First Weeks in Review + Dungeon Crawl!

PBS Learning Media Storyboard for new school year

Friday and gave Chase a test and storyboard assignment this morning to review what we've learned so far.  I made my own storyboard to highlight a few of the things.  Just a good way to keep track of what we've learned.  Don't see anyway to embed these.  It is similar to the Glogster posters, though those you can embed.  However, Glogs take a long time to load, I think it is all flash or something.  This could also be used as a presentation for projects.  Though Windows 10 has a built in app that might work better.  It's called Sway.  I'll have to play around with it a bit to see how useful it would be.  The storyboards are simple, and that can be good enough.

In the afternoon, we did our first dungeon crawl.  Only made it to the first room of the Old Aqueducts, though.  We had a random encounter with 4 tiny scorpions and they kicked our butts because we couldn't hit them!  Hahaha.  Well, after Kai (Chase's fighter) fell into a floor trap that nearly killed him, we took on a huuuuge centipede and destroyed it.  Then there was lewts.  Emberlyn (my pirate/rogue) found some gold and split it (evenly, of course! ---- not!) and Kai found a glowing gem and a cool sword.  Our NPC, Asila, a second year Healer student, found a small silver ring.

That is as far as we got, had to have them take a short rest...  Guess we're combining 3.5 and 5 rules to try to simplify things.  Rather than make us spend the night in the dungeon when it should really take one night only.  We're exploring a tunnel under our school and they would probably have to send a search party after us if us first years didn't make it back.  But hey, we did sign the waivers that adventurer's school could mean our deaths!

Chase has no problem solving math problems on the fly as he rolls his saves and attacks.  He did well with the roleplay part, with a character afraid of bugs and our first encounters....  My character flaw has a fear of ghosts.  Kevin wanted us each to have a flaw to make our characters more interesting and have fun to roleplay with.

For our table, we bought a shower curtain as it is cheaper than a large vinyl mat, cut it to size and we're using overhead markers to write on it.  He made a dungeon map to go under it and drew on all the features and added tokens as encounters.

The DM notes and encounter tokens!

New miniatures for our characters from Reaper Mini.

The full table view of the dungeon.

Oops, just remembered, forgot to do school pictures today.  Well, maybe we'll take them on Monday.  We were still discussing what to do with them.  Last year it was Minecraft themed, where I used a green screen to superimpose him into a Minecraft scene he composed.  I think he wants to do that again, but after looking at the portrait of Benjamin Franklin with his favorite things to present himself as a person who believed in the Age of Enlightenment, he might want a tailored portrait.  Maybe styled as a painting.  Only my Wacom isn't compatible with Windows 10, plus I managed to lose my stylus!

Last year's pictures!  2015-2016 School Year - 3rd Grade

Dual Challenge - DIY

This week's DIY, I have a double challenge set up for Chase.  Both of these should be pretty easy but as an extra bit of work, I want him to use the Storyboard Tool on PBS Learning Media to do the assignment portion, where he adds in his media, text, links and details with a bg and on a timeline style layout like a blog post.  It's similar to Glogster which he is already familiar with, but has a much cleaner design and an easy to use template for drag and drop and rearrangement of elements.  Actually, it's like a website builder.

I'm going to be having him use this for 'week in review' type of assignments.  Where he'll be adding what he has learned through out the week to his storyboard.  So I want him to practice with it so he is prepared.  I'll have to make one as well so he has an example to work from.  Do our own, homeschool so far story.

Glogster Contest

I'm a bit behind in posting anything.  We've been busy here.  November, it was Chase's birthday followed by a 4 day power outage.  Which meant restocking the refrigerator.  Then, of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping (we did Cyber Monday, no way we were stepping out on Black Friday).  So, now time to get back to maintaining the blog.

We've switched to a more relaxed 'class' where he works on a clipboard in a comfy chair instead of always at his desk.  He seems happier with that.  Legos have become a good educational tool.  During the power outage, we worked hard on assembling some of the Lego kits he got for his birthday.  And he was doing a superb job of following directions and staying on task.

Onto this Glogster Contest.  It is a chance to win $1,000 cash for your class.  Your students can participate as well.  You submit a Glog to their contest by tagging it.  Please RT my twitter status and possibly win a Glogster license.

Win a perpetual @GlogsterEDU license by supporting me in the $1k contest: http://t.co/Hc9tVzctkF Please RT! #1k4Glog #12937685
— Gillian Ivy (@GillianIvyArt) December 5, 2013

Labor Day Weekend

Planning my next exercises for Chase to study throughout the week.  Wanted to do a current event, and there is a lot going on in the news this weekend.  I made a Glog for the Current Events in Syria.  The images in the Glog do not depict the more gruesome details, though the links do go to articles which may have those images posted.  So if you wish to share this with your class, please look through the links first.  They may be more suited to middle school + students than elementary.  I've included a few timeline facts.  No personal opinions are added to this, just facts.  It was hard to find articles with little or no bias.

There's also information about the history of Syria, featuring a Glog about the "Cradle of Civilization".  For my first grader, I'm just having the Glog as a print out for him to learn a few facts from.  The print bg is a bit dark, but otherwise looks alright.  Much better as an interactive learning tool.  I hope others can have more use out of it.  I marked it for all grades, since it is history in the making.

I have Chase's notebooks almost filled for the week's worth of work.  I think I need a reward for that!  I have a gift certificate for Red Robin my Dad bought me for Mother's Day that is burning a hole in my wallet.  I think it is time I demand to go out to eat :D

Audio Glog - Dolch Sight words

Latest Glog.  This one has audio for first grade spelling words.  I used a free text to speech program online to generate the audio files.  The ones on ScootPad allowed download, but for personal use only and not to share.  I didn't want to break their usage licensing.  I could have recorded these myself, but likely, my kid would talk in the background.  Perhaps, as a fun project, I can have him record all the words and spell them out loud.  He loves to record his own voice.  And I can edit the audio files later on.

The words are chosen from the first 4 word lists on ScootPad's Spelling section.  I'm going to use it as an end of the week word review.  To further the exercise, I may have him write a sentence using the words.

Spelling Word List

Start of Year Welcome

I made a Welcome poster in Glogster, it's set to private, so you'll only see the preview here and the links don't work.  Besides, their embed is kind of a big file.  It's an interactive newsletter welcoming him to the class and getting him familiar with the digital tools we will be using.  There's a wonderful repository of classroom apps (we don't have an iPad or a whiteboard) in the Google Chrome Store.  We'll be using some class management ones for rewards and behaviour incentives.  Because nothing else works for very long!

I spent hours picking apps.  I'd find multiple versions and try them to see what fit our needs.  I've divided my Google home page into 3 app pages, first page is my regular Drive/mail/games/etc.  Second page has the apps that I will be using as a teacher with him.  And the third page are the ones I installed on his.  For this, it requires that the students would have  a Google Chrome account.  Chase has one, but he does not know the password for it, I manage it for him.  But most of these apps are links to sites where the child can sign up from any browser.  Some have parent sign ups as well.  The teacher can send out behavioral reports without needing to exchange numbers and e-mails with all the parents.

Most of these apps are free.  I didn't really check into the pay ones.  Mathboard Addition is a great practice, the full version has full equations.  You set how many questions and the parameters.  They can save the quizzes.  This app requires A Google mail account, so maybe teachers would prefer to set up a 'class account' where they log in and let students take turns using the apps.  Fraboom looks really great, but it doesn't seem to be fully released yet, there were things that said "coming soon".  Also, I hadn't set up an account.

Some of the apps Chase will be using are not on here, I didn't put them all, but I gure we will be cycling through them as we go.  So, I expect this to change a lot.

For Scoot n' Doodle, it utilizes GoogleHangouts and a whiteboard for group drawing.  The Hangouts are private, by invite only, so may be a fun way for classes to interact.  Webcams and mics are not required, there is still a type chat.  But you can also add people via phone calls, so I can call Grandma Ginny and add her to the conversation.  You can even save pictures beforehand to set up the classroom.  I did this last year for Chase's 100th day of school.  He and Grandma Ginny had a lot of fun drawing together.  I thought this would be fun for first day as well as special occasions.

Addition Story on Glogger

Addition Stories

To use these, you sign up for GlogsterEDU as a teacher and add it to your glogs.  You would assign it to students so they can edit it and send it in.  Editing is fun.  Here, the student would edit "add" for the total and copy & paste extra birds and cats into the blank area, then edit "#" to answer the last two questions.  For tactile application, they should use counters to count out the story.  I like to use Lucky Stars as counters.  I can quickly make a dozen!

Summer Preparations

We've decided Chase isn't ready for school this year.  He still is of the attitude that he doesn't want to be there, be away from Mommy...  So we're homeschooling again.  Trying to get a head start on preparations.  Since last year, we started in the middle of the year.  After having already purchased school books and school supplies, etc.

Today I've gotten the school calendar ready so I can mirror the activities that are going on at the public schools.  Hopefully, we will have more outings, as I want to do field trips and social outings.  I've added a new page to the blog for Chase's First Grade Calendar.  I have 185 days marked, leaving 5 days for days off.  Guess we'll use those for sick days ;)  But hopefully, with little access to the germ cess pools (I mean, school) then we won't be sick so much this year.

I think I'll be giving him more real time application math assignments, like helping me halve or double recipes, figure out the grocery budget and making purchases.  He already knows to round up when he sees something marked as $9.99, it means $10.

I better check the Shelby Library's hours and activities list, since going to Lowell's Library every week may not be as easy.  The Shelby Library is small without much of a selection, but we can request books be transferred to this location.

I may be looking into used curriculum books or reduced rates, rather than attempt to purchase kits.  I've been looking over the Indiana Department of Education guidelines and suggestions.  In Indiana, we do not have a strict or suggested curriculum to go by.  I think he earns better when things are not presented as a worksheet.  Today, he curled up in the chair with me to look up what an Adam's Apple was, since he was concerned about his.  So we found several diagrams illustrating the parts of the throat and read aloud a description of the purposes and differences in genders.  As well as the two origins of the name.

He has always had an interest in anatomy, having said he wanted to be a doctor. Now, he wants to be a game designer, of course.  I may teach him some HTML and CSS.  Since those would both be very good skills to have and I am fairly knowledgeable in both.  I've found an easy to learn code site, which can take it a step at a time for young learners.  Maybe give him a step up from all the technology advanced students in school who have iPads and laptops.  Granted, he has had a computer of his own since he was 2 years old.  Well, with us on there with him.  But he has great computer skills.

Last school year, right before the end of the year, I found out about GlogsterEDU which I had already known about regular Glogster, I had an acct for fun once.  So I already had an idea of what I was doing.  So, basically, you make a worksheet or info fact sheet, or really anything you want, and give your students codes to access online and turn in their assignments online.  They edit the Glog and put in their own answers.  Or you could even just print out sheets for hand outs.  They have a lot of resources for free, so worth checking out.  I plan to buy a year so I can have the full educator account to add him in a classroom.  He enjoyed doing his assignment on the computer instead of as a worksheet.