Our first graders sure know a lot about Chinese New Year! We wanted our students to be able to synthesize what they've learned, and even more, we hoped that they could gain confidence as student leaders...so we turned them into the teachers!
Students worked with Mrs. Jiang and Mrs. Jackson, our media specialist, to create Chinese New Year presentations using VoiceThread, a digital presentation tool. This project helped our students study a wide range of Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards. Students practiced the following skills (and more!):
Research: finding facts, synthesizing facts with background knowledge
Informative writing: introducing a topic, stating several facts about a topic, providing closure on a topic
Public speaking,
Using technology as a communication tool
Digital citizenship
To get started, students worked with Mrs. Jackson, our media specialist, to research Chinese New Year and add to their already impressive knowledge. After learning many new and interesting facts, students formed presentation teams. Each team selected their own topics and drew a storyboard to map out their presentation. Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Jiang helped students think about the topics on which they could become experts.
Then we got down to writing! Students had to think hard about what makes an interesting introduction and a strong conclusion. After Mrs. Jiang modeled these two parts of writing, students brainstormed different ways they could introduce and conclude their own topics. They worked with students who had chosen the same topics to write these portions of their presentation, and also to share facts and support each other in the writing process. Mrs. Gondek and Mrs. Jackson were instrumental in helping students organize their thoughts and turn them into truly excellent first grade writing.
Finally it was time to get into the actual "making" of our presentations! Mr. Brown, our technology specialist, helped Mrs. Jiang and Mrs. Jackson learn to use VoiceThread and got the iPads set up so we could use them to make our presentations. Students uploaded their pictures to VoiceThread, rearranged their pictures to match their storyboards, and worked together to record their presentations. Students edited the name and descriptions of their VoiceThreads and shared them with the teachers.
Now its time to celebrate! We will be sharing our first graders' presentations with the Dual Language kindergartners and possibly other kindergarten and first grade classes so they can learn about Chinese New Year too. And there was one group of people the first graders ESPECIALLY hoped could learn about Chinese New Year from them: their parents!
So, without further ado, here are our first four presentations! Stay tuned for the next two!
Chinese New Year by The Firecracker Girls
This VoiceThread has comments from the kindergartners in the beginning slide. We hope you enjoy hearing what the kindergartners learned from the first graders' excellent presentation!
Chinese New Year by The Dragon Lanterns
Chinese New Year by the Dragon Boys
All About Chinese New Year by the Crazy Rich Lion Dancers
Students worked with Mrs. Jiang and Mrs. Jackson, our media specialist, to create Chinese New Year presentations using VoiceThread, a digital presentation tool. This project helped our students study a wide range of Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards. Students practiced the following skills (and more!):
Research: finding facts, synthesizing facts with background knowledge
Informative writing: introducing a topic, stating several facts about a topic, providing closure on a topic
Public speaking,
Using technology as a communication tool
Digital citizenship
To get started, students worked with Mrs. Jackson, our media specialist, to research Chinese New Year and add to their already impressive knowledge. After learning many new and interesting facts, students formed presentation teams. Each team selected their own topics and drew a storyboard to map out their presentation. Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Jiang helped students think about the topics on which they could become experts.
Then we got down to writing! Students had to think hard about what makes an interesting introduction and a strong conclusion. After Mrs. Jiang modeled these two parts of writing, students brainstormed different ways they could introduce and conclude their own topics. They worked with students who had chosen the same topics to write these portions of their presentation, and also to share facts and support each other in the writing process. Mrs. Gondek and Mrs. Jackson were instrumental in helping students organize their thoughts and turn them into truly excellent first grade writing.
Finally it was time to get into the actual "making" of our presentations! Mr. Brown, our technology specialist, helped Mrs. Jiang and Mrs. Jackson learn to use VoiceThread and got the iPads set up so we could use them to make our presentations. Students uploaded their pictures to VoiceThread, rearranged their pictures to match their storyboards, and worked together to record their presentations. Students edited the name and descriptions of their VoiceThreads and shared them with the teachers.
Now its time to celebrate! We will be sharing our first graders' presentations with the Dual Language kindergartners and possibly other kindergarten and first grade classes so they can learn about Chinese New Year too. And there was one group of people the first graders ESPECIALLY hoped could learn about Chinese New Year from them: their parents!
So, without further ado, here are our first four presentations! Stay tuned for the next two!
Chinese New Year by The Firecracker Girls
This VoiceThread has comments from the kindergartners in the beginning slide. We hope you enjoy hearing what the kindergartners learned from the first graders' excellent presentation!
Chinese New Year by The Dragon Lanterns
Chinese New Year by the Dragon Boys
All About Chinese New Year by the Crazy Rich Lion Dancers
