Fall Session Week 10

Enjoy some holiday games!

B1-2 Technology:

1. Warm up with Paratrooper Sheep
2. Listen to Olive the Other Reindeer

3. Use your addition skills to Build a Holiday House

4. Help the penguins at Arctic Antics

5. Decorate some cakes!

6. Gift Stack

7. Make some holiday pictures at Kerpoof

3-4 Technology:

1. Warm up your fingers with Snow Typer

2. Take the speed test (home row fingers!) and record your score for December in your folder

3. Check out this huge list of holiday games!

4. And here are some more!

Fall Session Week 9

B1-2 Technology

1. Let's warm up with the Reindeer Orchestra!

2. We will explore some different winter holidays with Annie and Moby at Brainpopjr.

3. Buster celebrates Baxter Day! Open your folder and use Microsoft Word to tell me what your special   day would look like. Can you add some clip art?

4. If you finish early, you can explore some of these Arthur games.

3-4 Technology:

1. Take the one minute typing time test and record your score for December on the Typing Test document in your tech folder.

2. We will use the jpeg image slides of the holiday PowerPoint you made last week to create a movie in animoto. Your finished product will look something like this:

3. Embed the video on your blog for everyone to enjoy!

Fall Session Week 8

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90821451@N00/5288515562

B1-2 Technology:

1. Warm up your fingers with the Cup Stacking keyboarding game. Remember to use two hands on the keyboard!

2. Let's use Paint to make a holiday picture. We will put the pictures together for a special treat for your teacher and parents.

3. Take a Walk in the Woods and explore the Cloud Forest. Which one is more like the field trip your class took to look at trees?

4. Can you light the Christmas tree?

3-4 Technology:

1. Type to Learn

2. What sort of things do you think of when you think of Winter holidays? We will make a 15 slide powerpoint with words and images to use next week in an animoto video. (Thanks, Kevin Jarrett, for this great lesson idea!)

Fall Session Week 7

Catch up week and Thanksgiving holidays-I am so thankful for all of you!

Fall Session Week 6

B1-2 Technology:

1. Tux typing lesson and game to warm up your fingers!

2. Glyphs are a picture form of data. This week you will use Kerpoof's Make a Drawing to draw a turkey like the one below and color it according to your Thanksgiving information.



3. When you are done, you can have free Kerpoof time, or play some Thanksgiving games such as

The Coolest Turkey, Thanksgiving Dinner Bounce, Color Fun, Thanksgiving Word Search, Turkey Match,  Find Pete the Turkey, and this big list of Thanksgiving games.

3-4 Technology:

1. Type to Learn

2. It's the season to give thanks, and one thing I'm thankful for is spellcheck! Open your tech folder and find the spellcheck document. Follow the directions and add a Thanksgiving clipart picture at the end. Save in your folder.

3. Go to your blog and write a post about something you are thankful for and why. Add a creative commons picture-don't forget the attribution! When you are done you may comment on blogs, play Free rice, or play some of the Thanksgiving games listed on the B1-2 list.

Fall Session Week 5

B1-2 Technology:



http://photozou.jp/photo/show/106720/16223347

We've been talking about signs of Fall-migrating monarchs, pumpkings, and definately the beautiful changing leaves. Start with Tux Typing lesson 5, then do the following activities:

1. Open your folder and find the color poem by Margaret Wise Brown. Format the font color of all the color words and add some fall clip art at the end. Save your work!

2. Watch "Why do leaves change color?"

3. Play some Fall leaf games like Fall Fever, Leaf Sweep, Fall Match Game, and Make an Acorn.

3-4 Technology:



http://www.crunchbase.com/company/big-universe

After warming up our keyboarding fingers with Type to Learn, it is back to Big Universe to finish the books we started. If your book is finished and published, can you copy and paste a link to it on your blog for everyone to enjoy? You can start a new book, read books, work on your blog, or improve your vocabulary while helping others by playing Free Rice.

Fall Session Week 4

B1-2 Technology:

Let's talk about our Cyberspace Neighborhood and how to stay safe online. We will meet the
Webville Outlaws at Netsmartzkids.org.

 http://www.netsmartzkids.org/MatchingAndPuzzles/WebvilleRoundup

1.Play the Webville Roundup and put those bad cybervillains in jail!

2. Watch the Princess Who Was Safe Online

3. Play Bad guy Patrol and get all the flags!

3-4 Technology:





http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalsey/132463573/

1. After our Type to Learn warm-up, we will use Microsoft excel to make a graph of our favorite candy we got Trick-or-Treating.

2. Play some candy brain games like Feed the Panda, and Sugar Sugar.



Fall Session Week 3

B1-2 Technology:

1. Tux Typing Lesson 3

2. Put together your Pumpkin Math book

Check out the world's largest pumpkin grown by Jim Bryson in Quebec, Canada. It weighs 1,818 pounds!



http://inhabitat.com/nyc/worlds-largest-pumpkin-to-be-carved-at-the-new-york-botanical-garden/

3. Play some pumpkin games!

http://www.onlinepumpkincarving.com/

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/braingames/pumpkins/pumpkins.htm

http://www.physicsgames.net/game/Pumpkin_Remover_3.html

4. Watch a Halloween video at Speakaboos

3-4 Technology:

1. Check in on your blog and see if you have any comments. Respond to questions that people asked if needed.

2. We will talk about Creative Commons and how to insert a picture that you did not take

3. Try the keyboard challenge picture-what did it make?

Fall Session Week 2

B1-2 Technology:

1. Start with Tux Typing lesson 2. Try to keep your fingers on the home row keys.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/46257312@N04/4444061098

2. Let's learn some facts about pumpkins!



Open your folder and find the powerpoint called Pumpkin Math. Complete the activities and save-don't forget to include some pumpkin facts on the last slide and format the text. We will make these into a little book next week.

3-4 Technology:



http://www.flickr.com/photos/31699569@N00/2836828090

It's time to start blogging! We will talk about blogs, learn how to log in, write our first post, insert a picture, and discuss commenting etiquette. Away we go!

Fall Session Week 1

B1-2 Technology:

Welcome Back to Fall Session!

1. It's time to start trying to use some home row fingers. Meet A Silly Dancing Frog. Do Lesson 1 of Tux Typing.

2. Let's learn about Fall with Brainpop Jr.

3. Go to Kerpoof and make a Fall picture. Use the text box to add a sentence about why you like Fall. Save the picture as a jpeg in your folder.

4. Play some Fall games

Nut Hunt

Build a Scarecrow

Spot the Differences

3-4 Technology:

1. Type to Learn keyboarding

2. Let's learn how to write a story with Big Universe! Make sure you save your story. If you finish early, you can read other stories or go to Study Island.

Fort Craig Flash Mob

We surprised our students and parents with a Flash Mob on our last Friday Family Gathering before Fall break. So much fun! Great team building activity as well-I think we look pretty good after only two practices. What do you think?
 

Summer Session Week 10

Time for fun!

Our last class of  the summer session was a fun free day. B-1-2 practiced making pictures, spelling pictures, and spending their "money" on kerpoof. 3-4 students loved challenging each other and unknown students around the world in Arcademic Skill Builder games.  See everyone in October!

Summer Session Week 9

B1-2 Technology:
For a change of pace, this week we played Key Bricks as our keyboarding warm-up. We talked more about monarch life cycle and migration, and explored the monarch winter home in Mexico.  We used kerpoof to make a picture of the life cycle of a monarch. It was the first time our youngers used kerpoof, so logging in was an adventure! Remember, you can have kerpoof fun from home-everyone should have brought home sheets with log in instructions.

3-4 Technology:

Students started class by taking a timed typing test and recording their score. We will take the same test several times throughout the year to see how our speed and accuracy improve. Students finished their Cybersmart powerpoints by adding slide transitions, backgrounds, and custom animation. Finally, the last few minutes were spent playing math skill games with people from all around the country, maybe the world, on the Arcademic Skill Builder site.

Summer Session Week 8

B1-2 Technology:

No keyboarding this week. Instead, we gathered in the "clubhouse" to read Gotta Go! Gotta Go!, a great book about the monarch migration to Mexico. Each fall, monarchs from all over the United States and Canada migrate to the same 12 mountain tops in central Mexico where they roost all winter long in the oyamel fir trees. They find this spot all on their own, never having been there before. It is an incredible story, one that you can learn all about by exploring the fantastic site, Journey North. We used Google earth to check out the monarch sanctuary and to "fly" the 1900 miles there from Maryville, Tn and discussed how monarchs are a shared resource between the countries in North America. The students all made symbolic monarchs which will also spend the winter in Mexico. In the spring, we will get back paper monarchs from students all over the United States and Canada. Thanks to Journey North, everything will be entered on a collaborative map so we will be able to track where our butterflies landed in the spring. Very exciting!

3-4 Technology:

Are you Cyber Smart? Fort Craig students are! After some Dance Mat keyboarding, we started working on a Cyber Smart powerpoint. This week, students added slides for each of our SMART rules: Safe, Manners, Attachments, Reliable, Tell. They wrote text and inserted pictures for each slide. We spent the last 10 minutes of class exploring the social networking features of Kerpoof, including the message boards, emailing pictures, and "favoriting" pictures.

Summer Session Week 7

      

B1-2 Technology:
                                   

 While the B1-2 students focus on ants in their classroom, in the tech lab we are all about butterflies, especially monarchs. After our keyboarding, we spent 30 seconds "catching" some butterflies so we could examine them more closely. We noticed that butterflies and ants both have the same body parts since they are both insects. Just like people, though, there are still lots of differences even though the body parts are the same. We looked at some butterfly photos and took a few minutes to make our own unique butterfly. Next, we looked more closely at the life cycle of the monarch butterfly and compared it to an ant's life cycle. It was so exciting to see the caterpillar munch milkweed, go into it's chrysalis, and emerge as an adult butterfly! Students played the life cycle game, colored the life cycle online, and made a butterfly garden. Next week we get ready to migrate!   



 

3-4 Technology:

This week we took a break from Type to Learn to do a little Dance Mat Typing.  We continued our internet safety lessons by discussing a Word document about being Cyber SMART-Safe (Don't give out personal information or meet people offline), Manners (Don't be a cyber bully!), Attachments (Don't open emails or download things from people you don't know to avoid getting a computer virus),  Reliable (People online might not be who they say they are and don't believe everything you read online), and Tell (a trusted adult if something or someone bothers you online.) The real fun came when students learned how to format the background of a document! After experimenting with several backgrounds and then saving the finished product, students used a space background in Kerpoof to make a Cyber Space Rules picture. Here is a an example:  

    

Summer Session Week 6

B1-2 Technology:
Keyboarding practice, then more bugs-this time, computer bugs! And even though the very first computer "bug" was an actual moth (now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of American History) found in the electrical circuits of a 1947 Mark II computer, I don't mean real bugs like this:



We talked instead about computer viruses and how to try and prevent them-don't open emails and attachments from people you don't know, don't click on pop up ads, don't download things without your parents permission, and always have antivirus software installed. We watched the Netsmartz clip "Don't Open That File!" and played the computer virus game and the Cyberchase game, Bugs in the System before going to the clubhouse to color our own computer bugs.

3-4 Technology:
More Type to Learn-students are really moving through the lessons. Some even skip the optional games so they can advance more quickly and reach level 10 when they can join the "Underwear Club" and have their keyboard covered with a pair of boxer shorts! After keyboarding, students had fun using my smartphone to decode our "Who Am I?" Qr code people in the hallway.



While waiting for their group's turn with the phone, students made an avatar to save in their folder, and completed the Professor Garfield Online Safety lessons where they learned what things are appropriate to post on the internet  and what things are not. They played Red remover to get rid of the bad things (red) and keep the good ones (green).
                                                                   Here is my avatar:

Computer Challenge #2

Bad Guy Patrol

Click on ages 8-10 and complete all the missions to collect your flags.

Print out your certificate, or have a parent write a note that you completed the activity, and bring it to me to get your name entered in the "I can" can!

Summer Session Week 5

B1-2 Technology:
We started class this week with our usual keyboarding practice, and then watched the Tumblebook Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.  Insects can come in so many sizes and colors-a good lead in to formatting with Microsoft word! We went to our tech folders and opened the file "A Bug's Life." Students learned how to highlight words, center the title, change font size and color, and even how to add a clipart picture. These are big skills and they did great with them! Of course, this is something we will continue to practice.

3-4 Technology:
Do you know what Qr codes are? Now the third and fourth graders do! After keyboarding, we discussed these quick response codes and how they can be used. We watched the following video clip:


Students next used Qurify to make a code of their name which they then copied onto a "Who Am I?" word document of clues. They colored around the code to turn it into a person. We will hang these in the hall and have fun next week using a smart phone to decode them.

Summer Session Week 4

B1-2 Technology:



This week was all about insects! We started the class with our keyboarding practice-youngers do keyseeker, olders do keyboard climber, and everyone uses two hands on the keyboard. After our keyboarding, we reviewed some insect facts the students had learned in their classroom and tested our knowledge, and mouse skills, with Insect World and Insect Hunt. We took a quick break to relieve our ears from the headphones and to watch Insect Rally, the video clip shown above, and then continued with more insect activities such as Archibald's Adventure, Monster Bugs, and Shoo Bug.

3-4 Technology:

After our Type to Learn keyboarding, we talked about carefully evaluating information that is found online. We used Professor Garfield: Fact or Opinion to practice, and then did some research to find out some new things about a topic about which they are the experts-themselves! Students used the internet to find out the origen or meaning of their first names, how many people in the United States have the same name, exactly how many days old they are, and something that happened on their birthday in history. It was a fun and exciting class!

Summer Session Week 3

B1-2 Technology:
We started this week with our youngers in the "clubhouse" exploring keyboards. While we talked about using two hands, shift keys, and the enter key, the olders practiced their two handed keyboarding with a favorite site from last year-Keyboard Climber. After a short review of hardware/software and how to find my bookmarks, students listened to the Tumblebook Ace Lacewing: Bad Bug's Are My Business. We played Catch the Letterbugs for a good phonics and mouse skill practice and then used Paint to make self portraits to save in our system tech folders.

3-4 Technology:

  http://maximumglogg.blogspot.com/2010/07/friday-font-fun_23.html

This week was all about fun with fonts. After our keyboarding Type to Learn practice, we reviewed the concept of fonts and how to format them in Microsoft Word. We created a "Favorite Font" sheet and then had fun making our fonts "dance" with the cool site, Font de Music. Here is my example. Next, we learned about Word Art and opened up our avatar documents from last week. This time, instead of adding clip art pictures, we added three word art words that could represent us, such as artistic, friendly, or soccer player.

Summer Session Week 2

B1-2 Technology:

http://www.easyvectors.com/browse/other/computer-mouse-vector-8

This week was all about exploring computer hardware and software. We watched a short Brainpop movie about computer parts and then completed the activity of sorting hardware parts into input and output devices. Moving on to software, students used internet explorer and learned about the address bar, bookmarks, favorites, minimize and maximize. They learned how to go to my ikeepbookmark list of activites and how to use the back arrow to return to the list. After working through some mouse skill lessons, students played some mouse skill games while waiting for their chance to go to the "clubhouse" and get their hands on my taken apart computer and computer components such as the cpu, harddrive, memory, and sound cards.

3-4 Technology:

entertainmentwallpaper.com

My older students started with Type to Learn, the keyboarding program we will be using most of the year. After their keyboarding practice, we discussed avatars (which are not always blue with tails!) and internet safety. The students typed their avatar, or computer nicknames in Word and practiced formatting font style, size, and color to create their unique avatar names. They also added 3 clipart pictures which represent something of themselves, then finished up the class with some mouse skill games.

Summer Session Week 1

http://www.bucciteacher.com/computer_winker_hw.gif

 

Our first week was a review (and first time look for my 1st graders!) of computer lab rules and procedures, basic hardware, and terminology such as desktop, icon, and browser. B1-2 students had fun exploring the tools (and practicing some mouse skills) in Paint, while 3-4 students contributed to my Wallwisher to share something about their summer break and then used Paint to illustrate it.

Back To School!

 Before we jump into a new school year,  click "Post a sticky" on the wall below and tell me something about your Summer.

Summer Fun-Great American Energy Scavenger Hunt

A great contest from Project Need.  Maybe you will be a winner!

K-12 SUMMER ACTIVITY

THE GREAT AMERICAN ENERGY SCAVENGER HUNT

This summer, as you are 

out and about, keep your 

eyes open for energy all 

around you. Look for as 

many of the following 

energy-related objects 

as you can find and send 

them to NEED. Send in 

the  most photos and win 

a prize! There will be one 

winner per grade range 

(K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12).

DIRECTIONS

1.Bring this list with you whenever you 

go out and look for as many energyrelated objects as you can find. 

2.As you find objects, take a picture with 

a digital camera or camera phone.

3.Have your parents or teacher help you e-mail the photos to contest@NEED.org with "Energy Scavenger Hunt" in the subject 

line. In the e-mail, be sure to include a description of each picture along with your name, age, and state. If you took the 

picture on vacation, include where you were when you took the picture. You can also post pictures to our Facebook page: 

http://www.facebook.com/NEEDProject

4.Submissions must be received by August 31, 2011. Winners in each age-range (grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) will be contacted 

in September.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

‰ Air Conditioning Unit

‰ Alternative Fuels Fueling Station

‰ Anemometer

‰ Automatic Faucet

‰ Bicycle

‰ Ceiling Fan

‰ Coal Pile

‰ Coal Train Car

‰ Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb

‰ Compost Pile

‰ Corn Field

‰ Dual-flush Toilet

‰ E85 Ethanol Pump

‰ E85 Ethanol Vehicle (FlexFuel)

‰ Electric Company Substation

‰ Electric Meter

‰ Electric Power Plant

‰ Energy Guide Label

‰ ENERGY STAR appliance

‰ Gasoline Terminal

‰ Gas Station

‰ Geyser or Hot Spring

‰ High Voltage Transmission Lines

‰ Hot Air Balloon

‰ Hybrid Electric Vehicle

‰ Hydrogen Vehicle

‰ Hydropower Dam

‰ Lantern (LED or Propane)

‰ LED Light Bulb

‰ LEED Certified Building (most have a 

sign that promotes the certification)

‰ Low Flow Shower Head

‰ Natural Gas-powered Vehicle

‰ Natural Gas Meter

‰ Oil/Natural Gas Drilling Site

‰ Oil Pump

‰ Oil Tanker Ship

‰ Pipelines or Pipeline Sign (Petroleum 

or Natural Gas)

‰ Power Plant

‰ Power Strip

‰ Programmable Thermostat

‰ Propane Grill

‰ Recycling Bin

‰ Recycling Center

‰ Refinery

‰ Residential Propane Tank

‰ Reusable Grocery Bag

‰ Sailboat

‰ Skylight

‰ Solar Clothes Dryer

‰ Solar Panel (large-scale)

‰ Solar Panel (small-scale)

‰ Solar Water Heater

‰ Tanker Truck

‰ Tankless Water Heater

‰ Utility Smart Meter

‰ Utility Worker

‰ Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

‰ Weather Stripping

‰ Weather Vane

‰ Wind Turbine (small-scale)

‰ Wind Turbine or Wind Farm

(large, commercial-scale)

‰ Wood Pile

‰ Other: _________________________

Summer Fun-Mister Maker Magic Paintbox

Do you like Make a Drawing in Kerpoof? If so, you'll love Mister Maker Magic Paintbox. Check out all the things you can draw with, from rainbow rollers to glue and buttons to pasta and more! Here is my quick example.

Happy Drawing!

Summer Fun-Isle of Tune

Summer might be the time for roadtrips, but you can create your own musical journey at Isle of Tune . Cick "Create an Island", lay down roads, houses, trees, etc. and adjust tones and volume. Place the cars and press go to hear your creation as the cars drive around. See what different patterns sound like. You can click the picture above to see my quick example, but be sure to click the "View Islands" button to see some really cool ones! I learned about this neat activity at the fantastic iLearn Technology blog.

Spring Session Week 8

Graduation picture by Jan Brett

Our last full week of school-this year has flown by! We said goodbye to old teachers and hello to new ones by emailing Jan Brett postcards ,and then enjoyed exploring the "Just for Fun" folder on ikeepbookmarks. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer break!

Spring Session Week 7

B1-2 Technology:
After our last week of keyboarding, we reviewed different things we could do with font and microsoft Word and even made our font rock out with Font de Music. We worked on formatting fun and a self evaluation in our tech star folder, and then uploaded our folder picture into Picnik for some photo editing fun! Be sure to check out the results at Portfolio Night.

3-4Technology:
This week students used the digital photos they took last week to make a movie with Photopeach and embed it onto their Kidblog. They had a great time watching each other's movies and leaving comments-a wonderful way to end up the year before Portfolio Night. Here is an example I made using some of the artistic, non-face pictures taken by students on the playground:
On Our Playground on PhotoPeach

Spring Session Week 6

B1-2 Technology:

After our Dance Mat practice, students traveled around the Panwapa World. It was fun seeing how excited the children got "visiting" other countries, finding homes, and leaving cards for the other Panwapa kids. We used some deductive reasoning and search techniques playing the Treasure Hunt game, sorting the world into different views and looking for specific Panwapa kids that fit a given description. Finally, we watched a Panwapa video about Oleg, a Russian boy living in Siberia who packs up and moves his whole house as their family follows their reindeer in search of more food. We had some great discussions about cultural differences and similarities after viewing this. Most of the students brought their Panwapa login information home so they could play again on their own, but if not, they can easily create a new profile.

3-4 Technology:

http://lauraparker14.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/kids-digital-camera-reviews.jpg

Technology is not just computers! Today was a first for our tech lab-after watching a short Brainpop movie about taking digital pictures, we broke into groups of 3 or 4, each group with their own camera. Thanks Boosters! Students went out on the playground to take photos and experiment with different types of framing-closeups, strange viewpoints, wide angle, etx. Lots of creativity and fun. We uploaded the photos into a folder which will be used next week to create a movie to embed on our blogs.

Spring Session Week 5

B1-2 Technology:
This week we started class by doing some assessments in our Tech Star folders, but then soon got on to more exciting things with the site Panwapa World. Designed by the people behind Sesame Street, Panwapa World is a "multimedia global initiative" to encourage children to become responsible global citizens-read all about it here. Because we know not to use our full names on the internet, we started today by logging in and getting a username, making a password, and then creating our panwapa kid identity, house, and flag of interests. We'll use these as we "travel" around the world next week "meeting" children from other countries. Here is my passport:

We also played the "hide and seek" game on the site, which had a neat twist-the counting and clues were all in a different language!

3-4 Technology:
This week was all about getting ready for Market Day. First, students used powerpoint to create a business card-special thanks to Emma, who was my Queen of the Printer! After the card was finished, students used Voki to create an advertisement that is a Celebrity endorsement.and embed it onto their kidblog. We had a few technical difficulties with the site, but most students were able to create a commercial to show their class. Here is one example:

Spring Session Week 4

B1-2 Technology:



http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/finalfoot.gif

As B1-2 students talk about rocks and fossils in their classrooms, we talked about some of the "fossils" we can leave behind on the internet-our "digital footprints". We did a great activity from commonsensemedia.org called Follow the Digital Trail. Students worked in small groups to find clues about Mizzle the mouse and Electra the elephant and decide who left the bigger digital footprint. While waiting for their chance to go on the clue trail, students worked on some rock, fossil and dinosaur internet sites including Bitesize Science Rocks and Weathering, You Dig!, Dinosphere Children's Museum, and Brainpopjr. Fossils.

3-4 Technology:

Students are getting ready to create a business for a good or service for their class Market Day, so we talked about advertising. We discussed how advertising is all around us, especially on the internet whether you are on google search or a fun game site like nick.com. We discussed pop up ads and pop up blockers, then tried to find all the ads in Admongo, a game created by the Federal Trade Commission to teach children about advertising.

Spring Session Week 3

B1-2 Technology:
Our study of habitats coincided perfectly with some Earth day activities this week. We talked about how humans can affect habitats and watched these great little video clips from Animals Save the Planet. This one was their favorite! 
The children created a creature in Eekoworld and did a great job making ecofriendly decisions about their home and environment.

3-4 Technology:

Our last week with Shidonni-can't say I am sad to see it end! The students really enjoyed it and many are playing at home, but the technical difficulties of using it in the lab made it very frustrating. This week we took our country research and turned one of our Shidonni worlds into that country with an appropriate landscape, flag, and place to visit. Our "pet" was a person from that country dressed in traditional clothes with a traditional name. We also drew some traditional food for our person to eat.

Spring Session Week 2

B1-2 Technology:
After our keyboarding practice, students reviewed habitats and animal classifications. Since we started the year focusing on mammals, this time we talked about birds and combined it with a fantastic activity borrowed from Ann Oro at St. Michael School that teaches skills for reading a web page. Students went to Enchanted Learning's Bird Picture Dictionary site and searched for birds matching the clues on their worksheet-a bird scavenger hunt! This reinforced scrolling through a web site, alphabetical order of dictionary words, reading for information (and not just guessing!), and patience. After they finished, students could explore some animal activities such as Funschool's Bird Watcher, Design a Panda Habitat, Paint and Make Habitats, and Bembo's Zoo.

3-4 Technology:
Our "Underwear Club" for Type to Learn is growing as more students hit level 10 and are restarted, this time with boxers on the keyboard to cover the letters! After keyboarding, we checked in on our Shidonni pets to see what other countries they traveled to and then picked one country to research using a variety of sites including google search, Trekearth photos, and the Cultural Profiles Project. Students copied and pasted pictures and information onto a Word document about their country's flag, landscape, traditional food and dress, popular names, and places to visit. We will be using all this information next week for our final Shidonni activity.

Computer Challenge #1

Click here on World of Wonders , take a long trip, and print your certificate! Return your certificate or parent note to me and get your name in the "I can" can!

Spring Session Week 1

B1-2 technology:
Habitats, habitats, got to have a habitat! Check out the habitat song. After Dance Mat typing, we talked about habitats, things plants and animals need to survive, and how different needs require different habitats. We tested this with the Build a Habitat activity-each time we changed animals, we had to adjust things in the habitat like precipitation, plants, and environment to make it happy. After that, we read about a pretend creature called the Manatami and had to draw a habitat where it could survive based on things we learned about what it ate and how it lived.

Any extra time was spent exploring the interesting world of Switchzoo where we could make our own imaginary creatures.

3-4 Technology:
For keyboarding practice this week, we logged in to our Kidblogs and blogged about Spring break. While many of us were traveling or just enjoying the time at home, our Shidonni animals were out traveling the world! We checked out their travel diary to see what countries they visited and then drew their trip on a map, including information like country, capital city, and continent. We used the search engine Wolfram Alpha to find out the travel time from Maryville, Tn to each country and added that information to our maps as well before we sent our pet out traveling for another 6 days.

Winter Session Week 10

Shidonni World Fun!

As we get ready to leave school for our 3 week Spring Break (before you get too jealous, remember that we started school the middle of July!), students had a great time using the web site Shidonni . 3-4 students got their own account (username tc311avatarname) and created a world by drawing a pet/imaginary creature, designing the world's background, drawing food, and playing with their pet. Our goal was to complete 3 missions in order to apply for a passport so our pet could travel the world over break and we can do some country research and project work next session. That's where B1-2 helped out! Since pets can only play games to complete 2 missions a day, B1-2 students got to play games on the 3-4 accounts to help earn them their 3rd mission. As a reward, B1-2 students earned their own world where they got to be the designers! Everyone loved this site, especially getting to watch their pets have babies and birthday parties.

Winter Session Week 9

B1-2 Technology:

We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday this week by watching some of the beginner book video of The Cat in the Hat. We talked about how the children really should not have let that cat (or any other stranger) in while their Mother was out (and reviewed some internet safety tips as well!) and used Kidspiration to brainstorm some other things they could do on a  rainy day. After saving their work, the children had fun using Paint to create their own hat for the Cat and enjoyed playing some Seussville games. Here's an example of my hat:

3-4 Technology:

The older students focused more on Read Across America week with lots of book activity free choices. They could use GoAnimate to make a new animation about a book character or author, use Kerpoof to Tell A Story, Watch some Tumblebooks, or play some games based on their favorite books here or here.

Have you seen the Cat in the Hat rap? Check it out!

Winter Session Week 8

B1-2 Technology:

This week we continued our work with the Tooth Tally project by checking watching the Tumblebook You Think It's Easy Being The Tooth Fairy and then watching our published videos and voicethreads on our tally page. We had a lot of fun checking out the map to see some of the other schools who are participating from all over the world. It was exciting to "visit" schools in Thailand, Japan, Germany, and New Zealand but just as exciting to find our own Fort Craig on the map. We spent the remainder of the class playing some map skill games such as Adventure Island, State Puzzle game, and Treasure Hunt.

3-4 Technology:
Students continued work on their goanimate famous person autobiography by adding effects like music and props. Unfortunately, we can't embed them on the blog, but students can watch each others' and send comments. Have your student log in to the site and show you what they did!

Winter Session Week 7

B1-2 Technology:

We love shiny teeth! In fact, we took digital pictures of ours to make into an animoto video to put on our tooth tally wiki pages-just scroll down on the tally page and click on our Fort Craig classrooms to check it out and keep track of our missing and wobbly teeth for the next few months. We love lots of things besides teeth, though, and practiced inserting motion clips and clip art photos into a "Things I Love" powerpoint slide for our Winter Wonderland Wiki project. We also had fun sending Jan Brett Valentine emails to our teachers and playing some Fun School valentine games.

3-4 Technology:
This week we explored a new site- GoAnimate4Schools. Students went through the animation tutorial and then began using their biography research to create an animation using their famous person talking and giving their autobiography-also a good chance to discuss the differences between biography and autobiography! There was lots of excitement as students played around with the different special effects, voices, and actions.
We finished up our class by watching some of the Jeopardy match with Watson, the IBM supercomputer and discussing how computer technology continues to change.

Check out our Tooth Fairy Voicethreads!

Mrs. Storie's Class:


Mrs. Sinclair's Class:


Mrs. Connell's Class:


Mrs. Dotson's Class:


Mrs. Barham's Class:


Mrs. Keyl's Class: