NASA Tweet

#skype with @NASA We learned the moon has a north & south pole & they found water on the moon. Emilee

— Mrs.Piltz (@MrsPiltzK) April 11, 2014

Craters Experiment

Cool experiment from The First Grade Parade.  We made a hypothesis about how moon craters are formed, then conducted an experiment using cocoa, flour and rocks!  Thanks to the moms who sent in some cocoa and flour!!  :)

NASA Tweet

#skype with @NASA I liked when Wall-E touched the screen and it broke. He showed us pictures of the moon, satellites & Mars.

— Mrs.Piltz (@MrsPiltzK) April 11, 2014

NASA Tweet

#skype with @NASA I learned the moon is very tiny compared to the sun. Mason

— Mrs.Piltz (@MrsPiltzK) April 11, 2014

Skype with NASA

Our Skype with NASA & Wall-E was so cool!  The kids really enjoyed learning about the moon. Check Twitter for some of our NASA Tweets. 

Reading Help

At student-led conferences, a few of you had questions about how to help your child with reading at home.  There is a great article and some strategies here, at the Reading Rockets website.  However, the best thing you can do is spend time reading each night (reading to them and letting them read to you.)  Using books or any of the great e-book sites we have access to.  Thank you for your support at home!

iPad Song/Poem

Great song I found at What the Teacher Wants blog.  Will use it when we introduce our new iPad minis.  :)

Parent Feedback from Student Led Conferences ... Most Proud Of:

NASA

We could not connect for our Skype with NASA & Wall-E this morning.  :( We will reconnect with NASA once the technical issues are worked out.  In the meantime, we spent time exploring this cool NASA Kids site, and found these awesome videos with Elmo visiting NASA!  Enjoy!

Student-led Conferences

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Apps for our 1:1 iPads

Many of you asked about the apps that we use on our iPads when you were in our room for student led conferences.  I put together this Symbaloo with all of the apps that will be on our new 1:1 iPad minis.  (Yay!)  If you have questions about what we use any of them for, please let me know.  All of the links go to the iTunes store.  If you have an Android device, you will need to search for it in the Android store (sorry!)  Click the image below to be taken to the Symbaloo mix of our iPad apps.

There is also a link under "Parent Resources" on our blog.

Solar System Popplets

Today we wrote some questions about the solar system and made some Popplets to get ready for our Skype with NASA tomorrow!

Important PTA Information

We held our Spring General Meeting last night and I am sorry to report that we were only able to elect a Secretary for next year's board. We still have the positions of President, Vice-President, and Co-Treasurer unfilled.  Email me and I will send you a Nomination Form if you are interested in any of the following positions.  We will need your commitment in writing by the next board meeting so if you are interested please fill out the Nomination Form and return it to the office as soon as possible. If the board positions go unfilled we will begin the process of shutting down the PTA for the 2014-15 school year.  This could be a lengthy process so we will need to get started right away in May.  If you have any questions please feel free to call or email Mrs. Gnerer.  Thank you!

Student Led Conferences

Thanks to those of you who attended student led conferences this afternoon!  If you did not make it, you can still come tomorrow (Wed the 9th) anytime between 2:40-4:30.  Please plan to stay for 20-30 minutes.  These are usually very fun and informative!  I hope you can join us.

iPad Update :)

An update on our iPad minis!  :)  Thanks to everyone who has sent in headphones.  I appreciate it! The minis have arrived.  Wahoo!  I need to work on getting cases on all of them, and then follow district protocol to have them set up correctly to put apps on them.  So .... we are still waiting (anxiously!) but should have them in our hands soon.  :)  At student led conferences next week, we will read and sign an iPad Acceptable Use Policy for our classroom.  We will use the next week talking about appropriate use and getting ready for our "connected classroom" experience to start after Easter break!