Since January, students have been feverishly working to explore and create in SCRATCH. Animations, interactive art, and games are just a few of the project categories students have focused on.  As soon as they are completed, I’ll be posting links to the galleries highlighting the projects directly on the SCRATCH website. Learn more by visiting http://scratch.mit.edu/

5th graders have been working on the annual Gym Show here at FFES. Be sure to read all about their experiences here or on their class pages!

For my first lesson with the 5th graders, I’m having the students create a wordsplash about themselves using WORDLE. It’s a fun online application where you can paste or type in text and then work with fonts and color to personalize the wordsplash. Students are not allowed to save their splash or browse through the gallery while at school. We’re simply creating and printing in the lab. Here’s a sample of a wordsplash I created using WORDLE with the RSS feed from this blog:

You can’t save any of the wordles by clicking “FILE” and “SAVE” but you can do a print screen and then copy into a picture editing program and save that way. This is a really fun tool that I can imagine being used with spelling or vocabulary words, famous historical figure names and so much more! Thanks to J. Colby for suggesting this great resource!

It’s wonderful to be back to school after summer break. I’ve begun to meet with my classes and we’re excited to start working to integrate technology within their curriculum. I hope to build upon the lessons I developed last year and, if the students’ reactions are any indication, anything using the iPods and voice recorders will be a big hit!! I’m also eager to try to incorporate web 2.0 tools into my lessons. So, stay tuned!

We’ve finally added a podcast from room 5G to this blog! After much editing and a lot of hard work, the first group of students in 5G created an original podcast detailing what’s been going on in their classroom. Enjoy!

The fifth grade classes are finishing up their first podcasts and preparing for online publishing. Ms. B’s students were the first to finish and you can now listen to the students share their thoughts about 5th grade at FFES. The other classes should have their first podcasts online within the next two weeks so check back often!

Welcome to the FFES grade 5 blog! Here you’ll find online projects from each of the classes at FFES. As we explore the world of podcasting, you’ll get a chance to listen to the students share their creations here.