100th Day Age 100 Years

To celebrate the 100th day of school, Mr. Marcano's 2nd Grade class aged 100 years using an application called AgingBooth. Check out their photos on his website at http://goo.gl/vk1pab

Dual Language Paperslides

As a way to share their research, Mrs. Slavin's first grade class produced videos with a document camera and student artwork and recording.  This concept is called "paperslides" using a camera to film paper and voice to tell a story.  The students has been researching using World Book Kids which is available in Spanish and English.  Check out their projects at http://www.slavinduallanguage.blogspot.com/

Here is one here as a preview.

Tech Resources for Kindergarten

Here at Gattis, students are using Technology at all grade levels.  One Kindergarten teacher, Lisa Sanford, not only encourages the use of technology at school, but at home as well.  She has several resources on her website for parents to use with their children.  They range from ideas for learning crafts, or online activities, to links to videos that reinforce skills. Check out her page at http://gattis.roundrockisd.org/our_staff/kindergarten_team/lisa_sanford/.  Make sure to you go to her Pinterest page as well! 

Smore to Present

In Ms. Jeffereson's 4th Grade class students created biographies.  They had several choices on how to present their final products.  They were introduced to the online design flyer tool called "smore"  Several students created smores on their person. Click on the links below to see their products.

• Walt Disney
• Magic Johnson
• Lionel Messi
• Abby Wambach
• Cleopatra
• Galileo Galilei

Skype with a Soldier

Several of our Gattis classes wrote letters of encouragement to Soldiers deployed in the Middle East.  This was great writing exercise and a way for them to give back to those who serve.  On Veterans Day, one of the Soldiers they wrote to surprised them by flying in and speaking to the whole school and then individual classes.  Fourth students were so excited they continued to write other soldiers and had a chance to then Skype with one as seen here in the image below. Although technology wasn't used in the writing itself, it was key in the communication with the soldiers and getting information that the classes needed for this worthwhile project.

Counselor uses Activotes

Our resident Counselor, Mrs. Shannahan, is working with all of the classes on making good decisions. She has been doing lessons in the classrooms and giving students different scenarios and asking them to choose the kind solution or action.  They aren't just voting with their hands, they are voting with the Promethean Activotes.  After students vote it displays a graph of how many votes each answer received which is great for follow up discussion.

Spanish Phrases of the Week

Did you want to learn some Spanish Phrases? How about one a week?  As part of our Dual Language integration here at Gattis, we have a weekly Spanish Phrase. Our Dual Language classes are working hard to create a video of the phrase which is then featured on our morning Broadcast.  You can find the videos on our Gattis Website in the News section or at this direct link after they are aired. 

http://gattis.roundrockisd.org/news/spanish_phrase_videos