Paperless Grandparents

This past Friday we had our annual Grandparents Day. Usually for me it is filled with word game, some curriculum material and LOTS of paper. Not this year! I decided our grandparents were going paperless. So, how to fill the time? What am I going to do without all the papers I have used so much through the years. Well. . . . .

6th Grade - Google earth – showed them where were going in 6th Ancient History – took a walk around the pyramids and then amazed them with the Titanic wreckage. We also looked at the student’s blog site (http://www.kidblog.org/) and they showed off some of their Glogs. (http://www.edu.glogster.com/)

7th Grade - Google Forms – had the students help Grandparents contribute to a Google form about 9-11, (which helped us get more responses for our project (http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=186481) Another question on the form was what was another “always remember where you were moment”? We then took those responses and put them in a Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/)  It was neat to see the responses in this way. (Kennedy was the biggest word)

8th Grade – PBS Website/Google Forms – used PBS site about colonial America (our next unit - ) We took the “would you survive in a colony” quiz and then filled out a Google form about what they learned about colonial life. I also had the students list 10 words about their grandparents. Then we “wordled” those responses. The colonial answers will serve as our lead in to our colonial unit this coming week.

In the end I needed/wanted more time. Technology once again served as an awesome tool! It helped to bridge generational gaps and made usually stressful day a very enjoyable one.