Camino Real 1st grade and 3rd grade had a great time participating in the Snowman Exchange with Science Hall.  Each class did a great job of creating their snowmen just from awesome directions.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Bish’s 1st Graders:

Garza’s 3rd Graders:

Ms. Hernandez and Ms. Garza’s 3rd grade classes participated in a videoconference with NASA on October 26th and 27th.  They learned about “Our Magnificent Sun” and “Our Solar Neighborhood”.

Three students from Ms. Arriaga attempt to pet Oliver

The CRES 3rd grade teachers participating in the “Prove It” videoconference project could not have foreseen the excitement & nervousness that would arise from the mystery animal’s visit, “Oliver”.  As soon as “Oliver” arrived on the Camino Real campus, he was definitely a topic of conversation.  “What is that?’”, “Where did he come from?” , and “Where’s he going?” were common questions from students as they saw him being transported in the hallways.   Ms. Arriaga’s students had the following to share about the experience of taking observations of Oliver and then heading to the computer lab to research more about what type of animal he could be.

“It was interesting because we got to learn about more than one kind of animal. Each group member got to research a different animal and was in charge of a different link or website. It was a lot  of information to look at and that’s why we decided to  split responsibilities. It felt like we were scientists because we were trying to figure out what Oliver was and we had to first make predictions then research to make sure. We each took notes to find the best match.”

I’m sure we’ll be looking out to see if “Oliver” gets on Twitter.  If he does, then he’ll definitely have three classes at CRES “following” him. 

A student example of the Weather graph

Students in Ms. Bish’s class took the opportunity to display the data  they collected about the weather in a graph created in MaxCount.  As part of the “Weather Share” collaborative project, Ms. Bish’s class has been observing the weather and posting their data on a wiki to share with their cooperating class in Pennslyvania. Participating in the project is enabling the students to incorporate their activities with their visits to the campus computer lab.

Mrs. Bessey’s Life Skills students have full-heartedly embraced a new technology resource in the classroom, the Smartboard. Since acquiring this interactive technology tool, Mrs. Bessey’s students have had the opportunity to engage in various web-based activities.  Visitors to the class will be able to witness the students’ enthusiasic attitudes when working on the SmartBoard.   Way to go!!