Classroom Website

Mrs. Snow's Preschool Website

This is a link to my classroom website. I originally created this website several months ago, with the intention of using it this year. However, with time constraints and changes happening in my building, I did not get the chance to finish it. BUT it's finished now! I have added some extra features and gadgets to update it. My website is designed for parents to keep up to date on current events, homework, and classroom information. I also included a classroom calendar, links for parents and students, as well as a few carefully chosen classroom photos in a Picasa slideshow. I fully intend to use this website next year as a parent resources, so please let me know if you see any problems or errors that need to be fixed! Thanks!

Plants Concept Map

This week I created a concept map on Plants/How Things Grow using bubbl.us. I wanted to do a concept map showing the basic lesson planning elements my co-workers and I would use. The map is split into three sections: Small Group Activities, Large Group Activities, and Center Activities. From there, I went on to add the elements that would be taught in each area. In Preschool, students learn through play, so many of the centers are set up with activities they can investigate on their own and experiment with. Small and large group activities are, for the most part, teacher-led activities, but still hands on and interactive. Many of the ideas on this concept map are very basic so that they are adaptable for a preschool classroom. It would be easy for a upper elementary classroom to do a similar map with more in-depth concepts.

Tux Paint Screencast

For my screencast created with Jing.com, I chose to show a lesson on Tux Paint. Tux Paint is a program for elementary students similar to Kidpix or the standard Paint program on your computer. Although it holds a few more features than Paint, it is very similar to Kidpix, which was popular when I was in middleschool.

My computer does not have a microphone, so my screencast is silent. I will explain a few things about the lesson here. In my lesson, I would encourage students to use the different features of Tux Paint like lines, stamps and paint to create a plant, like a flower, then use the text feature to label the parts of the plant. In my example, I used line to draw the stem of the plant, paint to draw the leaves and roots, then used the stamp feature to place a picture of a flower on the screen. After the parts of the plant were created, I used the text feature to add the labels to the plant. This lesson could be used in a variety of grade levels based on the expectations of the drawing. While my example reflects a lower elementary level, older students could be expected to make more in-depth drawings of the inside of the flower including the stamen, anther, and pistil. Tux Paint allows a fun and creative reinforcement for what could be a boring lesson on plants.

Here is the screencast video:

Google Maps

As an early childhood educator, it took a few minutes for me to snap out of preschool mode (especially since I had just worked on Dr.Seuss lesson plans a few minutes before!) to plan a lesson for older children using Google Maps. Once i got out of the preschool mindset, I started to think about what could have been helpful to me when I was in upper elementary/middle school. I was always interested in Michigan history, so I thought a map related lesson on historical Michigan landmarks. Here is a quick summary of a lesson

For a long term project, students could be given the task of doing a research project on a selected landmark as a small group of 2 or 4 students. The teacher would set up a google map and add pins to locations of approved Michigan historical landmarks for students to choose from. The teacher could add a sample of interesting facts to the pin as well as suggested websites for students to use. This type of resource could cut down on the time it takes to choose and approve topics for the project, and it could be used year after year.

View Michigan Historical Landmarks in a larger map