Radio Willowweb

Radio Willowweb is Willowdale Elementary School’s school radio. Kindergarten to fifth grade students at Willowdale create podcasts or ‘Willowcasts’ as the school calls it. The show has won several awards and has even been published by Scholastics as #2 in their Top Ten Podcasts. I think this is such a precious and great idea. I mean what better way to empower your students is there? The students spend time researching a certain topic and with the help of teachers from the school, they create their podcasts.

The first podcast I chose to review is Radio Willowweb’s first ever all-kindergarten podcast was possible the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s a little hard to understand the kindergarteners, but they’ll impress you with their knowledge about President’s Day. The students spent weeks reading books and researching presidents just to produce this podcast!

The second podcast I chose to review is a group of fifth graders learning about matter. This group is easier to understand than the group of kindergarteners I listened to last. It very organized and most of the students are very articulate. I was very impressed with the students, their knowledge, and how they presented it.

The third podcast I chose to review is a group of second grade boys from Mrs. Januelwicz’s class. The boys have completed a research project about volcanoes and wanted to share some of the information they learned about the volcanoes. Personally, my favorite part of the podcast was the comedic aspect. The boys had me rolling in laughter at their cheesy volcano jokes! The second graders aren’t as articulate as the fifth graders, but you can understand them.