Expository Text in Kindergarten

Well we just finished our first week back after spring break!  We began our unit on expository text and writing. "All about"  books as the kids call them.  I started out by telling the kids we were going to choose a topic together and that we were going to learn how to research that topic using books, experts, and of course technology.  My class immediately chose sharks as their topic.  We then decided that we needed more shark books than I had available in my classroom.  We learned how to use our online library catalog to choose and order books from our school library.  The next step was to choose three questions that we had about sharks.  Our questions were "What body parts do sharks have?"  "What kinds of sharks are there?" and "What do sharks eat?"  Each day we read books and looked on various internet sites such as Nat Geo Kids, Discovery Education, and even the Wild Kratts from PBS kids  to answer our questions.  We charted and compiled all of our information.  We also "consulted" some experts by visiting the live webcams from The Monterey Bay Aquarium.  They have a fantastic site and each day you can watch a live diver in the tank who will talk about all the different fish.  Toward the end of the week,  I modeled and demonstrated how to turn their research into "All About"  books.  The coolest product that we made was using the site Thinglink.  I signed up for a free educator account and then helped small groups create a Thinglink report.  Check out one below.

Pet Peeve! I don't have that book!

One of the biggest pet peeves that I have during the school year is finding a great lesson from a colleague or a resource and  then not having the book that goes with it. I have an extensive classroom library (I think I am up to about 800 books) but somehow I don't always have the book that I want or need.  Sure,  I borrow some from our school library but sometimes it is already checked out or they don't have it.  I also spend a ton of money each year buying books to "complete" my collection.    I have used some sites in the past like discovery education and storylineonline.  Sometimes, I have time to scan books and I have also used my elmo to project books that I do have up onto my smartboard.  This year, over the summer, I have decided to look for some of my needed books on internet video.  I started by making a you tube playlist for each workshop.  I wanted to share my reader's workshop and writer's workshop playlists for the first grading period.  Hope you enjoy!

Ellen

Cool way to publish kids' writing

Woo Hoo!  I finally got the flip books made!  It turned out to be my phone pdf scanner that was the problem. Once I scanned them at school... no problem.  They turned out sooooo cute!  The kids were tickled to see them.  I ended up using flipsnack and it was super easy. Let me know what you think.

Ugggg... Technology frustrations!

Ok.  So here is the frustrating part about technology...  Sometimes it doesn't work like you want it to!  I had this great idea of taking my students' non-fiction "question/answer" books and turning them into flippable pdf books.  They worked sooooooo hard on them and did a fantastic job.  They made question answer books titled, What do plants need? .   They finished today and I tried to upload one of them to two different websites, flipsnack, and youblisher.   I haven't been able to get either one to work. Bummer.  I am sure that it is user error and that I will figure it out but I hate to make my little ones wait.  I promise to keep everyone posted!  Wish me luck.