Pearls of Wisdom

Below is the base Pearl Tree from which each student will be working. From the base, they access their individual biomes and add websites ("pearls") to that biome's pearltree to use for research next week.

Web Questing Begins!

The students are beginning their web quests for Biome information. They accessed Pearl Trees from Edmodo and began "pearling" their websites. Many boys even spent time at home finding new sites to use for research and adding them into their pearltrees! They will be teaching another class how to use this researching tool on Tuesday and will be collaborating with all four classes throughout the project to share resourcces!

Reading Character Sketches

We recently read a very detailed description of one of our main characters in The Egypt Game, and we spent time in class creating character sketches.

Fly Prezi's

Earth Week

Reading Vocabulary Activity

We spent time in small groups last week identifying and defining difficult vocabulary words from our text. Using the educreations and dictionary app's, the students were able to photograph, underline, type, or write the words, and then add in screenshots of the definitions to share with one another.

Prezi Presentation

Below are two of our completed Prezis, enjoy!

Fly Prezi Presentations

The boys used their "Day as a Fly" compositions as inspiration for their first Prezi Presentations. They spent time photographing the areas they visited in their compositions, sharing those images on the student server, creating the text in the prezi, uploading the images, and creating the "zooming" path. The boys then present their Prezi's for the group. The boys know how to access Prezi from home, so feel free to check them out! Below are a few screen shots of the Prezi's we viewed last week and Prezi's will be embedded over the coming days!

Biome Project First Step

We completed the first step of our Biome Project on Thursday. Using Edmodo, the boys accessed their assignments and visited a website which provided background information about each biome. The boys then selected their three favorite biomes by replying to the post and "turning in" their response.

Final Witches Project

The Witches Final Project from Ms. Gentry on Vimeo.

Witches Final Project Planning

Before the students begin their final project, they first select it from a list of five choices. Then they outline their "timeline" for the following three days, including assigning any necessary homework. The students reported thoroughly enjoying the process of planning and independently deciding how to break apart and tackle their assignment. I was thrilled by how hard they worked on their projects, and while their final products are wonderful and show how carefully they reflected on the book, I think the process of successfully working through an independent project was even more rewarding.

Ice Cream Sundae

The boys spent time researching the history of the ice cream sundae and learning about the debate between two cities surrounding its invention. Each boy had to write about which city he supported and then detail the necessary ingredients for his perfect sundae. Of course, we had to finish off the activity by making the sundaes ourselves!