Lois Lowry

An Interview with a famous author Lois Lowry!

FrontPage

Directions for Media Center
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Open FrontPage

Then choose

File

Open

Open your student page

Check to see if you have the following: background color: If you don't then Format

Background

Choose a color

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On the Formatting Toolbar

Choose Comic Sans MS, 6 (24pt), bold, center,  choose a color,

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Writers' Workshop Stories:

Once you finished writing a story and you have had someone proofread it for you then you can:::::

Turn your Word document into a Web Page

Choose File

Save as type: choose Web Page

click Save

Close your document



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Links

type name of document with 6 (24pt) font size

highlight name

click on Insert hyperlink

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click on OK

click on Save

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Images



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Save it into your image folder



Inserting Images

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Picture

from file

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Reading Comprehension

This year, my students have enjoyed working on the following websites:

Into the Book is a Website featuring eight reading comprehension strategies: prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing. Students use headphones to listen to the videos and audio recordings at this site. This site is full of interesting information, images, videos, and audios.

Free Rice features language arts and mathematics. Motivation is answering questions correctly so that rice is donated to the United Nations World Food program.

Each website is full of interesting facts and questions.

Technology and Reading Defined

What does the phrase technology and reading mean?
For educators, this may mean using technology for reading instruction or using technology to enhance learning or it could mean both. Also, it could be referring to reading information from the Internet on websites or blogs?  Or it could mean reading information that has been enlarged with overhead projectors? In addition, it could mean using various software programs and other types of technology to promote reading?
The phrase technology and reading could be referring to very, very
simple integration of technology and reading to very complex uses of
technology to support reading. It could mean how does technology
support reading instruction or what are the best ways to integrate
technology with reading?

No matter what form technology and reading takes, shouldn't the technology be so integrated
that it becomes "the tool" and is not emphasized because the learner is
so involved in reading to learn or learning to read. The technology should become a
part of the learners life so integrated that it becomes like the clothes chosen for the day or the coats worn for different activities. Just like a car allows the learner to travel faster or glasses allow the learner to see better. Technology allows the learner to do things more efficiently.



One of the goals for this blog is to report on how technology can be
used in educational settings. The following Website is an excellent example.



http://mrsdell.org/reading/index.html





http://mrsdell.org/resources.html

Health, Science, and more Websites

Teachers at Whittier School put together this list of  Websites for students to use while in the media center conducting research.

Body Systems Websites

Human Body Online http://www.innerbody.com/image/nervov.html

Human Body Adventure http://vilenski.org/science/humanbody/hb_intro.html

Get Body Smart  http://www.getbodysmart.com/

ASTRONAUTS 2008

Human Space Flight NASA

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html

NASA Solar System Interactives

http://solarsytem.nasa.gov/multimedia/interactive.cfm

Astronomy Picture of the Day

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080123.html

SOLAR SYSTEM Interactive website

http://www.iknowthat.com/com/App?File=ScienceLab.htm&Type=S&SWF=solarsystem%

Phases of the Moon diagram

http://www.astro.umd.edu/education/astro/moon/phases.html

Moon Phases Excel Activity

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/excel_files/moon_phases_to_drag.xls

SCIENCE

World Biomes and Climate

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org

http://www.worldbiomes.com

What is it like where you live?

http://www.mbgnet.net

Mr. Banks Trees of the World

http://www.hipark.austin.isd.tenet.edu/arc/projects/fourth/trees/main.html

Enchanted Learning

http://www.zoomwhales.com/biomes/tempdecid/tempdecid.shtml

SOCIAL STUDIES

Native American Site

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/index.htm

Interactive PBS re-enactment of colonial times:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/history/index.html

U.S. State Government site with brief historical timeline:

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/histryotln/index.htm

State history timelines:

http://www.shgresources.com/resources/timelines/

National Geographic article for kids on the Lost Colony of Roanoke

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2004/03/lostcolony.html

National Geographic interactive book on the first Thanksgiving

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngyoungexplorer/

Mr. Donn American History Sites

http://www.mrdonn.org/americanhistory.html

Clip Art, Paint, and Google Docs

The students will insert images for their Word documents using Clips Online from Microsoft .
Once they find an image that they want to use, the image can be copied/pasted into Paint. Paint allows you to change the background color. This is a great feature, especially if you want to match your Web page backgrounds. On some images, you can change more than just the background color. Notice the background color for the laptops. Then, look at the colors I change on the book image. The book image allows you to change the background color in three areas and the book color can be changed in many areas too. The one thing to remember is just to play with it and have fun!

First Day of Testing

Whittier School started the ISAT testing today. ISAT stands for Illinois Standards Achievement Test. The fifth grade students were given Session I of the Reading and Math during the morning. On Thursday, they will take Session II of Reading and Math. The school will have make-up tests on Friday for those that missed testing on Wednesday and Thursday.
Next week, the school will test again on Tuesday and Wednesday. The fifth grade students will be given Session III of reading and Math on Tuesday and the ISAT writing on Wednesday. This will complete the tests for fifth grade. Make ups will be on Thursday of next week for Session III and writing.

Read-across-america

Read
Across America

Monday,
March 2 Cook County School District 130 does not have school. In
addition, it is Read Across America Day and it is also Dr. Seuss’s
birthday.

Next week,
our principal, Mr.
Talluto, will be reading Green Eggs and Ham to the class with
the most books read over the weekend. Please have your child
participate in the Read Across America Day by reading a book. All
students were given forms to be signed by their parents. The
completed forms are due to the teachers by Tuesday, March 3.

Progress
Reports!

On
Wednesday, February 25 progress reports were given to all the
students in room 5. The students are working hard to bring up their
grades. Please remind them to turn in their “do over work”
as soon as possible.

Library
Cards!

Students
still need their Blue Island Public Library cards.As soon as the
weather breaks, we will be walking to the public library for our
research, projects, reports, and to check out books. It builds
responsibility when students have their own library cards to check
out books. They are extremely proud of themselves when they check out
books at the public library without adults.

Math and Reading Websites!

This is just a few of the websites I have seen used at Whittier School. The students and teachers seem to enjoy them.


For Balanced Literacy http://reading.ecb.org

For Math:   http://www.aaamath.com

Get Smarter Math Website

http://www.getsmarter.org/index.cfm

Lessons:

Http://www.isbe.net/ils/math/capd.htm

http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/m2t2

http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/index.htm

http://www.mattimath.com/

http://www.ictm.org

Open-ended Questions

http://www.wiu.edu/mathtips

http://www.pasd.wednet.edu/school/mathwasl/

http://figurethis.org

For Reading and Math

http://www.freerice.com

http://www.tlsbooks.com

TURN OFF THE ELECTRONIC DEVICES

Sleep Sleep Sleep

Students need the proper amount of sleep when facing the challenges of daily school activities. This means that they need over 8-10 hours of good restful sleep daily. Their minds cannot function clearly when they have not had enough sleep.
During the early evening, students need to cancel their activities on computers and electronic games as well as stop watching television. Their minds and bodies need rest and quietness so that they can think clearly. TURN OFF THE ELECTRONIC DEVICES can become one of the most important things that you do for your child. It does not matter how old a child/student is, what matters is getting that child/student enough sleep.
Skim over the following articles to see what experts are saying about sleep. This is nothing new. We all know the importance of sleep, but these studies are interesting.

National Sleep Foundation
Sleep Research
Importance of Sleep for School Children
Good Sound Sleep for Children
The Importance of Sleep
The Importance of Sleep The Importance of Sleep