Summer Superheroes (Reblog)
This week, I am focusing on providing resources to “Squash the Summer Slide” as ReadWriteThink puts it. Parents often ask me at this time of year for ideas to keep my students challenged over the summer, and here is one that would be great for students who enjoy writing. 
Summer Superheroes is a “Parent & After School Resource” on ReadWriteThink. It offers an interesting twist to the concept of creating your own superhero by challenging the author to invent a superhero whose powers are somehow dependent on the warmest season of the year. The detailed instructions for motivating the child and for helping him or her to develop the story include interactive resources on the ReadWriteThink site. This would be a fun idea to share with parents, or to use in the last month of school – when everyone’s mind is on summer anyway!
Video Writing Prompts
I found out about the Video Writing Prompts site from one of my new, favorite blogs, Technology Tailgate. Video Writing Prompts is part of teachhub.com. What’s nice about this resource is that it has done all of the work for teachers by collecting the videos and offering thought-provoking questions for different sets of grade levels. Many of the videos are movie trailers, and not all of them would work with elementary kids. But if you click on the link, you will see the appropriate grade levels and questions. (As always with videos, however, please preview before you show your class.) I can think of some higher level questions to go with some of the videos, but the fact that they are already curated and have some suggestions gives me a great jumping off point.
Dream Team
Angela Maiers, an educator/consultant/writer whom I greatly admire, has mentioned on her blog the idea of having a “Dream Team” – a group of people who you would like to emulate. In her book, The New Habitudes, she also mentions this, and offers a free reproducible here for conjuring up your personal Dream Team members.
I loved this idea, and mentioned it to my 5th graders, who also seemed excited about the concept. Then I thought of a way they could present their Dream Teams to the class using their current favorite technology tool – the iPad.
The students chose 4 character traits that they believe to be the most important, and then 4 people from history who exhibited those traits. After researching some specifics, they developed “Dream Team Talk Show Scripts” to use with the full version of Puppet Pals. The full version has a cast of talk show characters, and also allows you to create your own puppets from photos. (Puppet Pals 2 is even better – but we haven’t been able to upgrade yet!)
Here are the planning sheets we used:
Design Your Dream Team Talk Show Script
The entire class is not finished yet, as the students need to rotate through our iPads, but you can see some of them on our class blog by clicking here.
Rules of Storytelling
photo credit: World Bank Photo Collection via photopin cc
I recently saw this article on Boing Boing that shares a tweet from Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist, in which she relates the 22 Rules of Storytelling. I am regularly trying to encourage my students to do #12: ”Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.” That rule could apply to many enterprises, not just storytelling. Perhaps if my students see that it is advice from the studio that produced Up, they will find it more trustworthy!
One of my favorite bloggers, Sonya Terborg, also posted about this list. The following day, she produced her own, modified, version, called “16 Rules for Sharing Your Story”. She made an excellent graphic to accompany it. You can download the PDF here. I think it would be an excellent poster to put in your classroom, or to print for students to use as a binder or notebook cover.
Whose Words Inspire You?
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8th, CNN posted a site where you could choose an inspirational quote by a famous woman, select a background from three choices, and share it via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or Tumblr. I spent quite a bit of time reading the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, Marie Curie, and Maya Angelou, and nodding in agreement.
I have a Pinterest board of Favorite Quotations that I will often send my students to as a resource for various projects. The ease of CNN’s site allowed me to add a few more to my collection. If your students have access to any of the social networks, they could share some of their own. (There were a couple of “less serious” quotes, such as from Zsa Zsa Gabor, so you will need to take the age of your students into account before referring them to this resource.)
If you do Socratic Dialogue in your class, many of these would be good jumping off points for discussion. You can also make connections by asking the students to think of other people that would identify with the quote, or even fictional characters who could have easily spoken those words.
Crossword Puzzle Maker
For many years, I have been using Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker.com to create different types of puzzles, such as Fallen Phrases and Cryptograms. I recently found another site that generates puzzles, “Crossword Puzzle Maker.” I tested it out this weekend by making this puzzle to accompany the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, which my 5th graders are currently reading. I was pleased with how easy the site is to use, as well as the variety of ways to share the resulting puzzle (printable html, printable pdf, etc…) and the answer key. This would be a great site to share with students so they can create their own puzzles to show what they have learned.
Puppet Pals 2
I have posted before about the iPad app, Puppet Pals, here and here. Yesterday, I was reading a post by Lisa Johnson at techchef4u.com, and saw that there is a brand new Puppet Pals 2 app that was just released in January. So, of course, I had to try it out. Just like the original version, there is a free app, and you can also buy an “All Access Pass” for $4.99. Because I downloaded it to a school iPad, I stuck with the free version. Here are the new features as described in the iTunes store:
• Characters walk and talk!
• Use your own photos for heads!
• Fully pose-able limbs!
• Ride a wide variety of vehicles (camels, giraffes, planes, cars and more)
• Tons of musical soundtracks to set the mood
• Explore different terrains and settings
• Experience low gravity on the moon
So far, I have found that the free version does not allow you to add your own photos (you can add that feature for $1.99, which might be well worth it – allowing you to create as many of your own puppets from photos as you like), and the characters (the set of 3 “Pure Genius” characters – Einstein, Van Gogh, and Twain – costs .99), rides, and locations are limited. The Puppet Shop is fun to look through, though…
One of the best new features is that, if you touch a character while recording, his or her mouth will move along with your words. The movement of limbs is a vast improvement, too.
Be forewarned – your students will want to fully explore this before actually doing an assignment with it. They will need at least 15 minutes to giggle over combining different character heads with different bodies, such as Shakespeare’s head on a ballerina’s body. And they will probably want to play every music sample, too.
Another thing I like about Puppet Pals 2 is the section that is included for Parents and Teachers with suggestions, tips and tricks.
Of course I wish the free version offered all of the bells and whistles, but I have to admit that there is a lot that can be done even with the limited resources on this version. If your students produce any great samples, I would love to see them! E-mail me at teichh@neisd.net.
Depth and Complexity
If you are familiar with Sandra Kaplan’s icons for Depth and Complexity, and try to use them in your classroom, you may like this treasure trove of resources from Mrs. Lee in Cajon Valley School District. It includes Powerpoints that explain the icons, PDF’s of frames and task cards, and posters. I really like the packet of Literature Circle Frames, created by David Chung, which has great roles for students, a rubric, and wonderful tasks using frames for each roles. These really take the students’ comprehension to a higher level.
You can find another great tool for designing lessons with Depth and Complexity here, and you can order materials here.
Also, you can see Depth and Complexity in action at Not Just Child’s Play.
Books About Being Different
I originally found this list at KB Connected, along with several other lists of books on different themes. Some of the other themes that might be of interest to readers of this blog are: Books About Fine Art, Books About Math, Books About Strong Girls, and Books for Field Trips. All of these lists are archived on the site, “No Time for Flashcards.” It looks like most of them are picture books, but don’t forget that picture books can often generate excellent discussions in the later grades.
Along with the mainstream books on the list of “Books About Being Different“, such as Todd Parr’s It’s Okay to Be Different, there were quite a few that I have never seen. I am looking forward to exploring some of them – particularly Moosetache, as mustaches are all the rage with the tweens right now (according to my daughter and her friends)!
For a very small smattering of other suggestions of books for gifted kids, you can check out my Pinterest board here. I plan to add many more to it soon!
Painted Pie
“Painted Pie” is a video you will probably want to view more than once. The post-Impressionist artwork alone is stunning. But, even better, is the sweet story of a homeless boy who is searching for a human being to connect with him. The moral of the story, that you never know how many lives you can touch with small kindnesses, reminds me of another couple of videos I have featured on here, “The Kindness Boomerang” and “Monsterbox“. The film was created by Havish Thota, Kudzai Gumbo, Mehdi Farrokhtala, and Abdulrahman Alansari. It has already won several awards. The accompanying soundtrack, “Little Person” by Jon Brion is a masterpiece, as well.
In the classroom, I would, of course, ask the students to verbalize the moral of the story. You could ask them to retell this silent movie in their own words. Before even showing the movie, you could play the soundtrack, and ask the students to come up with stories that would go with the music. If you are studying art, you might see if they could write a similar story based on another work of art. Random Acts of Kindness Week is fast approaching (February 11th), and this would be a good way to introduce it.
I found this video on the “Kuriositas” blog. Though the “Kuriositas” blog is not meant for a young audience, I encourage adults to check it out, as it features many interesting videos, pictures, and stories.
Here is the link to the video in case the embedded version does not show below: http://vimeo.com/57146618
Painted Pie from Mehdi Farrokhtala on Vimeo.
Follow Me On Pinterest
Engaging Materials
