Tag Archives: IWB

Using PowerPoint to Act Out Mathematical Story Problems

Lesson Background

This particular week students read the story Jack and Rick. A charming story about two lovable characters, Jack, a rabbit and Rick, a bear who find themselves on opposite sides of a river. The pair have to problem solve to get on the same side of the river, so they can play together. In math students have been working on subtraction with an emphasis on story problems. For my cross-curricular project I had students work in groups to create their own taking away story problem. I thought using PowerPoint would be the perfect tool for this project, because students can deepen their understanding of subtraction by using animation to demonstrate taking away.
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Hats & Caps Number Sentences

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Lesson Background

In math we have been working on understanding addition concepts. In reading we read the story The Hat. In this story Pam’s hat blows away and her friend Dan retrieves it for her. This week we cover the short a vowel sound, so in addition to the word “hat” students also had the word “cap” on their spelling list.
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All About Me Digital Stories using Little Bird Tales

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Project Planning

When I first sat down to brainstorm about cross-curricular projects for my classroom, I began by making a table that had 6 columns. In the first column I listed the weeks of school. In the second and third columns I mapped out what we would be covering in math and reading each week. I reserved the fourth column for possible social studies or science connections. In the fifth and sixth columns I began jotting down ideas for connections to the arts and technology. I would recommend this brainstorming activity for anyone trying to follow in my footsteps in regards to integrating technology into your curriculum.

Lesson Background

During the first week of school we focus on reviewing phonics skills and sight words in reading, and in math we focus on number sense. Many teachers do “All About Me” activities the first week of school to help students get to know one another. I wanted to modernize this process, so I thought digital storytelling tools would be a natural fit with this goal in mind.

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Creating a Morning Calendar for Interactive Whiteboard Use

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Towards the end of last school year we had Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) installed in the elementary classrooms in our district. The specific brand we obtained is the EPSON Brightlink. I love it because it uses the preexisting white board surface I your classroom, so you can still write on your board with good old fashion dry erase markers when you want. I wanted to modernize my morning calendar procedures to incorporate this IWB this year.
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