Wednesday 9 January 2013

Class Blog - here we come!!

I am SO excited about this!! We're starting a class blog on Friday! I have us all set up on Kidblog - our names are in, our background is chosen and we'll be writing our first posts during our ICT lesson on Friday morning.

Today as an introduction to the blogging world we looked at some student and class blogs from around the world. We talked about what we thought about their blog titles - were they catchy and alluring; did they make us want to check them out? We talked about what made a good post and heading - again, eye-catching, interesting content, good writing. We talked about what a good comment was - was it meaningful? Did it address the content of the post? Was it positive?

From the smartboard we moved to our desks and paper blogs. (I can't remember where I read about this idea so I can't give proper credit but it is a BRILLIANT idea!)
I gave all the kids a template on card stock. They then chose a catchy blog title, decided what topic they would write about, came up with an interesting post heading, wrote the date and away they went!
When their entry was finished they decorated their backgrounds and then came the fun part!

Everyone was given 4 different student names and 4 small squares of fluorescent card stock. The girls then read the 4 blogs belonging to the students whose names they had. They left a comment on each blog.

The room was SILENT. Every single child was completely engrossed in reading, thinking and writing. And they loved it. When they'd finished their comments they went back and read the comments on their own blog - then they went and wrote comments on all the blogs of people who had commented on theirs!

I can't wait until Friday to see what they do with the real class blog!

Here are some pictures of my happy little learners today!


Writing comments

Reading posts and comments




 

5 comments:

  1. This is such a great idea! I'm not sure I can handle the computer part of it right now, but I LOVE the sticky notes, and commenting!! How fun! I'm totally going to steal this idea!! :O)

    Thanks for sharing!
    Amanda

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    1. If you hear screams of anguish drifting across the Atlantic you'll know I couldn't handle it either :) I'm hoping they'll love it and am planning all sorts of cool blogging activities. Fingers crossed.
      Lynn

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  2. I am SO in love with this idea, Lynn--seriously. I really need to do some digging in to see if I can muster up the strength in dive in to something like this. I really really love it--and I can only imagine how much the kids must have LOVED this!

    Meg

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  3. I love the written blog posts and the comments using sticky notes! I will have to inquire if we can do a blog on the computer. It looks like a lot of fun. I 'm thinking it might encourage my students to write better reflective pieces about what they are learning if I were to choose the best one, and let them post it on a classroom blog.

    I am now following your blog and would love for you to stop by mine when you get a chance!
    Thanks,
    Patti :)
    A Series of 3rd Grade Events

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  4. It is fun - I'm on a learning curve here and will probably make mistakes along the way but I've told the children that sharing our learning will make us all better learners and teachers. Their enthusiasm is more than I could ever have imagined and that makes it all so worth while :)

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