JanActivities1011


 * Feel free to complete one activity or do them all! The themes this month are Snow & Winter and Animals in Winter. If you have other projects other than the ones below that you have completed with students on these themes, we would love to see the results on your wiki page. **** The activities (yes there are TWO this month) with the snowflake are our featured activities for the month - pick one or both! **

=Snow & Winter =  || Teachers will:
 * = ==Activity == || ==Description == || ==Files/Resource Links == || ==Extension == ||
 * = **Winter Voki**
 * Set up a free Voki account
 * Make a Winter themed Voki asking students a question about winter. The question could be about a winter book you've read in class or about favorite winter activities or about ways to warm up in the winter or any other winter related question.
 * Embed the completed Voki on their wiki page.

Students will:
 * Listen to the Teacher's Voki question
 * Click on the comment icon below the Voki and then on Leave a Comment
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Create their own Voki and answer the question by typing in the answer or recording the answer.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students do not need accounts in order to create their response Voki. Teachers can delete comments left on the Voki, if needed. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Voki Site ||  || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This activity will allow students to learn about Winter Weather in January. > If possible, we would like everyone who participates in this task to try to take a picture sometime between January 17th & January 24th. media type="custom" key="7946230" <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When the month is over, the completed presentation can viewed and discussed to analyze the differences in temperature and precipitation from location to location. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Weather Sites: > Enter the Zip Code of your school and you can view the current weather or use the Month option to get the highs, lows and precipitation for any date in the month. > Enter the Zip Code of your school and you can view the current weather. There will be a Weather History For This Location link about 1/2 way down the page. This is a great resource for past weather and even shows hour by hour graphs in case you forgot to write down the temperature when you took your picture. || * I<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">nstead of just taking one picture and tracking the weather on on day, take a picture a week or a picture a day during January and use Excel to track the weather for each day you take the pictures. Use the averages found on the weather sites to see if the temperatures and precipitation for this year were equal to the averages or not. > <span style="background-color: #0080ff; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students can and should be creating snowmen and descriptions once you have registered for the project even if matches have not been completed yet!
 * = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Winter At Our School**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Take a picture of your school (or better yet have a student take the picture) at some time during January which shows what the weather is like during January at your school.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Using a thermometer or a Weather Web Site (see the Resource Links), find out what the temperature is (or was) when you take the picture and what the precipitation is (or was) on the day the picture was taken.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Edit the collaborative Google Presentation (on this page or the home page of the Wiki) by:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Clicking on the //Open In A New Window// link
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Then click on //Actions// & then //Edit//. Everyone has permission to edit this presentation.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Navigate to a blank slide. A blank slide will have a message that says "Delete This Box" on it. If there are no blank slides, please contact an organizer who will add one for you or you can click //Slide// and then //Duplicate Slide// on the last slide to create a duplicate which you can modify with your School's information.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Add your picture using the Insert Image option and add your School Name, Location, Temperature and Precipitation information under your picture.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Weather Channel
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Weather Underground
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Graph the temperatures and locations from the collaborative presentation using Excel or a Google Spreadsheet.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Create a Google Map or a Google Earth file showing the locations of all participants in the collaborative presentation. ||
 * = **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Describe a Snowman ** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Teacher steps & suggested timeline for this activity:**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Make sure you have registered for the Winter Wonderland project before your proceed.** Only teachers and classes who have registered for the Winter Wonderland Project will be matched with other classes.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teacher will **<span class="wiki_link_ext">register for this activity by January 12th**. If you know a class that you wish to be partnered with, please contact Vicky Sedgwick to let her know after you register. **Matches are now available.**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will assist students in designing & saving their snowman as images and in writing their descriptions of their snowmen. For younger grades, teachers may need to actually do the screen captures, cropping & saving.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will post student descriptions of their snowmen on their class wiki page using a table and as a Word document or PDF by January 21st (or as soon after as possible). Do not post your student's snowmen yet! You can see a sample of what your table might look like here.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers should use the Word document from their partner class and assign descriptions to their students. If no Word document or PDF is available, students will need to read descriptions online. Students will then recreate their partner classes' snowmen.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will then upload each redrawn snowman to their partner's class wiki page next to the description of the snowman they recreated. This should be done by January 28th.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will upload their student's original drawings to their wiki page and review with students to see how close the students came to matching the original snowmen. This should be done as soon as possible after the redrawn snowman have been uploaded by the partner class.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Note: This activity could extend in to February depending on the time that a teacher and class has to devote to it in January. The dates in the description are guidelines only (except for the sign up and matching dates) and partnered classes should contact one another to see if the deadlines work for both classes.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Student steps for this activity:**
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Students will design a Snowman using this site. There is no save option on this site so once completed, students (or teachers) will need to do a screen capture to save the image. On a PC, do a Print Screen and paste the image into a program such as Microsoft Paint. In Paint the image can be cropped and saved as a JPEG. Instructions for screen capture on a Mac can be found here.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will write a descriptive paragraph about the snowman. Teachers will post students descriptions on their wiki page using a table. It is also helpful to put the descriptions into a Word document or PDF file which your partner class can print out and give to students. For students who are not able to write descriptions yet, descriptions could be recorded using Garage Band or Audacity or students could dictate their descriptions to their teacher.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will then read (or have read to them) the descriptions of their partner's snowman and they will try to recreate it using the same site from step #1.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will view the finished snowmen and see how the results compare. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Here are some similar projects so you can see how this works: Scary Spuds and Monster Project || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Partner class teachers arrange for a Skype session between the classes. ||
 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">**Snowflake Bentley** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Read the story Snowflake Bentley to the children. Have children look at his photographs and photographs of other snowflakes. Then have children go into to paint program such as TuxPaint or KidPix or Microsoft Paint and make their own 6 sided flake. Take the completed images and upload them to Animoto or Smilebox or other online slideshow application. || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Wilson Bentley Flakes
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Snowflake Pictures
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Snowflake Bentley Book Info || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Student images are added to a VoiceThread and students record a fact about snow or Snowflake Bentley to go along with their image. ||
 * = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Winter Poem** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will use write a Winter Poem using a picture from PicLits.com for inspiration or using Winter or Snow themed art from Storybird to create a one-page or multi-page poem.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Both PicLits and Storybird require students to login to save their work. Storybird has educator accounts that allow you to set up accounts for your students without requiring email addresses. With PicLits, you will need to use a Teacher's account for all students. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">PicLits

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Storybird For Schools ||<  || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Final projects will be uploaded to the wiki page. ||<  ||< <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Example of 3rd Grade Project along with more details. || =<span style="color: #0080ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Animals In Winter =
 * = <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">**Winter in 6 Words** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Student use PowerPoint to make a short 6 page presentation. called Winter in 6 Words. On each slide the student inserts a winter picture and then writes a 6 word descriptive sentence describing the picture. Save the presentation as a JPEG File Interchange Format. Then the pages are uploaded to Photostory3, a free program. In Photostory3 the students add transitions, music and narrations to each slide.
 * = ==<span style="background-color: #0080ff; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Activity == || ==<span style="background-color: #0080ff; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Description == || ==<span style="background-color: #0080ff; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Files/Resource Links == || ==<span style="background-color: #0080ff; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Extension == ||
 * = **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Mittens Math & More ** ||< <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will read or have read to them //The Mitten// by Jan Brett. After the book has been read, students will use PowerPoint to create a Mini Book with a Mitten Theme. To model this activity for students, download the template and modify it slightly to show students how to use PowerPoint to create this. This will show them what they need to do but not give them the answers to the math problems. For younger grades, it may help to re-read the book as they complete the slide for sequencing of events from the book.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> To create the mini books, print the presentation as handouts with 6 slides per page. The students or teacher can then trim the pages and staple them together to make a book.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The final slide for all grades is a mitten coloring activity - a color by number for Kindergarten and 1st Grade and a glyph for 2nd & 3rd Grades. This requires good mouse control to correctly click on the correct portions of the mitten to be colored and requires color name recognition to complete therefore Kindergarten students may require assistance to complete the last slide.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Note: This activity will most than likely take take more than one 25-30 minute class period to complete and print. || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Mitten-Math_and_More-K.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Mitten-Math_and_More-1st.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Mitten-Math_and_More-2nd.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Mitten-Math_and_More-3rd.ppt] || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Print out the Animal Masks from the Mitten and have students recreate the story using a video camera to film it and share with others.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Create a Voki using either the Bear or Mouse character and ask students a question about The Mitten or about how animals survive in the winter. Students can create their own Voki response without needing an account by clicking on the comment icon and then Leave A Comment. ||
 * = **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Animals In Winter Movie ** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Research animals in winter using appropriate books or web sites. For younger students, teachers can read books or create a presentation that is shown to the class about animals in winter. Older students can use child appropriate search engines or teacher selected web sites and materials for their research.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Draw an animal in winter in an appropriate habitat or find a Creative Commons photograph of an animal in Winter. using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Younger students will add a sentence about their animal in winter to their image or photo.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Older students will write a few sentences or a paragraph about their animal in winter. These will be recorded by the students as narration to the movie.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teacher will: > (This is a Canadian site with information for Canada but much of it applies to other regions. Scroll down page for Animal information) ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Combine all images in to a movie file using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker or Windows Photostory.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If students will be narrating their images, help each student to record their narration.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Optionally, find appropriate Creative Commons music for use on the movie.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Upload the completed movie file to an online hosting site such as TeacherTube or SchoolTube or Vimeo. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Animals In Winter Links
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Time For Kids - Ready For Winter 2002
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Winter Animals Encyclopedia
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How Do Animals Spend The Winter?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ready For Winter
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">National Geographic Creature Features
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Animals in the Winter PPT
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ready For Winter