Making Learning Fun at Washington Primary School

Washington Primary School teacher Lauren Whitney’s first grade class recently participated in the Mitten Videoconference Project 2024, which is being facilitated by the New York State Distance Learning Consortium.

Students were able to practice reading, writing, and researching skills as well as following directions and speaking skills through an interactive videoconferencing project.

Mrs. Whitney’s class was paired with a first grade class located in Upstate Oneida County. Before the videoconference session, both classes read the story “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.

“They used mitten cut-outs and animals suggested to create mittens with animals,” Mrs. Whitney said. “Each student learned about a different in the story and used adjectives to describe their animals. The classes connected via a videoconference to guess which animals the other class had hidden in their mitten by the clues given.”

This learning experience gave students an opportunity to choose an animal they were interested in learning about that appeared in the story. They, then, conducted research about the animal, wrote about the animal and presented facts about their animal to a captivating audience.

Washington Primary School’s classes have participated in this videoconference initiative in each of the past three years.

Washington Principal Dr. Michelle Richards loves it when teachers make learning fun.