First graders tell about their whale study

My first graders have spent 3 class periods studying the whales of the world. They completed this study by drawing and then painting their type of whale, on a scale of 1' =1". You will see these paintings and hear the students telling about them, on our photostory link here.

Kindergarten garden at LEAP

Make your own slide show at Animoto.

Laurie Johnston: sharing student work with families

I taught two 5th grade art classes last semester and the plan had been to hold an art gallery evening to for parent and friends to come and see the student art. At the last minute we lost our gallery space. So, after much discussion with the students about how to share the artwork, we settled on a blog to display all of the artwork for family and friends to see. The blog turned out great and the parents loved it.

Here is a link to the blogs for the two art classes:
http://leapartmuseum1.blogspot.com/
http://leapartmuseum2.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Johnston's Medieval History Blog for students

The purpose of my blog is to engage students in thinking about topics we are studying in our Medieval Studies LEAP classroom. Students come to LEAP one day a week, so my goal is to encourage students to extend their learning beyond our classroom walls.

Blog posts happen usually twice a week. The first post is usually made by students during class. The second is made by me later in the week, usually Fridays. Students generally go to the blog on the weekends. My post includes an Exit Ticket question related to our studies, and also a video or web site that adds something new to one of our topics. Students are required to complete an Exit Ticket question and submit their response on the blog.The Exit Ticket info automatically goes into a Google doc spread sheet that only I can see. So far, students have responded very positively to the blog.
Here is a link to my blog: http://johnstonleap.blogspot.com/