology to make the learning process more relevant, hands-on, and appealing for students. One of the presenters, Nick LaFave, said something that really spoke to me. He said, “As teachers, we are not their only source of information. If they want to know something, they can just ask Siri.” 

I think back to the days where you went to the bookshelf and got the “S” encyclopedia if you wanted to learn about Salamanders. (I realize I just dated myself) Now, with just a click students can find the answers to their questions.

Click this link to read Nick’s Picks for Educational Technology list complete with how to instructions. Another quote that stuck with me was, “Instruction must come first, create your lessons with your objectives, and THEN decide how technology could support student learning. Technology is the tool and strategies that will help students gain the knowledge.”

One tool I learned about was Tube Chop. Have you ever wanted to show just a part of a youtube video instead of the whole thing? Well Tube Chop lets you do just that. 

Using Tube Chop, I was able to capture just a snippet of a video I wanted to share.

Here is the link:
How to make a Pop-Up book

It's amazing how many neat tools their are to make our lives so much easier! We can find restaurants, answer questions, and learn new things! Hope Nick's Picks helps you discover something new.