Day 115 - Journal Writing in Grade 1 Implementing Google Docs - Mrs. Weldon - Memorial Instructional Technology

This post first appeared on the BPSEdTech Blog 

Mrs. Burnham’s first grade has been working on their writing journals in Google Docs.  This has been a great collaboration piece for her students.  Students have learned how to share their journals with Mrs. Burnham and their classmates.  They edit them together and make suggestions as a class as to how to improve their writing as well as celebrate their terrific writing as a class.  It has been a fun sharing time in Mrs. Burnham’s room.   This video is just a sample of all the wonderful writing going on at Memorial.

Day 160 - Exploring the Reservoir - Mrs. Cyr - Memorial School Grade 3

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Cyr's Blog 

Thank you Mr. Musselman, Miss P., and Mrs. Hogan for a great day at The Mill Pond Reservoir! We got to visit and explore 3 different habitats.

The Vernal Pool

Tadpoles

Salamander Eggs

Crossing the log bridge!

The Field

Corn Snake

The Forest

Salamander

Owl

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Day 156 - "Earth Day Every Day" and other important lessons! - Memorial ELL Blog

This post originally appeared on the Memorial School English Language Learning Blog

As the expression goes "Time flies when you're having fun!" and we've been having fun and learning each day! We look forward to a busy end of the year with various class field trips and school activities.  Here are some highlights of the great work your students are doing. Please email us or comment below to let us know you've viewed our blog. Also feel free to send along any questions or suggestions!

Congrats to 3rd ,4th and 5th graders who showed great effort during the PARCC in April testing! 

Students earned certificates for their work learning about how to protect the environment and practice the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

Students' work on display. 

Students read Through Jane's Eyes 
about Dr. Jane Goodall's conservation work.

5th grader Omar putting his persuasive writing skills to use for the environment by composing a letter to encourage staff and students to reduce their paper use. 

3rd grader,  Yali,  responding to the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax 
and reading what he would do with the last truffala seed. 

4th grader reading The Lorax

2nd graders, Tanmayee and Tarandip, shaping
symbols of the environment.

Day 132 - Recycled Musical Instruments - Mrs. Keating - Memorial School Grade 3

This post first appeared on Mrs. Keating's Blog

Thank you for all of the recycled goods you sent in for our Recycled Musical Instrument Project! 

Today was building day in Room 209! We spent a good portion of our day building, documenting our steps with the iPad, and testing our instruments. Lots of team work went into helping others with their instruments and helping document the steps when our hands were full.

Our next step is putting on the finishing touches and recording how our instrument changes in volume and/or pitch. Once we do that, we will be learning how to use the app Explain Everything to show our steps to creating our unique instruments.

Here are some pictures from today!

Thanks Mrs. Weldon for lending a helping hand and helping us get started on filming our videos!

The Civil Rights Movement & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Rachel Small - Memorial School Teacher Librarian

This post first appeared on Ms. Small's Blog

For the last two weeks, students have been learning about the Civil Rights Movements and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Memorial Learning Commons.

We started with an activity. Students with brown eyes were able to play Duck, Duck, Goose while students with green, blue, and hazel eyes had to sit and watch. (Mrs. Dressler gave me this wonderful idea based off of Jane Elliott’s classroom experiment.) After part of the class played Duck, Duck, Goose for a few minutes, students were asked how they felt. Most students with green, blue, and hazel eyes shared that they felt sad, mad, and left out.

We then read Children of the Civil Rights Movement written by Paula Young Shelton and illustrated by Raul Colon. The book was based off of Paula’s childhood experience with the Civil Rights Movement. Paula was born in New York and moved, with her family, down to Atlanta, Georgia when she was very young so her parents could participate in the Civil Rights Movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Uncle Martin).

I created and shared the following timeline so students could visualize that this devastating part of our history took place a long time ago. It happened long before the students were born. We discussed how it’s important for us to learn our history so the terrible aspects are not repeated.

Students shared how they would have felt if they couldn’t go through this gate (perhaps leading to a playground) because of the color of their skin.

Illustration by Raul Colon

I also prompted students to turn and share how they would have felt if their family wouldn’t get served in a restaurant, even though there were many empty tables, because of the color of their skin. Paula was only four years old when this happened to her and her family. She threw a tantrum which she referred to as her first protest.

Illustration by Raul Colon

We discussed how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great citizen to the United States and dedicated his life to make it so all people were treated the same, regardless of their skin color. Everyone agreed that we can do more to contribute to our community. All students (and teachers) came up with some things they can do to become a better citizen. Older students added a hand emoji into Drawing Pad on their iPad and wrote something specific they can do to become a better citizen of Memorial School and/or Burlington on each finger. Younger students shared their ideas aloud. Some pledges students came up with were having a lemonade stand to donate proceeds to a local animal shelter or cancer research, donating clothes and toys to those in need, visiting and singing to people in nursing and assisted living homes, help older neighbors shovel snow, etc.

Day 68 - Hour of Code - Rachel Small - Memorial School Library/Media Specialist

In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, we are focusing on digital literacy via the Hour of Code in the Memorial Learning Commons.

The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104.

HourofCode.com

Kindergarten and first grade students are participating in Unplugged: Happy Maps (provided by Code.org). They’re learning about algorithms.

Source =  code.org

Mrs. Sullivan working with her kindergarten students.
(She has more patience than any other teacher I have ever observed.)

Mrs. Farrell and a few of her first grade students.

Second and fourth grade students are participating in Unplugged: Graph Paper Programming (provided by Code.org). They’re learning about algorithms and programs.

Source = code.org

Two of Ms. McLaughlin's second grade students.

Mrs. Gonzalez's students.

A few students are struggling with the concepts and I’m trying to push them to have a growth mindset. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this,” they’re being prompted to take a deep breath and say, “I can’t do this, yet.”

These unplugged/off-line coding activities are connected to problem-solving across the curriculum. Most students are having a lot of fun as they learn to code.

Day 65 - Hour of Code - Mrs. Keating - Memorial School Grade 3

This post originally appeared on Mrs. Keating's Blog

This is National Computer Science Week and Mrs. Weldon came in during our Math block to go over what a Computer Programmer does and the language they use to write programs. We participated in The Hour of Code at code.org and wrote code for Minecraft! The students really enjoyed it! There are three different programs they can use on the website that includes Minecraft, Frozen and Star Wars. We told the students that if they have parent permission, they would be able to do this at home. You can do it on a tablet or a computer.  Enjoy!

We used qrafter to scan the website:

Hard at work!

Day 60 - Thank You Memorial - Ms. Conceison - Memorial Elementary Grade 5

 This post first appeared on Ms. Conceison's Blog

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. My father and I spent some of our Thanksgiving Day at the St. Francis House in Boston serving food to those who needed it. I asked my homeroom students to make cards for me to bring. I also reached out to the other teachers and many Memorial students participated. I brought close to 200 cards with me! I set them at each place setting and everyone who read them had a smile on his/her face. I promised one man that I would share his message. He told me to make sure the children knew that they touched the hearts of many homeless people. He went on to say that reading the cards was better than the meal. 

Many of the people we served took the cards with them. Thanks to everyone who participated in this! Your small act of creating something with construction paper and a simple "Happy Thanksgiving" 

made a very big impact.

St. Francis House tweeted "thank you" to all of you! 

The tables were all set with your lovely cards!