Using Popplet in Content Areas

I love integrating IT across the curriculum. I believe that it is important that the kids are able to apply 21st century IT skills both at school and at home rather than just "IT class". This year in Grade 4, the kids are more computer savvy. They come with a wealth of computer knowledge - appropriate to the grade level rather than last year where a lot of the first half of the year was dedicated to typing skills.

Having said that, the third graders were able to produce some green screen and common craft pieces towards the end of the year.

In Science, we have been regulated to the Scott Foresman series which I find particularly dry. We are learning about classifying plants. In Hong Kong, it is difficult to find certain species of common North American plants due to the climate of our country. I decided to use Popplet  as an activity to classify different plants. This also linked in nicely with our Reading Street comprehension skill, graphic sources.

First, I divided up my class into five groups. Each group was assigned a plant classification : vascular, non-vascular, spores, cones and seeds and flowering plans. Then, within each group, they paired up.
I told my students I was grading them on individual participation and on team work. This is the rubric I used.

In our school, we are aligned with the IB curriculum, so our rubrics are out a scale of 7. It easily adaptable. You can get it here.

Once the kids are logged in, they started working on their Popplets.  I went through a demonstration with the students. We talked about how the diagram should start from the relevant kingdom. In my demonstration, I chose to use animals, vertebrates and invertebrates.

The final product looked like this:

 This website can translate to pretty much anything and kids are super proud when they are done with it! So many reasons why students should use Popplet!