April in the i-ZONE

Panther Cubs in the i-Zone

The early primary students have been participating in a variety of learning experiences each week in the i-Zone.  These activities promote a deeper understanding of the story and allow students to make personal connections as they respond to stories they have heard read aloud.  This month we continued to focus on books that included repetitive phrases so that the students can join in on the reading of the story. Students have had a chance to build using Lego, Plus Plus pieces and magnetic construction sets.  Our panther cubs have also been introduced to coding!

National Scribble Day

March 27th was National Scribble Day.  The students identified and discussed feelings by observing facial expressions and the created their own scribble character!

We also learned that- ‘Great art starts with a SCRIBBLE!’

Come and check out the display we worked together to created in the front hallway at PVPS.

The Forest of Reading®

Our primary students have now heard almost all ten books in the Blue Spruce program. In the next few weeks they will be participating in a game show activity to review these books and will then have a chance to vote for their favourite Blue Spruce book!  The results of the vote will be shared with the Ontario Library Association to ensure that the voices (roars) of our PVPS panthers are heard and counted. The students have participated enthusiastically in this program and enjoyed listening to a variety of books written by Canadian publishers, authors and illustrators.   

During the past few weeks students have learned about sharks in a book called “I Love Sharks Too”,  They then used their Google Apps for Education (GAFE) account to create a slideshow to share their learning using images and text.  And in our MakerSpace these students also created some sparkly glasses like Charlie in “I Love My Purse”. We will be sure to share the results from our school vote in next months newsletter.

SCDSB Read Aloud

Some of our junior and intermediate classes at Portage View began participating in the SCDSB Read Aloud when they returned from March Break..  The students in these classes are reading one of two books: “Innocent Heroes” by Sigmund Brouwer or “Hawk” by Jennifer Dance. To learn more about the book “Hawk” check out the book trailer:: Hawk Classes then have an option of making a connection with another class in Simcoe County or they may choose to read the book and connect through Twitter @SCDSBreadaloud or the SCDSB Read Aloud Blog. to share their thoughts and ideas about these books.  

A big thank you to author Sigmund Brouwer for providing the students reading “Innocent Heroes” with a video introduction to his book. Here is the link to the video shared by this author: Sigmund Brouwer's Introduction

Tech Talk

The computer carts and ipads continue to be in high demand this month both in the library and in our classrooms.  

Mr. Szczokin’s Grade 8 students are using a combination of apps (“app smashing”) to create a message to share about our planet for the April assembly.  

Our Google Apps for Education (GAFE) accounts are being used in a variety a ways.  Many of our primary students are able to log into their own Google Drive accounts and are beginning to use many of the apps  available to them such as drawings, docs, and slides. As a Teacher-librarian it is exciting to see our young panthers using this tool to access and share their learning!

Mme Lamoureaux’s class has been working with an app called Lego Movie Maker.  They are using stop motion animation to create videos to tell a twisted fairy tale that they have written.  Storyboards were used to plan and guide these students through the process.

Mr. Szczokin’s grade 7 rotary students have been using green screen technology to create videos to create a documentary about a natural resource and to answer student inquiry questions related to this topic.

Mme East and Mme Lanoe’s classes will be exploring coding programs such as Scratch and working with tech such as Microbits and Makey Makey.  Stay tuned for more information about this learning.

Don’t forget to follow the i-Zone on Twitter @pawspvpstoread