Ending Your Year in Style with Student Presentations

Hi y'all!  My favorite thing to wrap up the school year with is research.  I LOVE having my kids research.  There is something so magical about kids sharing out facts that they read on their own.  It's so powerful y'all!

This is my second year to do a big bird research unit with my second graders and it's been a HUGE hit both years.  The first thing I do is stock up my library with different bird nonfiction books and the kids pick out a bird that they are interested in researching.  I also print out articles for them to read.  I was smarter this year and saved them, so it will save me a TON of time next year. 

Next, I teach them the steps of researching and then I gradually release them.  I teach them to ask questions first and then read to find the answer to their question.  We use sticky notes to collect all of our research.  We wrote the questions on the front of the sticky note and then when we found the answer, we wrote it under the sticky note.

 

After they have collected information about their bird, they start to draft out their own nonfiction book.  We worked on five headings for our books...

• Appearance
• Habitat
• Diet
• Adaptations
• Interesting Facts

Here are three of my kids first page for the diet heading...

We also tie in nonfiction features.  See lots of labels!!

After we finished publishing our nonfiction books, the kids created their cover by drawing the bird's habitat on a piece of white cardstock.  The kids decided that the best covers would be if we didn't leave any white areas on the front.  I agree!  They turned out a-MAY-zing!!

To make our research super fun to present, we also made some bird masks to wear during the presentations.  It was my first time to do some directed drawing and I think they turned out great!!  I showed them how to draw the head (we just drew a rainbow arch) and then I modeled how to draw some of the different bird beaks.  They decided to cut out the eyes on their own and my peacock decided to add feathers to her mask.

The bird masks are a scarlet macaw, red tailed hawk, peacock, and toucan.

Do you want your kids to write their own nonfiction research book to wrap up your year?  You can grab the free template in my store by clicking on the cover image below.

Thanks for reading all about our bird research!

Technology Tip: Using Google Slides to Create Presentations

Hi y'all!  This is Stephanie from The Learning Chambers.  I truly heart using Technology in my classroom!  So this month, I was super excited that I would get to post about my favorite thing!!  The only hard thing was deciding what to share in this post.  I finally decided to post about my kids new favorite thing....using Google Slides.

My second graders love creating presentations, but they often get bored doing the same old poster or foldable presentations.  Google Slides is a simple and effective way to help your students create an online presentation. 

Here are 3 tips that will help make Google Slides work in an elementary classroom...

Google Slides Tip #1:  Make it easy for students to log in.

My first tip is to make it super easy for your students to log in.  I collected paint card samples from Lowe's and wrote my students' log in information on the cards.  I then placed them on a ring and now my students can use the cards to help them log in.

Since my school district is a Google Apps district, each of my students have their own unique log in and password.  If your students don't have their own email address to setup a Google account, I would suggest to create a class account that the students can use to create presentations in Google Slides.

Google Slides Tip #2:  Have your students become the teacher.

When it comes to technology and elementary students, I feel like I'm constantly repeating myself and reteaching the process and steps.  One thing that has worked well for my class, is to teach in small groups and then have the small groups of students become the teacher.  When I introduced Google Slides to my second graders, I met with a couple of small groups to teach them how to use Google Slides.

I taught a small group how to create a presentation...

How to change the background...

And how to add pictures and text...

Then, the small groups help teach the other students how to use Google Slides.  The kids love teaching others, and it is fun to watch when they discover how to use some of the more advanced features of Google Slides on their own!

Google Slides Tip #3: Use comments to guide and give feedback on student's presentations.

The last fun tip about Google Slides is that it is super easy to leave your students comments about their presentation.  When my students finish their presentation, they email the link to me by clicking on the share button.  I did have to teach them how to share it with me and give me the rights to comment on the presentation.

Just click on comments in the top right corner and then click on add comment.  You can quickly type in a little comment to help guide your student to help them complete their presentation.  They love the immediate feedback!

I hope you found my tips to making Google Slides work in your classroom helpful.  Do you use Google Slides with your elementary students?  I would love to hear how you make it work for your classroom.  Leave me some comment love :).