4th Grade Parodies

4th graders had a great time studying, reading, and writing their own parodies. In addition, I created a wiki-space to showcase the best ones. Go to
http://4thparodies.wikispaces.com/ to hear them. Enjoy! Shelly

Holocaust Study/Project

Recently, the 6th grade has been studying the Holocaust. This cross-curricular project spans the literature/language/computer/and library classes. As a part of the wrap up, students studied an individual child of the Holocaust and created a memorial butterfly for the child. This project was used in conjunction with the poem "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" written by Pavel Friedman while he was interned in one of the concentration camps established specifically for children. The butterflies will be sent to the National Holocaust Museum in Houston as a part of their effort to collect 1.5 million handmade butterflies in memory of the 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust. See more information about this global project at: http://www.hmh.org/ed_butterfly1.shtml

New Technology Items for Emerging Readers

Thanks to the PTF, we have received several new mini-DVD players to be used along with the Treasury of Storybook Classics. The DVD players will be available after Christmas to teachers in grades Kindergarten and 1st. In addition, players were purchased for our sister campuses. We have also been blessed with new CD and cassette players for each campus library to be used with audio books. Thank you, PTF

New Fun Tech Resource

I have found a new online resource that is both free and fun. It is called glogster.com. It allows students to create online projects that include text, pictures, video, and audio. It reminds me of e-scrapping booking meets blogs. Check it out at www.glogster.com. Click on the edu tab for a free subscription and up to 200 free student subscriptions. Miss Rudolph and I plan to use it in the spring for Great Depression projects. When the projects are complete, I will let you know. Shelly

Third Grade Evansville Unit

I have been working with the 3rd graders for quite a long time on reinforcing their study of Evansville history. Today, we were blessed to have a group of senior adults come in for interviews about how life in Evansville has changed since they were children. It was a great learning experience for them.

Talking Book Report Winner: Ryan F. aka Clementine Sweet

National Children's Book Week

Thank you to everyone who helped make National Children's Book Week such a great success. I value your input on how to keep improving the event. The winning infomercials are posted on YouTube. Enjoy!