Mrs. Hektoen's Classroom: 2014

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Word Party Pictures from Pence Elementary

Below are pictures from our Word Parties. 4th graders looked like Global Warming words and 3rd graders looked like Endangered African Animal words. All enjoyed the party, and all are talking about synonyms and antonyms for all the words. Love it!

Pence 3rd grade words: poacher, ban, mottled, canine, silverback, cloud forest!

Pence 4th grade words: Non-renewable resources, solar energy, photovoltaic panels, alpine, tundra, oil, coal, hydroelectric power and one more I can't remember right now.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Endangered African Animal Resources

Beautiful gorilla!

In class we used a link from Great Prairie AEA called Power Knowledge: Life Science. The log-in is 31fairfield. Password: gpaea.
African Wild Dog

Mountain Gorillas , The Great Gorilla Run

Rhinos, San Diego Zoo

African Elephant (SanDiego Zoo) Elephant Orphanage in Kenya

Cheetah (SanDiego Zoo)

Zebras: San Diego Zoo

Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday, May 16, 2014

Just a Few Pictures (K - 1st)

These pictures are random. Too good to delete.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

3rd Grade Flight Field Trip

We reviewed principles of flight and forces of flight before creating kites. Then we tried to fly them...not successfully exactly. Had fun anyway. Even in the rain for the Washington field trip.
Pence enjoyed sunshine but not much wind.
Enjoy the pictures.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

4th Grade Alien Species Field Trip

We did our best to rid Jefferson County Park of garlic mustard on our field trips this week and last. Pence and Libertyville kids found a lot of garlic mustard and pulled until the rain started. Then we dashed to the Nature Center. Washington kids lucked out because we never found a lot of mustard in one place. In the meantime, we appreciated spring at the park and viewed many birds and wildflowers. Many thanks to Therese for all the fun we enjoyed!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

3rd Graders to Study Flight 2014

Digital creations beg to be shared! I copied and pasted my lesson plans for flight into Tagxedo and created this visual. Students will be able to make their own word clouds soon. In addition to folding paper airplanes, making papercopters and hoopsters, and researching famous flights or aviators, we will visit Jefferson County Park to see Therese. Pence 3rd is Friday, April 11 from 9 - noon and Washington 3rd is Monday, April 14 from 9 - noon.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

4th Grade Bridges, Cities, and Olympics

High ability kids love choices and open-ended projects. They all seemed passionate about their learning and enjoyed sharing their projects with the class. Here are pictures and some insightful reflections written when the project was complete.

Monday, March 17, 2014

1st Grade Inventors

3rd Grade Inventors

3rd graders excelled in creating their own inventions to make the world a better place. They demonstrated creative qualities like: brainstorming, originality of ideas, intrinsic motivation and persistence. Here are the names of recently created inventions:

Pence 3rd Grade:
Moon Football - Andrew
Light Bulb on a Stick - Ryan
Dog Picker Upper - Erin
Phone Case Smoke Detector - Olivia
CPhone Plane 83 - Dumo
The Frankenbot - Josh and Dillan

Washington 3rd Grade:
Portable Swimming Blocks - Max and Tate
The Pet Feeling Monitor - Sara and Ivy
Sketch-Pro - Emily
Prosthetic Limb Dispenser - Alison
The Duplimatic Generator - Dustin

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Inventing Games and Information

How exciting it is to learn about inventing, inventions, and inventors? Very! Just ask kids in grades kindergarten to third grade what they think. Here are key concepts:

inventions have played a vital role throughout history
inventing is a creative and collaborative process
people invent for many reasons.

Here is a great link for learning about inventions, etc.
Kid Info.
Here is a fun game to learn simple and compound machines:
Edheads.
Another fun site with inventing games:
Lemelson Center's Inventing Playhouse.
The Daily Set Puzzle Online.
Finally, logic games: Thinkfun. I like Rush Hour.

That's all for now. I will update as we continue with our study.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Washington 3rd Grade Projects

Time to celebrate! Students present their final products. Choice played a big part in how they shared their learning: posters, models, and a skit.
Here are pictures of the students and their project products.

Ivy's poster: Parts of the Brain

Alison's poster: 5 Reasons to Love Iowa

Dustin: Reader's Theater about Typhoon Haiyan

Emily's poster: Which is Better, Ruby or Sapphire?

Sara's Poster: Is George Washington the Best President?

Tate's Poster: 5 Reasons to Love Wisconsin

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Washington 2nd Grade

My goal is for your student to be a learner who is curious, always learning, and collaborates.
Now it's time to celebrate! Students presented their final products for their Independent Investigations.

Lucy's VoiceThread Link reading a story she wrote.

Cooper presenting PowerPoint on Coral Reef

Benett explaining his filter invention for the sea turtle

First Grade Projects

My goal is for your student to be a learner who is curious, always learning, and collaborates.

Now it's time to celebrate! Students presented their final products for their Independent Investigations.
Here are pictures of students presenting.

Here's a link to VoiceThread where Lily describes what she learned about Killer Whales.

Pence 3rd Grade Projects

Now it's time to celebrate! Students presented their final products for their Independent Investigations. Choice played a big part in how they shared their learning: posters, models, skits, a comic strip and a video.
You can view The Andrew Show by clicking on this link to VoiceThread. The boys interview Bobby the Brain. Click on the bottom of the video to make it play. Be patient. There are 2 parts to the video.

Below are pictures of students presenting.