JanActivities1112


 * Feel free to complete one activity or do them all! The themes this month are Snow & Winter and Penguins. 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 activity with the snowflake is our featured activity for the month and we would love to have everyone participate in this activity! ** Snow & Winter > **If possible, we would like everyone who participates in this task to try to take a picture sometime between January 16th & January 23rd. ** media type="custom" key="11961914" align="center" When the month is over, the completed presentation can viewed and discussed to analyze the differences in temperature and precipitation from location to location. || 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. || * Instead 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.
 * = ==Activity == || ==Description == || ==Files/Resource Links == || ==Extension == ||
 * = **Winter At Our Schools** || This activity will allow students to learn about weather in January.
 * 1) 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) 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 //Menu// and then on the //Winter at Our Schools// 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;"> Progressive Winter Story **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will write, illustrate and record a story about winter or snow or snowmen with 2 other classes. Each class will have 2 weeks to complete their portion of the project. **This activity begins in January but does not end until February and requires additional registration!**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Registration/Teacher Requirements:**
 * 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;">Teachers will **<span class="wiki_link_ext">register for this activity by January 13th.** Please do not sign up for this activity if you can not commit to completing it within the time frames indicated below.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will download and install Audacity and Tux Paint prior to the start of this activity if needed.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Vicky Sedgwick will match classes (by grade level if possible) and create Progressive Story pages on the wiki by January 17th.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Story Timeline Requirements:** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Each class will write one (or more) paragraphs of a collaborative story, draw 1-3 pictures to illustrate their paragraph(s) and record their paragraph(s). The text, audio recording(s) and picture(s) will be posted to the wiki.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Class #1** brainstorms and starts the story by writing, recording and illustrating (no more than 3 pictures) the introduction paragraph(s) of the story. The text, MP3 file(s) and pictures should be posted to the wiki no later than **January 30th**.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Class #2** reads/listens to what Class #1 wrote and continues the story by writing, recording and illustrating (no more than 3 pictures) the middle paragraph(s) of the story. The text, MP3 file(s) and pictures should be posted to the wiki no later than **February 13th**.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Class #3** reads/listens to what Class #1 & Class #2 wrote and finishes and names the story by writing, recording and illustrating (no more than 3 pictures) the ending paragraph(s) of the story. The text, MP3 file(s) and pictures should be posted to the wiki no later than **February 27th**. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Audacity**: Download and install this free audio editor to record your portion of the story. Be sure to also download and install the LAME MP3 Encoder so that you can create MP3 file(s) to share on the wiki. Audacity is not required and you may record audio using other programs as long as you end up with MP3 file(s).

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Tux Paint**: Download and install this free drawing program to illustrate the story. Tux Paint is not required. You may create illustrations using any drawing program or even by taking pictures of artwork created by students in other ways.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Find Sounds**: Use this to find sound effects to add to the recording of your portion of the story.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Winter Writing Prompts: If your students are having a hard time starting the story, check out these ideas:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">ABC Teach January Prompts
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Winter Writing Topics (scroll down to the Story Starters)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Winter Story Starters

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Progressive Story Project is a similar activity without the recording portion. || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Partner class teachers arrange for a Skype session between the classes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Class #1 & #2 can continue the story to predict how they think it will end and then compare with the other 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 or watch the DVD. Have children look at Bentley's photographs and photographs of other snowflakes and teach about symmetry.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Have children go into to a paint program such as TuxPaint or KidPix or Microsoft Paint and make their own 6 sided symmetrical 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;">Snowflake Bentley Study Guide
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">BrainPOP: Snowflakes || * <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;">If you live in area where it snows and it happens to be snowing on a school day, have students catch snowflakes on black construction paper and photograph them using a digital camera. ||
 * = <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;">Students will take or draw their own winter pictures and write a poem in Word or PowerPoint to go with their picture. || <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="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students can take or draw their own winter pictures to be used in the presentation. || <span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Penguins <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Glyph** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will create a penguin glyph in PowerPoint using a template and legend.
 * = <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: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Activity == ||= ==<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Description == ||= ==<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Files/Links == || ==<span style="background-color: #000000; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Extension == ||
 * = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Penguin**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If you do not have access to PowerPoint, students could use the legend to draw their penguin glyph in any available drawing program. || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Glyph Template]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Glyph Legend] || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students can learn how to group items, add and order clipart, etc. and create a scene with their glyph in PowerPoint.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students can research facts about penguins and type facts about penguins into a text box they insert below their completed glyph. See our resources page for some Penguin Research links. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Math** **Book** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will use PowerPoint to create a Mini Math Book with a Penguin Theme. To model this activity for students, download the template and modify it slightly to show students how to use PowerPoint to create their Penguin Math Book. This will show them what they need to do but not give them the answers to the math problems in the Penguin Math Book.
 * = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Penguin**

<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 can be difficult for Kindergarten students to complete but is a good exercise in teaching them mouse control.

<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. Many of the activities in the Penguin Math Book are similar to those in February's Mittens Math & More activity. || * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|PenguinMath-Kindergarten.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|PenguinMath-Grade1.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|PenguinMath-Grade2.ppt]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|PenguinMath-Grade3.ppt] ||  ||
 * = **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Penguin Facts Video or Presentation ** || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students will learn facts about penguins from the Penguin Websites on our Resources page or from non-fiction books about Penguins. Students will then create a movie (or presentation) about penguins using Creative Commons pictures or illustrations that students draw themselves and recording voice overs with facts about penguins. For younger students, the teacher will most likely need to put together the presentation or images for the movie and assist children in recording the voice overs. || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Penguin Images:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Pics4Learning
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Flickr Gallery 1
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Flickr Gallery 2 || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Create a Venn Diagram comparing Penguins to other birds using ClassTools.net Venn Diagram ||