Learning with Laptops @ Randerson

For the past two months students at Randerson have been working on laptops as part of the #SD68 technology initiative.

Ms. Burnham's Gr. 3 students are using World Book Online Kids to research structures in science.

Mr. Rosenau and Mrs. Aitken's classes are using World Book Online Student as they research West Coast First Nation Peoples. 

Students are learning how to take notes from webpages including taking key facts from each passage without copy and pasting the paragraph.  They are creating wonderfully descriptive paragraphs using their own words, connections and ideas. They are also learning how and why to cite their work. 

Grade 5 students in Mr. Nixon's class have become experts at Webcat finding fiction, non-fiction and specialty resources.  They are also becoming more independent learners by searching what books they have out and when they are due. 

Mr. MacKinlay's Gr. 6 class is using http://www.tagxedo.com to create word collages based on their novels. Today's lesson was student lead with one boy showing the class, including me, how to create a word design. 

Mrs. Radcliffe's Gr. 7's are working on the laptops for their Ancient Egypt Inquiry project.  Our most recent lesson focused on website citations.  I've been impressed with that attention to detail the Gr. 7's are demonstrating in creating their reference lists. 











  

Book Club ~ January Conspiracy 365

Students discussing the book and writing reflections

Our first book club of 2013 was appropriately January Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord.  Twelve students gathered in the library over long recess, enjoying snacks of veggies, fruit and cupcakes. The energy and excitement felt by the students could match that of lead character Callum Ormond as the discussion focused on motive, possible clues and details to consider. 

 Students unanimously voted the book as one of their top reads, with excitement and suspense pulling them in. Many students have read well beyond January some are as far as November.

Yummy snacks!

One Gr. 5 boy said "I'm a bit sad I'm on November because that means I'm almost finished the series and I don't want it to end."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uNiX1cFO4g&feature=player_embedded trailer


Predictions

I think that Gabbi will come out of her comma and tell the police that Rafe shot her!!!!!

CSI

CSI

When Mrs. Radcliffe told us we were going to be doing a CSI unit with Mrs. Thorsen, I was so excited. Mrs. Thorsen had some really awesome stations to figure out the crime. My favorite station was the brown stain station because you got to test out something that I would have never thought to test because it was such a small item. It was also fun because I got to learn how to properly compare two things that could mean the difference between guilty and not guilty. My favorite part of the whole CSI unit was at the end, when we did the court scene. I liked it because I got to be Vera Cruise, (one of the suspects). The court scene was supposed to be serious, but I thought Sophie was a really good, but hilarious judge, so I couldn’t stop laughing.

Over all, I loved the CSI unit.

Shirin

Guest Blogger re: CSI

CSI

I thoroughly enjoyed the CSI unit that we had in our classroom. I loved every part of this unit from learning about witnessing things to the court case. I also really enjoyed working in a group because I didn’t just have my own opinion but I had other people’s too.

            I liked the crime scene investigation on the evidence that was found. My favorite station was the one that we got the burn wool and cotton, to find out what the mystery string was.

            The hardest part of this course was finding out who committed the crime, but that was all sorted out when we had our court case! The court case was excellent because it was very realistic, and it was also really funny. Over all, I had lots of fun, and I would definitely do this again!

Paige Gr. 7

Guest Blogger - CSI

CSI

            I thought that the CSI unit was really fun.  My favorite part was the station that we got to burn cotton and wool.  I liked that station because I had never heard about testing string to help determine a murderer.  The station I found the most confusing was the chemist station.  My favorite part of the first day of CSI was looking at the six differences pictures.  Overall I thought it was a really fun and well put together unit.  I was also very surprised with who was convicted for the murdered.

Shayla

CSI Repost - Steven Grade 7

The CSI report an amazing experince! I loved all the aspects of the crime scene. I enjoyed the court most because we got to feel how a court was layed out. The crime scene is about a millionare that went missing but no one but for his four friends knew who did it. We were seprated into groups and we got to go the crime scene setup in the libary. We had to look at all the detail in the libary to solve the mystery. Overall I loved the CSI unit we did.

First book of 2013 - Dancing Through The Snow

Happy New Year Randerson students, staff and parents. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow and hearing about your holidays and all the great books you've read :)

I just finished Jean Little's Dancing Through the Snow. I look forward to our February book club where we will chat about it in detail.  It's a book that catches you right from the start as you follow Min, a grade 5 girl who travels from one foster family to another, searching for a family.  It isn't until she is basically abandoned just a few days before Christmas that her life begins to change.  I don't want to give away too much as there are suprises early on.  I just want to recommend this book to
Gr. 4,5 and 6 students.



February Book Club

When: Thursday February 21st

Where: Library

When: Long recess

What to do: Read the book ~ Dancing Through the Snow

                       Come and have fun and enjoy some treats while chatting about Min, Dr. Hart and Toby.