Storytelling & Coding with Scratch Jr.

As a technology coach and former Grade 1 teacher, I’ve got a few longtime favourite coding apps for young students and the Scratch Jr. app is definitely one of them!  I appreciate that Scratch Jr. offers students the opportunity to learn basic programming while also embracing storytelling.  

Ms. Blair’s Grade 3 & 4 class at Strathclair School has been working on developing coding skills through unplugged activities and programming in Kodable. This class has learned about sequencing, loops, conditions and functions as they complete the coding challenges in Kodable and learn to code the Wonder Workshop Dash robots, so they brought lots of prior knowledge into this activity.

When I visited their class recently, I introduced students to the Scratch Jr. app and then they tried some of the coding activities from the teacher resources on the Scratch Jr. website https://www.scratchjr.org/teach/activities

For our next session, I explained to students that we’d be using our skills in summarizing, sequencing and retelling to write a program that retold a story.  We read “Up, Up, Down” by Robert Munsch.  Pairs of students used a graphic organizer to identify important story elements for the beginning, middle and end of the story.  Learners identified key events, settings, characters and phrases. 

Next, I asked students to use the Scratch Jr. app to program their retelling in 3-4 scenes/slides.  They were asked to include the important characters, events, settings and phrases from the beginning, middle and end of the story. The Scratch Jr. app works so well for this type of learning activity because it offers different characters and settings to choose from and customize.  Learners used the block-based coding to add actions to the story.  They added text or speech bubbles to share important phrases that came from the story.  

Supporting Storytelling with Tech Infusion at BES

What happens when you mix a great book with a little bit of technology? You get a classroom full of empowered storytellers! The students at BES have been using technology to share their voices while building important literacy skills. Check out how these storytelling projects allow even our youngest learners to become published authors and digital narrators.

The Grade 3s at BES read "You Hold Me Up" by Monique Gray Smith and used the story as inspiration for writing their own book about showing kindness and supporting others.  Students brainstormed ideas together as a class and then each created their own page for the book.  We used the Book Creator app to put together our pages and some students also added their voice recording.  

The Kindergarten class at BES used technology to support their storytelling as well.   The Kindergarten’s read The Mitten by Jan Brett.  Then, we challenged them to retell the story by sharing a comment/phrase each character/animal might say.  This can be tricky for young learners as they have to shift to taking the character’s perspective, rather than just retelling the events of the story.  This capable group of Kindergartens was up to the task and had fun writing a script of what each character/animal might say.  

BES Kindergarten script for the characters from The Mitten

Next, we used the ChatterPix Kid app to record their lines from the script and make it look like each character was talking.   We used animal images sourced from Pixabay.  Check out the fun retelling video below:

Projects shared with permission.

The Wild Robot: A Tech-Infused Novel Study with Ms. Lussier's Class

Ms. Jlee Lussier’s Grade 4 class at MPS read The Wild Robot by Peter Brown and they’ve done so many exciting learning activities connected to this awesome novel!  This novel study has become an annual tradition for Ms. Lussier’s class and I was excited to be invited to join in on some of the activities again this year.  I had the chance to visit this class for 3 sessions to help them learn about programming and how technology works!

Ms. Lussier challenged her students to create their own robot designs using recycled materials.  In our first session together, the Grade 4s learned to program the micro:bits.  Each student successfully wrote a program to display an image and a string of text on their micro:bit.  For example, students may have programmed a smiley face to appear when button A is pressed and programmed “Hello my name is ______” when button B is pressed.  Students will attach their micro:bits to their robot designs so viewers can interact with the micro:bits when the robots are put on display in the school.  

The micro:bit has 25 programmable LED lights. 

In our second session, students learned to program the Wonder Workshop robots.  Students completed different programming challenges working with a partner or small group.  They learned that the robots measure distance in centimeters and practiced programming lights, sounds and movement.  

The Dash robots from Wonder Workshop are one of my favourite and most-used tools in my tech kit as a K-12 technology coach. 

Students desiged a map to represent the island which the story took place on.  As a class, they chose key locations that were significant to the story and then students worked together to create a large map in 9 sections that was taped together. 

When the map was completed during our third session together, we photographed it and displayed it on the interactive whiteboard.  Students worked together to measure the distance between key locations on the map and we added these measurements to the map, which remained on display for the next part of our activity.  There was lots of great math practice included in this activity!

Students worked with partners to choose locations on the map and planned the steps (on paper) to program the robot to move around the map, including measurements for how far the robot would need to travel between locations.

Finally, using their planning, students wrote a program to move their robot around the map to their planned locations.  Each team tried out their program and then made adjustments if needed.  Students were all able to successfully program the robot to move along their planned path on the map and we celebrated as each team completed this fun challenge!

Thanks to Ms. Lussier and her class for inviting me to join in this amazing learning experience.  I enjoyed watching students engaged in these fun activities, which allowed them to build important skills like communication, collaboration, persistence and problem solving!

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Outdoor Education Learning Extension with Minecraft EDU: Arbour Build Challenge

 I recently had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Carla Gambler's Grade 4 class at Waywayseecappo Community School.  The Grade 4s had participated in an animal scavenger hunt for their outdoor education class, which involved them locating animal decoys around their school grounds and learning the Ojibway names for each animal.  

Mrs. Gambler extended the learning activity by developing a Minecraft build challenge for her class.  Students were tasked with the challenge of re-creating their school arbour in Minecraft. The arbour is located on the school grounds and outdoor education classes are held inside. Check out the screen recordings and screenshots below from Grade 4 students to learn more about the outdoor education activity and the Minecraft EDU project.

Thank you to Mrs. Gambler and her class for inviting me to view their creations and showcase their work here to inspire others!

 

The arbour on school grounds,
which students were asked to re-create in Minecraft. 

During outdoor education, students were challenged to find the animal decoys above around their school grounds and record the animal name in Ojibway.  

Mrs. Gambler's instructions for the Minecraft build challenge

Note:  Work has been shared with permission.  Thank you to the contributing teacher and students!

Truth & Reconciliation Monuments with Minecraft Education Edition

 I've been working with Miss. Baker's Grade 5 and 6 class this year to integrate Minecraft EDU with their social studies learning.  In our latest activity, students were challenged to build a monument in Minecraft that represents moving forward with Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.  This learning activity was inspired by the Logics Academy activity: Changemakers of Canadian History.

The students worked in teams to brainstorm possible Monuments and discuss the meanings of the symbols/objects they might construct.  Each team decided on one monument to build and then worked collaboratively to create it in Minecraft.  Students added a sign to explain their monument and took screenshots or screen recordings to share their work.  

Some of the groups chose animals from the 7 teachings, which they'd learned about before.  Other groups designed original Monuments.  

Thanks to the Grade 5 and 6 students for sharing their work to be featured here for others to see! Not all groups had permission to share, but there is a great selection here to check out.  

Student Soundwaves: The Park West Podcast

Welcome to Student Soundwaves:The Park West Podcast! I’m Mrs. Leah Obach and I’m proud to launch this podcast to showcase our students’ skills and ideas.  I’ve been a teacher in Park West School Division since 2009.  Currently, I work as the Literacy with ICT Teacher Leader, which basically means I’m a technology teacher.  I work in schools around the division to support students and teachers with using technology.

I believe that technology gives us the power to create and connect.  Through this podcasting project, students have the opportunity to create their own episode to share their ideas, build important skills and use their creativity.  Thanks to technology, we can connect with you to showcase these podcast episodes and give students the chance to share their work with a wider audience.

Our podcast features student-created episodes from the talented learners in Park West School Division.  This podcast was designed to amplify the voices of our extraordinary students.  Each episode is a unique journey, showcasing the skills and creativity of the students who created it. Get ready to be inspired, entertained, and enlightened as you dive into a variety of episodes exploring different topics and themes.  

You can expect a variety of episodes, including different themes and featuring students from different grade levels.  Now, pick an episode and get ready to be inspired, entertained, and enlightened!

Find our podcast on Spotify.

Students sharing their work on this platform have completed divisional permission forms and also given their consent to share their work. Students have done their best to present accurate information on the topics they've chosen and to cite the sources they've consulted when creating a fact-based episode. 

Sketchnoting

I enjoy trying new things in my teaching practice and one of the new things I've been working on recently is using sketchnoting in education.  I've taken a few great workshops about sketchnoting and I finally felt ready to try teaching a sketchnoting workshop for students this fall.  Using what I've learned and some resources from educator Jen Giffen, I offered an Introduction to Sketchnoting workshop for 3 different middle years classes who were taking part in Global Read Aloud.  Sketchnoting offered these students a unique way of capturing their ideas about their Global Read Aloud book.  

Check out some of the sketchnotes students created.  (Students have given permission to share their work.)