Tag Archives: slideshows

Stage 3 Guided Inquiry: almost there!

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Well, we are finally on the downhill stretch for our Guided Inquiry Endangered animals (Stage 3 science & technology). After weeks of being immersed in the concepts – and being exposed to, and evaluating, any number of professional, persuasive texts and images – and then several more weeks of individual research, and then the designing of group-negotiated storyboards, the first three of the students’ digital slideshows have now been uploaded to the world:


by Trent, Michelle & Latisha
Compare the above slideshow with the students’ original storyboard.


by Tamara, Nandita & Riley
Compare the above slideshow with the students’ original storyboard.


by Jeremy, Lisa, Kayla, Emily & Phoebe
Compare the above slideshow with the students’ original storyboard.

Enjoy! Share! And please feel free to comment. More slideshows will appear as the term comes to a close.

By the way, just a few points to consider with Photo Peach: Use it as judiciously as you would a series of Youtube clips. Don’t permit students to do open browsing; Photo Peach is a Web 2.0 facility that is open to anyone, and the slideshows are “unrated”. Also, if you notice that new comments have been added to a slideshow you’ve made, please preview the slideshow again before using it with students so you can monitor (and moderate/remove) unwanted comments. (Or close off comments altogether.) Consider a subscription to Photo Peach, which enables you to add your own or Creative Commons music, a wider range of transitions, and the capacity to download slideshows to your hard drive, web space or a CD.

National Simultaneous Storytime 2011

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National Simultaneous Storytime 2011

What a fun day, as about 400 Penrith PS students (including the pre-schoolers in our “Play and Chat” group) joined thousands of Australian children and teachers across Australia, in schools and in public libraries, in a simultaneous reading of Rod Clement’s picture book, “Feathers for Phoebe“. Some of us watched a Youtube video clip (below), others read the book on an IWB (above, in our new school library), or using the book with buddy classes.

Here is the ALIA podcast of “Feathers For Phoebe” via Youtube:

National Simultaneous Storytime 2011
Mr McLean reads “Feathers For Phoebe” for Stage 2.

National Simultaneous Storytime 2011

View our Photo Peach slideshow of the event!

UPDATE:

Here is a close-captioned, Auslan version of the ALIA Youtube podcast:

And our PhotoPeach digital story:


Clifford & Phoebe at Penrith PS

iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare

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#242

A good news story in an attempt to counterbalance all the negative dragon-lady news articles (Sydney Morning Herald; The Age) today:

In the current “Scan”:
“iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare: Stage 1 students create digital stories” in Scan 30(2) May 2011, pp 4-5.
Stage 1 students narrate how they inquire, learn, create and share with ICT and Web 2.0 to produce online Photo Peach slideshows at Penrith Public School.

Many thanks to “Scan” editor Cath Keane. It looks great! Our students are going to be thrilled! And I look terrible in a twin-set & pearls anyway.

UPDATE: This afternoon, I returned to the library briefly after a staff meeting – and there was an urgent email telling me that ABC 702 radio commentator, Richard Glover, was seeking listeners to phone in and explain why they broke a stereotype. This segment was in response to the aforementioned newspaper articles about angry dragon-lady librarians in horn-rimmed glasses, cardigans, pearls and hair in buns. The suggestion was that I ring in myself, to explain that I broke that stereotype. I was sure I’d missed my chance, due to the meeting, but I did ring in and was put to air a few minutes later.

The call ended rather abruptly – no goodbye and thanks – so they must have only been after very brief sound bytes, like the ones I heard them playing while I was awaiting my turn. I wasn’t sure if they were wanted me for something meatier. I only hope I made some sense; it was all so fast. 15 seconds of fame, if that.

The new era of “sound byte” reporting, solidly with us these past few years, is certainly one of our biggest hurdles in getting a complex message (such as the points raised by the recent Parliamentary Enquiry) across – in any media.

Dux

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Dux - Daily Telegraph

Wow! Thanks Maralyn Parker and our mystery nominator!

31 March 2011: “To Penrith Public School students and teachers, especially teacher-librarian Ian McLean, hearing support teacher Kerrie Mead and kindergarten teacher and Student Representative Council organiser Lacey Ingle, for the wonderful slideshow in support of the Christchurch earthquake appeal. Creative, clever and deeply moving.”

Note that the article says “sideshow” (sic).


All Black Day: Christchurch earthquake appeal, 2011

Eggsactly!

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World's largest Humpty Dumpty
Above: This is supposedly “the world’s largest” Humpty Dumpty, as he sat on his wall in Mildura in January 1986. (Now located in Yackandandah. Thanks Darren Morgan!)

Giant egg

Every few years, our K-2 students get to experience “Chicks R Us“, in which a dozen eggs come to visit for a fortnight, and the eggs are incubated until they hatch.

Egg

One year, I played a practical joke on the staff and students by waiting till most of the chicks had emerged, then placing a mysterious, large egg in a small perspex aquarium, into the room with the chicks. A note read: “Please look after this egg, thank you.” It caused a huge amount of discussion and several students were convinced a dinosaur, an elephant or a fully-grown hen would emerge from the egg. One morning, I snuck in early, upturned the (already-cracked) egg, and placed a plastic, fire-breathing dragon into the empty shell… of the ostrich egg.

Again, a huge amount of discussion took place as each class discovered the mystery hatching. This year, enough of the students have moved on that I could replay my practical joke. To follow it up, next week, we’ll be using this new slideshow on the IWB. I’ve experimented with using the “quiz” facility of Photo Peach and produced a more interactive, online resource!


What’s in the egg?: an interactive quiz

A huge array of possibilities is now presenting itself, as our Stage 2 and Stage 3 begin to grapple with how they will be formalising their Guided Inquiry research into the human body and endangered animals.

A dragon hatches!

A slideshow for the Garden City

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Flowers collage, All Black Day, 2011
This artwork was created by our school’s Student Representative Council, who painted their hands to resemble flowers of New Zealand and Australia. The photographs were assembled into a collage. This was part of a fundraising venture for ALL BLACK DAY, Australian schools’ contribution to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal of 2011.

Our Photo Peach slideshow for Christchurch, New Zealand, is HERE!


All Black Day: Christchurch earthquake appeal, 2011

Among the viewer comments added to the slideshow was a haiku, written for us by Room 5, Our Lady of the Assumption School:
“Earthquakes come and go
But ANZACs never give up
May the flowers bloom.”

Kaiapoi Borough School sent our community a blessing: “Kia manawanui, Kia manakitia e hoa ma.”

A student at South New Brighton School wrote, in a poem:
“… Some buildings may fall,
but we are Cantabrians and we will stand tall.”

The students and staff at Papanui School, in Christchurch, said, “Kia kaha te menemene – Keep smiling.”

UPDATE: Only one day online and we are officially #1 – “Today’s most viewed” – of over 103,100 slideshows! Over 650 visitors. Truly amazing.

This Youtube video response to All Black Day comes from Russley School, New Zealand, near Christchurch’s airport:

Sheep thrills

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Red Belly Station

Two of our Stage 1 classes have brainstormed a new digital story for a Photo Peach slideshow this week. We are still studying nursery rhymes this term and this week’s is “Baa Baa Black Sheep“. Again, one class improvised nearby characters, props and locations to recreate the nursery rhyme. A second class suggested the best order of the uploaded photos, sorted the captions and voted on the best music.

Please click HERE.


Baa baa black sheep

Thank you again Photo Peach!

(I feel like the Photo Peach ambassador, but it’s so easy a child could do it. In fact, we did!)

Also sample 1/2S’s wonderful sheep artwork, and SCHP’s vegetable sheep, presented as a VIDEO PODCAST.

#242
Timmy awaits his closeup.

Nursery rhymes: beyond the pail!

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Jack and Jill

Stage 1 students today consolidated their knowledge of the nursery rhyme, “Jack and Jill”, by creating some digital stories. We brainstormed ideas, the students suggested suitable toys and props from around the library, we made scenery on the interactive whiteboard (IWB) and I then uploaded their photos to Photo Peach to create a new slideshow.

Jack and Jill title card

Tomorrow some other classes might suggest extra captions and ideas.

A wolf in sheep's clothing in a tree

And yes, Jack is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In a tree.

Also see our 2008 adventures with “Jack and Jill” on our wiki page.


Jack and Jill