Mrs. Claus reads to Purple Sage's Kindergarten Class

One of the reindeer whispered that Mrs.Claus might be connecting through Region 13 and Zoom technology to primary level classes in Central Texas for storytelling and singing after Thanksgiving. Ms. Mooney, one of our Purple Sage kindergarten teachers, contacted her to hear a story and talk to Mrs. Claus for a half hour.

Since the North Pole knows about academic standards, they assured her that this activity will address the following:

Listen to and comprehend oral communications
Follow basic directions
Identify and summarize key points of a story or discussion
Participate effectively in discussion

Volunteer relevant information, ask relevant questions, and answer questions directly
Ask for clarification and explanation of unfamiliar words and ideas
Summarize information conveyed through discussion

Give examples and explain how language, stories, folk tales, music, and other artistic creations are expressions of culture and how they convey knowledge of other peoples and cultures.

Ms. Jones, our librarian, and Ms. Barnard, our I.T.S,. both helped to set this up for Ms. Mooney's class.

The students loved it!

Watch a Venus Fly Trap in Action!

Ms. Kosub, fourth grade teacher at Purple Sage Elementary, discovered in our tech training this past week how neat it is to videotape what goes on under her document camera.  She was able to capture the excitement of her class and that true teachable moment.  Listen to her class answering all her questions as they watch a Venus Fly Trap in action!  What an AWESOME video!!
 Click Venus Fly Trap Video to view.
In language arts, Ms. Kosub's class read a paired passage that had a poem and an article about the Venus flytrap.  The students got really interested and started asking a lot of questions.  Over the break, Ms. Kosub mentioned the enthusiasm to her dad, and he bought her class a pitcher plant and a Venus flytrap (at Lowe's).  When they first got it, all of the pads were closed, but on Friday one opened, so the students caught a beetle at recess.  The rest is in the video.  It is their "pet" project!  Now Ms. Kosub is using the carnivorous plants to model planning a research project in writing.  They were also able to tie this into science because they just finished a unit on soil, and these plants have some very interesting habitat requirements.