Final Project

 

Final Project

Judy Nunez

Glendale Adventist Elementary School

Second Grade

Title: iPad Mini-Penguin Unit

Objective: To learn about penguins, practice reading, and make a report

Materials:

Books- Ready Freddy Penguin Problem by Abby Klein available in paper back or digital copy  (kindle version)

iPad Mini (one for each student)

Computer with Projector

Apps: iMovie, iBooks, pages, edmodo, kindle

Internet access

Lined poster paper

Map or globe

Online sites www.nothingbutpenguins.com , www.google.com   www.kids.nationalgeographic.com  www.kidzone.ws/animals/penguins/ www.questionpress.com/nunez

Subjects: Reading, language arts (writing), science, art, PE,  and Social Studies

Lesson 1

What do we know about Penguins?

Make a list of facts- have students tell you what they know about penguins- make a list on lined poster paper and save for later use.

Reading: Chap. 1 & 2 in Ready Freddy Penguin problems. (ebook-kindle app or hard copy) After reading have students go to www.questionpress.com/nunez and answer questions.  After the students have answered the questions put the question up on the screen with the projector and review correct answers and essay question. Give rewards for top scores (sometimes a verbal “these kids did great!” is fine).  I usually give tickets to those that got perfect or just one wrong.  Tickets can be used to buy toys at our class store. Acknowledge any kids that you feel may need to feel that they did a great job.

Science: Make a list of facts learned from chapters 1 & 2 on lined poster paper.  Keep out so it can be added to each day. Compare with first poster of facts they knew about penguins.  Are any the same? Different? Wrong?

Language arts: Journal about penguins in their journal.

PE: Play penguins and leopard seals (like they did in the book).  A form of tag where “it” is a leopard seal and the rest that are running away are penguins.

Social Studies: Show a map (or look one up online with iPad) and show kids where the southern hemisphere is. 

Lesson 2

Let’s learn more about penguins.

Reading: Chap. 3 & 4 in Ready Freddy Penguin Problem. (iPad). After reading have students go to  www.questionpress.com/nunez on their iPad to do online quiz.  Repeat the procedure from the previous day.

Science: Continue to add facts learned from the book onto lined poster.

Language arts: Do “fix-it’s” in their language arts journal.  Language arts journal is where students are given a paragraph (DOL) with grammatical errors that they need to “find “ and change.  I usually use something that we have been reading so that it means more to them.

PE: Continue playing Penguins and leopard seal game.

Lesson 3

Let’s adopt!

Reading: Read Chapters 5 & 6 in Ready Freddy Penguin Problem. (iPad) After reading have students go to www.questionpress.com/nunez to do online quiz.  Repeat procedure from day one.

 

Science: Fill in penguin worksheet (below) found at www.kidzone.ws

PE: Continue to play Penguin and Leopard seal game. 

Language arts: Journal what it is like to be a penguin

Social Studies: Go to www.nwf.org or www.defenders.org  and decide on an animal for the class to “adopt”.  I usually have each child bring in $2 to cover the cost of adopting an  endangered animal. 

Art: make a penguin- you will need black, white, and orange construction paper.  Have students trace their shoe on the black paper (this will be the body) Cut out the body and add a white oval for the stomach.  Fold a piece of black paper in half.  Squeeze fingers together like praying hands and trace.  Leave t the paper folded and cut out hand shape.  You now have two wings.  Glue them to the side of the body.  Glue two googly eyes onto face.  Cut out an orange triangle for the beak and glue it under the eyes. Cut a 2-inch circle out of orange paper.  Cut the circle in half to make two feet.  Glue the feet to the bottom of the body. Once children have made their penguin then staple it to the bulletin board for a group picture.  I usually put down white butcher paper over a blue background to look like a winter scene. 

Lesson 4

Let’s pick our penguin!

Reading: Read chapters 7 & 8 in Ready Freddy penguin Problem (iPad). After reading have students go on to www.questionpress.com/nunez to do online quiz. Repeat procedures from lesson 1.

Science: Write a list of the 17 different penguin species on the board.  Give children time to explore on their ipads the different ones to find out which one they would like to do a report on. The best site for penguins is www.nothingbutpenguins.com is a great site for kids to explore the different penguins.   Have each child pick a different penguin to do a report on.

PE: Continue to Play Penguin and Leopard

Language arts:  As a group, decide what questions you would like to cover in your penguin report.  I find that most kids come up with quite a lot of good questions to cover.  Example: Habitat, Name of penguin, country they are found in, what they eat, main predator, size….

Here is a sample of the questions my students from last year came up with:

1. Name of penguin
   2.main predator
   3. What does it eat
   4. Where does it live
   5. Habitat
   6. What they look like
   7. size
   8. Interesting fact
   9. another interesting fact
   10 Don't forget to put an ending!!!!

Social Studies: On a map start having the students mark where their penguin is found. Post map where everyone can see it.

Art: tongue depressor penguin puppets- Have each student create a stick puppet using a tongue depressor.  They can either use scrap paper and come up with their own design or you can download a picture they can cut out, color and glue.

Lesson 5 & 6

Let’s make a movie!

Using the questions the students came up with, have children search for answers about their penguin. Write the answers down in compete sentences. After students have been check on their writing then they need to go online to look for pictures for each fact. 

Create a movie in iMovie. Each report should be at least a minimum of 11 slides long.  For example slide

1- Introduction (either video or picture with words) Penguin report by Judy Nunez

Slide 2- name of penguin

Slide 3- main predator

Slide 4- what does it eat……

Don’t forget to add music

After the movie is done (this usually takes around three days) students can then upload it to www.edmodo.com and turn it into the teacher. 

Students are graded on :
1. Did they cover everything (10 points) 
2. Did they spell everything correct (10 points) 
3. Did the pictures they pick go with the text (10 points) 
4. Did they add music and have an introduction and ending (10 points)   
5. Did they turn it in on time. (10 points)

At the end of the week have a viewing of everyone’s movie. Have popcorn and invite parents to come.

 

Additional art activities:

On line Safety

Being a teacher for the younger children,  I am constantly worrying about online safety.  I worry about the sites children may go to.  I worry that they might come across pictures that are inappropriate. Parents worry about the same thing.  One of the things I tell parents is that we need to teach children how to use the Internet correctly.  We can't just depend on the schools filters to keep our students safe from bad sites.
I really enjoyed reading Cybersmart's Safety and security online: lesson Plans and Student Activity Sheets. I was glad to see that there was a great program out there that helps teachers teach about online safety.  Sometimes parents leave it up to the teacher to teach students right from wrong.  This site is great because it gives many lessons on online safety geared to different age levels.  They even have worksheets and videos that we can use for the class.  I love it!  I can't wait to use it in my class. 
I wish more parents would be involved in monitoring what their child is doing online.  Having two teenage boys, I realize that many parents have no idea what their child is up to online. Children have  gotten smart about hiding their online activity using fake names and multiple accounts for many social sites. 
I am hoping that if I start teaching children at a young age the correct and safe way to use the internet, then hopefully when they get older they will remember what they have been taught.  Unfortunately there is no guarantee that children will not go to wrong sites or misuse the internet.  Parents along with teachers need to constantly watch and teach out students correct and safe online practices.   Just like we teach our children that God wants us to keep our minds and lives pure in what we read and watch on tv, we also have to start including online and technology. It needs to be a joint effort between school and home.  I feel very lucky that I work at a christian school.  I can remind my students that even if their parents don't know what they are doing, God is always watching over us and knows what we are up to. 
Another site that has many ideas on online safety is Federal Trade Commission, Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens. I found that this site was great for all ages.  I plan on giving all of my parents a copy of this at back to school night.  Our children's safety should be all of our concerns, not just teachers or parents. If we work together, we can start to teach our students to use the internet safely and properly.  We can still have fun and be safe at the same time!

Game and Lesson Plan

 I spent a lot of time looking for that "perfect" game to show everyone.  I don't have access to a computer lab or computers in the class.  What I do have (soon) is iPad minis for each student in my class.  Because I will be working with iPad minis instead of computers I looked for apps that I could use. I decided that since learning to write(and create) at an early age is important, I would highlight a writing app.
 Of course I found many apps but the one that I using for today is one that I have used in the past.  This will be the first time that I have done a lesson plan for it.  The app toontastic is free but it has a lot of in app purchases.  The free version is great to get you introduced with toontastic but you may want to eventually buy the full version.
 This is a sample video about toontastic.  They used the Shrek version, but I like the original one better.  The second sample shows how to start using toontastic.

Game: Toontastic
Grade: 2
Objective: Students will plan a story using the
Storyboard Template then animate their
stories in Toontastic. Finally, students will
use their storyboards and cartoons to craft a
final written draft of their stories.

 Materials: iPads
Toontastic app
computer/projector to show off students works to the class


Start: Begin the lesson by asking students to discuss what makes a great story.  Together, make a list of great stories. Then, create a chart of characteristics of a great story for students to refer to during the lesson. Finally, read a book with a good storyline, such as Dogku by Andrew Clements, Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel, or Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. After reading, discuss with students if and why the story was good.

Next, pass out the Toontastic Storyboard Template for pre-writing.

 Students should complete the outline before animating their stories. Allow studnets to share ideas if time permits. Finally, have students animate their stories in Toontastic. Be sure to point out the importance of choosing an emotional energy level for each scene.
After animating their stories, have students craft a final written draft of their story.  Remind students to look back at both their templates and cartoons as they write their final drafts. Encourage students to think about how these pre-writing activities help their stories.
To wrap up the project, upload students’ cartoons to ToonTube and host a story premier for students and parents.
During the premier, have students read the final drafts of their written work and share their cartoons.  Encourage students to reflect on each others’ writing and cartoons. Remind students to connect their critiques back to the characters of a great story they identified at the start of the lesson.