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Software for student publishing and creativity.

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Wixie

Online student publishing and creativity platform.

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Frames

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Professional Learning
Services
Pixie Icon

Pixie

Software for student publishing and creativity.

Wixie Icon

Wixie

Online student publishing and creativity platform.

Frames Icon

Frames

Create animations, digital stories, and stop-motion.

Share Icon

Share

Create web sites, epubs, and presentations.

Tech4Learning Blog
Tech4Learning Blog
Tech4Learning Blog
Tech4Learning Blog

January project ideas to engage your students

Posted by Danielle Abernethy on Jan 3, 2019 7:47:00 AM

January is a great month to let students ease back into learning with creativity. I’m usually excited about the new year, but dragging mentally because of holiday overload and the cold weather. Here are some of my favorite opportunities in January to be creative with Wixie while engaging with the curriculum.

New Year's Day: List your goals and resolutions

Start the year off by writing New Year's resolutions for learning in Wixie. Writing down your goals is one of the most important steps to achieving them. The January Month-by-Month folder includes templates you can assign for both resolutions and more detailed SMART goal setting. You can also have students open up a blank page in Wixie and create their goals from scratch.

wixie-resolution

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday: What's your dream?

The most important event that comes to mind when I think of January is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Listen to King's powerful "I Have a Dream" speech, then use the templates in the January Month-by-Month folder to have students summarize the ideas in the speech, compare life for African-Americans before the speech and today, or write their own dreams for their community.

wixie-mlk-i-have-a-dream

January 7th - Old Rock Day: Write about rocks

How many times have we all heard that sometimes a box can be just as fun, if not MORE fun, than playing with a new toy? The same could probably be said for playing, skipping, or painting with rocks. On January 7th, Old Rock Day, take that same excitement into the classroom and have students use Wixie to write and publish stories about a special rock or adventure with rocks they remember from childhood. You can also have students write stories that personify your class's pet rock.

January 18th - Winnie the Pooh Day: Share a quote

Kids love to create and share their own quotes. And, Winnie the Pooh day is a perfect opportunity to bring back that lovable old bear and his stories that teach about persistence, kindness, and adventure. Get your students excited by sharing some of your favorite Pooh stories and quotes and then encourage them to create bookmarks in Wixie with their favorite Pooh quote, or a quote of their own.

wixie-pooh-bookmarkJanuary 20th - Penguin Awareness Day: Explore animal adaptations

When most of us think about penguins, especially in the month of January, we picture these adorable birds waddling around on the cold Antarctic ice. Did you know that there are over 18 different species of penguins and that many of them actually live in warmer climates? Use these fun birds to springboard into a unit on animals and the unique ways they adapt to their environment. Students can also use Wixie to:

  • create graphs of how deep a penguin can dive,
  • mark which penguins can be found where on a map,
  • create trading cards of the different types of penguins,
  • design a penguin habitat for a zoo.

wixie-penguins

January is National Soup Month

While most of us don't cook in our classrooms with students, there are many ways you can use soup as a jumping-off point for your curriculum in January!

Math - Have students survey each other about their favorite soups and graph the results. They can also share the recipe for this soup and scale it to feed the entire class, grade, or even school.

Art - Use Andy Warhol's famous painting of Campbell Soup Cans to introduce students to pop art. Then, ask them to create their own pop-art montage with Wixie (lesson plan).

Language Arts - Read an excerpt from a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Have students interview someone that overcame an obstacle or share their own obstacle story.  Combine their writing into your own class book and share in print or digital form.

Social Studies - explore soups from around the world and build a Wixie project that explores how cooking reflects and creates culture.

Whatever you choose to do to have students be creative while learning, make January a fabulous month to kick start the new year.

Happy creating, Danielle

Topics: Wixie

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