Summer Session Week 2

Kindergarten Spanish:
This week we continued our discussion of amigos with my big bag of puppets! Everyone got an amigo and we learned to ask Como te llamas(What's your name) and Me llamo___(My name is__). We practiced these phrases with name train. As we asked each student "passenger" Como te llamas?, they answered Me llamo___. The class then gave that passenger three cheers as they got on the "train". We soon had the entire class in a long train that chugged around the classroom and back to the alfombra. What fun! After some coloring and more puppet play, it was time to sing our "Adios Amigos" song.

1-2 Technology:

After discussing how our computers are like a house that is sometimes locked, we learned how to login using our "key", our passwords. We definately used our lifeskill of patience as we followed directions and waited for our computers to start up! We reviewed some parts of the computer and then learned how to use the shape tools in Paint to make a monitor, tower, keyboard, and mouse. Some students even made icons and keys. We went to our carpeted "clubhouse" to color a computer parts coloring book while students went in small groups to my hands-on corner to explore the opened tower and other computer parts. I think the hard drive and the CPU were the favorites.

3-4 Technology:

Keyboarding practice first-we always start with 10 min. of Type to Learn. We learned about favorites and bookmarks on the internet and then went to my ikeepbookmarks.com site to check out "The Inside Story" and to practice clicking vs. double clicking with "Tidy the Classroom."

After the classroom was tidied, with everything in its place, we discussed how we have a specific place for saving our documents. Students found their folders by going to R drive, kidsave, teacher name, student name. We used kidspiration "Initial Me" to practice dragging pictures that start with the initials of our first and last name and saved the file in our folders.

Summer Session Week 1

Kindergarten Spanish:
It's so much fun to meet our new kindergarteners-they grow up so much during that first year that I always forget how little they really are when they first start. We began by learning some of the areas of the classroom such as the alfombra(carpet), mesas(tables), puerta(door), and ventana(window) and then learned the Buenos Dias song that we will always use to start our lesson. Here it is, in case you want to sing at home(to the tune of "Are You Sleeping):

Buenos dias, good morning
Como estas, how are you?

Muy bien gracias, very well thank you

y usted, and you?

The rest of the class centered on the theme of amigos and how they act and treat each other. We read A Cat and A Dog by Claire Masurel in English and Spanish, colored our amiga Dora the Explorer, and tied the class into the Kindergarten yearlong theme of "Hooray for the World" by watching some of Dora's World Friendship Day.

1-2 Technology:

This is the first year I am teaching technology to the first and second graders. We started off by discussing procedures and respect for property-our first cyberethics lesson. We read Arthur's Computer Disaster, by Marc Brown and did a related color sheet(an hour class is a long time in the beginning of the year!) We then went to the computers and learned the difference between monitor and tower/computer, explored the desktops, and checked out the Fort Craig homepage. The highlight of the class for most of the students was exploring our Paint icon and practicing with the tools. 3-4 Technology:

Our class theme for the next few weeks will be "The Inside Story." We read The Magic Schoolbus Gets Programmed and had some hands-on time with some hardware such as cables, CPU, disc drive, hard drive, and power supply. After reviewing our computer log-in procedures, we talked about the home row keys and proper keyboarding position. The students started their first Type to Learn lesson, a keyboarding program that we will use for 10-15 minutes at the beginning of each class. Finally, it was time to learn how to shutdown, not just turn off, the computers.

Check Out The Computer Lab!

Thanks to all the teachers (and my superb, though not super willing daughter) who helped me haul away old monitors and clean out cabinets, we now have a clean, uncluttered lab with a separate workspace/carpet area for stories and paperwork. I've added lifeskills, bulletin boards, and a hands-on hardware hunt area to explore. Check it out!

Our New School Year 2009-2010!

I'm so excited to be back in school after our short break. We have lots of changes for this year-3rd and 4th grade classes mixed up for specials, and B1-2 now in tech instead of Spanish! Caramba! My goal is to update this blog each weekend with news of the past week's lessons, so check back often to see what we are learning!

Mrs. Hurst's Mini-Mall

Oops, one commercial accidentally got left out of the mall. Here is the new, improved version!

Get Ready For Market Day!!

3-4 classes have been busy making their market day products, so now it is time to advertise their wares. Students drew a picture of their company spokesperson and took a digital picture of their drawings. Using a cool program called Crazy Talk, we brought the drawings to life with voice and animation. I pieced all the individual commercials together with Windows Movie Maker into a Mini-Mall commercial for each class. Check them out!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

Mrs. Waddell's class shows of their maracas!

Kindergarten students had fun (most of them) working with our ooey-gooey paper mache last week to make our maracas. This week we paint them, and also learn all about Cinco de Mayo and the Battle of Puebla. The maracas look great--hopefully they will make it home in one piece!