B1-2 Technology:
We started keyboarding this week! Olders reviewed their skills from last year with Keyboard Climber while the youngers met in the "clubhouse" to explore keyboards and learn about which hands do which letters. In the beginning, we focus on two hands on the keyboard and work up to homerow fingers later in the year. In keeping with our family/house theme, we watched the Tumblebook story "Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10" and then did some click and drag mouse practice with Castle Creator. After a discussion of files and folders, students found their folder and opened up a My Family Paint document to complete. It's tough to draw with a mouse, but they did a great job!
3-4 Technology:
Type to Learn keyboarding to start gave me time to take everyone's picture-we reviewed input and output devices as the pictures were uploaded and renamed. This week we discussed avatars and cyberspace. We talked about how cyberspace isn't make believe like Pandora or Neverland. Even though you may explore virtural worlds, they are made up of real people communicating and bad things can really happen-we have to use our Netsmartz! The students had a great time using an avatar editor to make avatars which we will use for voicethreads and other projects on the internet. We saved them and also made an avatar world in Paint and uploaded the images. We also discussed how in the real world robots can act like avatars controlled by people at computers to do things that humans might not be able to do. We used a National Geographic Map game to control a robot and explore an Egyptian tomb to find a mummy!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
3-4 Computer Challenge #2
Get ready to Mousercise! Practice your mousing skills and print out your certificate at the end of the lesson. Show me the certificate (or have your parents write a note saying you completed the activity) to add your name to the can!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Summer Session Week 2
B1-2 Technology:
This week we reviewed parts of the computer, discussing the difference between hardware and software. We watched a Brainpop video about computer parts and enjoyed Moby's joke-What is an astronauts favorite computer part? The spacebar! We went to our Fort Craig homepage on the internet to learn about minimize, maximize, taskbar, and back arrow. We looked at our address in the address bar and talked about how every place we go in "cyberspace" has an address, just like the real places in our communities. We use bookmarks and the favorites list so we don't always have to type out site addresses. Places that we go to each week in the tech lab are kept at ikeepbookmarks. Students practiced finding ikeepbookmarks in our favorites list and then had fun with some mouse skill games. Students also had a chance to explore my hands on computer part station and check out some of the "innards."
3-4 Technology:
What a great response to our first "I Can Do It" challenge-I think I will need to get a bigger can! Stay tuned for the next challenge. This week we reviewed the parts of the computer, focusing on input and output devices. Students completed an excel labelling document (giving us a chance to review files, folders, drives, and how to find and save them on our school computers) and then played a fun computer part hangman type game called "Don't Squash the Monkey!" Students finished up with some mouse skill games and took turns exploring the hands on computer part station.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Summer Session Week 1
B1-2 Technology:
Our first week was spent mainly going over procedures-a review for the olders, but new to our younger classmates and new students to our school. We talked about the difference between a computer, monitor, mouse, and keyboard and watched the computer mouse song. After discussing the desktop and icons, we explored our Fort Craig homepage and used the Paint program to practice mouse control. Since our theme this session is "We Are Family," we used the Paint tools to make a picture of our house. The lifeskills of patience and flexibility, as well as the edit undo and file new commands, came in handy!
3-4 Technology:
After reviewing procedures (I clap, you clap, hands go in your lap) and assigning computer seats, students learned how to log in to Type to Learn and did the first lesson and game. Our classes almost always start with 10 minutes of keyboarding. We discussed the new "I Can Do It" can for completing optional computer challenges. The first challenge was to make sure the Fort Craig homepage is bookmarked at home and follow the links on the page to this blog and to ikeepbookmarks. We practiced in class, and then students added a "sticky" to the Summer fun wallwisher and drew a summer fun picture in Paint. While they were "painting" we did a Summer fun madlib together as a class.
Our first week was spent mainly going over procedures-a review for the olders, but new to our younger classmates and new students to our school. We talked about the difference between a computer, monitor, mouse, and keyboard and watched the computer mouse song. After discussing the desktop and icons, we explored our Fort Craig homepage and used the Paint program to practice mouse control. Since our theme this session is "We Are Family," we used the Paint tools to make a picture of our house. The lifeskills of patience and flexibility, as well as the edit undo and file new commands, came in handy!
3-4 Technology:
After reviewing procedures (I clap, you clap, hands go in your lap) and assigning computer seats, students learned how to log in to Type to Learn and did the first lesson and game. Our classes almost always start with 10 minutes of keyboarding. We discussed the new "I Can Do It" can for completing optional computer challenges. The first challenge was to make sure the Fort Craig homepage is bookmarked at home and follow the links on the page to this blog and to ikeepbookmarks. We practiced in class, and then students added a "sticky" to the Summer fun wallwisher and drew a summer fun picture in Paint. While they were "painting" we did a Summer fun madlib together as a class.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Spring Session Week 8
Things are winding down! Kindergarten had pinata parties, B1-2 made cool magazine covers with their picture on the front for "Tech Student of the Year" and 3-4 added music and titles to their Fort Craig movie. I hope parents got a chance to check out all our hard work during Portfolio Night! It has been a great year-I'm planning new projects for after Summer Break. Hope everyone has a good one!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Spring Session Week 7
Kindergarten Spanish:
Our last week of the session before our pinata party next week! We read Paco and the Giant Chile Plant by Keith Polette and rotated through 4 different centers: hi ho cherryo, farm and transportation play, playdoh fruits and vegetables, and fruit salad minibook creation. I've really enjoyed these little guys this year and look forward to seeing them next year in technology class.
B1-2 Technology:
My first attempt with a Google Earth Lit Trip went well! We watched Make Way For Ducklings and then tracked the journey of the ducklings through Boston using google earth. It was interesting to compare the street views of today's Boston with the illustrations in the 1940's story. Afterwards, we used Kerpoof to make pond pictures that also included a key point learned this session about ponds.
3-4 Technology:
As a year end project, 3-4 students are making a movie called "Fort Craig Fun" using Windows MovieMaker, a free program you can easily download if it is not already installed on your computer. This week, the students imported their pictures from the yearbook folders and added video transitions. They also made their own original music to use in their movie at the website MyBytes Students created a username and password so this site can also be used from home-enjoy the music!
Our last week of the session before our pinata party next week! We read Paco and the Giant Chile Plant by Keith Polette and rotated through 4 different centers: hi ho cherryo, farm and transportation play, playdoh fruits and vegetables, and fruit salad minibook creation. I've really enjoyed these little guys this year and look forward to seeing them next year in technology class.
B1-2 Technology:
My first attempt with a Google Earth Lit Trip went well! We watched Make Way For Ducklings and then tracked the journey of the ducklings through Boston using google earth. It was interesting to compare the street views of today's Boston with the illustrations in the 1940's story. Afterwards, we used Kerpoof to make pond pictures that also included a key point learned this session about ponds.
3-4 Technology:
As a year end project, 3-4 students are making a movie called "Fort Craig Fun" using Windows MovieMaker, a free program you can easily download if it is not already installed on your computer. This week, the students imported their pictures from the yearbook folders and added video transitions. They also made their own original music to use in their movie at the website MyBytes Students created a username and password so this site can also be used from home-enjoy the music!
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