It's been a busy time in my classroom. Learning all I can about Daily5; working with the students to make thoughtful choices; learning about Thanksgiving and Remembrance Day; Halloween activities and the arrival of snow has kept us on our toes!
Before Christmas break we will be working on 2 more "Global Projects". (1) Holiday Card Exchange, and (2) Seasons Project put on by the #globalclassroom network.
This will be my third time participating in Jen Wagner's Gift Card Exchange. I love this project because not only do the students create their own Christmas cards and send them around the world, but we get Christmas cards sent back to us in return! The kids LOVE getting mail, reading the letters, and finding out where in the world the card came from! As a professional I have been able to keep ties with some of the teachers I've 'met' through the exchange. It has been incredibly valuable and I would encourage others to give it a try!
I have included an older Voicethread that was created when I taught at my previous school. The students shared what it is like to live in Prince George with the other classrooms we exchanged Christmas cards with. If you have not used Voicethread in your classroom - you must! It is a fantastic tool.
The second project, is new to me. Someone asked me where I found out about the "Seasons Project" and to be perfectly honest I don't remember. I suspect I found out about it on twitter. I am always looking for new ways to connect my students with other classrooms and meets a number of my "ILO's" (Intended Learning Outcomes).
The project asks us to record our observations about the weather, temperature and things in our community. Then we upload those observations to a voicethread to share. The collaborative voicethread we will be contributing to is below.
I like that we can contribute 'our voice' to the above voicethread, but I'll be extending this project by having my class create their own. Ownership is important - contribution is an important first step, but for me, I find ownership is is much more powerful.
This last voicethread is a FAVORITE of mine that I created to show our friends from around the world how cold it can be in Prince George. Feel free to leave a comment. I certainly hope this winter it won't be so cold!
