Thursday, April 29, 2010

Fun with Google Earth

My school has been intentionally moving towards being more globally connected and aware. For several years, my Bible classes have been praying for a different country of the world each week. Last year, we began looking at each country on Google Earth. Using my SMARTboard, we "take off" from PDS (our school, which I have marked) and "fly" to the country of the week. The boys have become accustomed to looking for certain indicators as to what the needs might be in the country. For instance, they look to see whether the country looks mostly brown or mostly green, and then ask questions about whether clean water and food are scarce. You can add layers to see specific things. When the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile were in the news, we added the earthquake indicator layer, which shows where earthquakes have occurred. We did the same with volcanoes after the Icelandic volcano. We use the 360 degree pictures to "look around", too. I do recommend checking out the things you plan to show before sharing them in class. One of the YouTube videos I clicked on was Uncle Harry on vacation after a few margarita's! Here are some links to get you started. The possibilities are endless!
If you have used Google Earth in your classroom, share your thoughts in the comments.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Google Story

You may have seen the Google super bowl ad Parisian love. Now you can make your own Google Search story. Click here to get started. Here is mine- Searching...
Enjoy!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Names of Jesus part 2

As promised, here are some of the second grade cinquains on the Trinity. (they are not cinquains in the strictest sense of the word, just 5 lines with a one word, two words, three words, four words, one word structure)
I think they are beautiful! Great job, guys!

Jesus
The King
Lord of All
Light of the World
Emmanuel
- Will M.

God
Powerful, wise
The Holy light
King of the World
Jehovah
-Edwin R.

Spirit
The teacher
Came at Pentecost
It is the gift
Fire
-Jay C.

Jesus
The Alpha
He's the Omega
The Son of God
Healer
- Will D.

God
The king
He is everywhere
The Lord, my healer
Creator
- Charlie S.

Spirit
The dove
Breath of God
Lives in our Hearts
Flame
- Jack F.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Names of Jesus

My Second grade classes have been studying the Trinity in our Bible class. As part of our study, we looked up names and descriptions for Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. I put out on Twitter a request for favorite names for Jesus found in the Bible. The boys in my classes were thrilled when results came in from all over the country (although we were hoping for some from other countries as well!) We used Wallwisher to post those names. You can see that wall here.
Then I created a wall for each of my four classes where the boys could add their own names/descriptions. They were so engaged and excited! Their posts were visible on the SMARTboard in my classroom. (I moderated and each post had to be approved) Here are their Wallwisher boards. 2A 2B 2C 2D
We are using these to help us write Cinquains about each of the three persons of the Trinity. I will post some of those next week when we finish the assignment.