Blogging and the Classroom

I introduced blogging this year with my sixth graders as a way to encourage communication between classmates regarding classroom activities, for example their classic novel characters. I have added another blog for students to discuss memories of their elementary years as they will be "graduating" from elementary school this year. Overall the students have been excited about the process and it has been quite successful.

Just last week, I introduced blogging to a class of 5th graders as a way to recognize the efforts of classmates' autobiographical presentations. Unfortunately, it was not met with much enthusiasm  but I will continue to try. As this is new to the students, it is also new to the teachers and they don't know what to make of it.

I would like to use it with my fourth graders, but wonder if anyone has blogged with students 8-10 years old? If you have had blogging experience with this age, good or bad, please share, or if you have come across a blog with kids this age, I would be interested to see it.

I teach technology to students in grades 3-6 and many of them do not have email accounts, so I have to open up the blogs to anyone, so students can blog "anonymously". I have students just type their first name and there is nothing on the blog to indicate who the kids are or where we live. I am using Blogger and wonder if there is a way around having the blog open to anyone. Thanks for any input.

I would like to continue creating opportunities for my students to blog and expand it to my 4-6th grade classes. I will use it as a way to showcase student work and hopefully encourage parent involvement that way. I believe blogging can be a great tool for students and have seen my own children use it successfully in middle and high school. I struggle with what my expectations should be for elementary school age students. Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome.