So I stumbled upon the Gridculum idea while digging through ISTE19 hashtag and I started thinking that actually that is exactly what first grade teachers in Macedonia need. As I'm preparing teacher trainings for Macedonian educators I've been trying to make connections between my huge library of ed tech tools and the objectives and suggested activities in the curriculum. One thing I realized is that first graders only learn the letters at the end of the school year, so Flipgrid is the perfect tool to re-imagine first grade curriculum with some tech.
I have tons of ideas, my OneNote notebook is full of notes of what I can do with teachers. And I really don't want to just show them what they can do and how but try everything out. I'll be the teacher and they'll be first grade students. That's how I'll really get them excited and moving and creating.
It's Flipgrid Friday so I thought I could share one idea per subject on how to create the Macedonian Gridculum.
Literacy
The idea is to use Flipgrid for creating Time Capsules. My first years of teaching Time Capsules were cardboard boxes containing students favorite things, a string of how tall the student was, a piece of paper with hand print or foot print and they were kept till the end of the school year or schooling so that students see how much they have grown and changed. Later Time Capsules became letters students sent to their future selves.
But what better way to preserve the first day at school then Flipgrid. First graders in Macedonia are only five and six and most of them would ask for mum and would not be willing to share things with 20 unfamiliar faces. So maybe it's a good idea to have a a Grid for a Time Capsule where students would share all about themselves. And you can do it either in class or have parents help with the activity and do the recordings at home. With the new Flipgrid updates students can even draw their ideas or share clips of their favorite things, have family members on camera and a group photo of their friends. Just imagine what it would be like for those children in ten years to see themselves on the first day of school.
I have tons of ideas, my OneNote notebook is full of notes of what I can do with teachers. And I really don't want to just show them what they can do and how but try everything out. I'll be the teacher and they'll be first grade students. That's how I'll really get them excited and moving and creating.
It's Flipgrid Friday so I thought I could share one idea per subject on how to create the Macedonian Gridculum.
Literacy
The idea is to use Flipgrid for creating Time Capsules. My first years of teaching Time Capsules were cardboard boxes containing students favorite things, a string of how tall the student was, a piece of paper with hand print or foot print and they were kept till the end of the school year or schooling so that students see how much they have grown and changed. Later Time Capsules became letters students sent to their future selves.
But what better way to preserve the first day at school then Flipgrid. First graders in Macedonia are only five and six and most of them would ask for mum and would not be willing to share things with 20 unfamiliar faces. So maybe it's a good idea to have a a Grid for a Time Capsule where students would share all about themselves. And you can do it either in class or have parents help with the activity and do the recordings at home. With the new Flipgrid updates students can even draw their ideas or share clips of their favorite things, have family members on camera and a group photo of their friends. Just imagine what it would be like for those children in ten years to see themselves on the first day of school.
Science
An experiment: Growing a Plant
I'm guessing every student will have their own plant to grow. It would be a great idea to take photos of the progress each day and create a video with the photos. With the new upcoming features students will be able to discuss the progress in Flipgrid videos by uploading a photo and adding a narration. And instead of plant labels just put the videos QR codes so that students can see how that plant has grown in AR. So you'll have all the plants that students have grown in your classroom and you would be able to see the process with AR. How's that for science fair. Now this will be very very hard for me to train because I'll need a living plant I have grown and not one plant has ever survived in my house :(
Math
I'm sure teachers are looking forward to the whiteboard in Flipgrid so that students can do their math problems with Flipgrid videos. The curriculum for first grade math suggests that students use their fingers to count and do the math but also writing down numbers on different surfaces and getting acquainted with plus, minus, equals. So you can upload videos of students writing numbers in coconut powder, or have them on video how the use their fingers to do the math and use the whiteboard to write down numbers.
English
That's right Macedonian students start learning English when they are first grade but since we use a different alphabet they need to get to third grade so that they learn the alphabet and start reading and writing. So most of the first grade they listen and try to produce language. And since they have been in touch with devices from an early age and all the cartoons they watched and songs they sang and games they played are in English most first graders are fluent English speakers. First graders learn how to talk about themselves and their pets and I think I just have the right app to app smash with Flipgrid.
Fiete World is one of my most favorite app when it comes to storytelling with very young children. There is great number of characters and pets they can choose from, worlds they can live in and activities they can do and talk about. Once you export the cartoon you can have them all in a Mixed Tape gallery or make a poster of QR codes and have them displayed on the front door. So when parents come to pick their children up they can proudly show what they've made in their English class.
Here is what Fiete World looks like
Art
Students are exploring different surfaces they can draw on
Well that is a great lesson for a FlipHunt. You can send your students on a hunt and ask them to make videos of themselves drawing on different surfaces. The teachers in my home town had their students color the tiles of the town square in different colors. It was such a wonderful experience. All the Instagram stories of my friends who have first graders were with photos of their child showing which tile they have been working on.
I guess Kathi Kersznowski will have a more detailed FlipHunt plan for this idea.
Sport
Oh you can do sports with Fligrid. Remember four corners game when you have activities on the four corners of your classroom and students have to run from one point to another and complete the activities. Well the Macedonian curriculum has something like learning different walking and running styles. So why not have four devices on the four corners of the classroom but instead of running ask students to walk like a bear from A to B, jump like a frog from B to C, walk like a ballerina from C to D.Once they get to the point they record a video. And to make it even more fun you can integrate it with a music lesson.
Music
Listening to nature sounds and trying to imitate
So when students get to point A you can have them play around with the Noisili app and check out different nature sounds. Point B would be a grid topic asking them to imitate certain sounds. Point C another grid topic asking them to produce a nature sound using their hands and body parts, and point D would be a grid asking them to combine the two into a melody.
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