Kathryn stayed behind in the computer lab this week and helped by pushing all the chairs in. Thank you, Kathryn, for being so thoughtful! Montana and her classmates have been using a site called Storybird to create online books, and Montana has been working on Storybirds outside of school. She is doing a great job working independently! Weston is a huge help in the lab. Technology seems to come easily to him, and he is quick to lean over and help a friend whenever needed. Way to go, Weston!
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First GradeThis week, the first graders were either finishing their letters to Santa or visiting Santa's mailroom and retrieving his return letter! We are having so much fun corresponding with Santa! Second GradeSecond graders continued working on their Storybird books this week. They are really coming along! Third GradeIn third grade this week, we talked about Twitter and what the children's impressions are of this social media tool. They were fairly well educated on the uses of Twitter, using terms like "tweet," "follow," and "hashtag," and talking about how Twitter is similar to Instagram and Facebook. I feel strongly about educating these children about appropriate use of such tools as early as possible and setting them on a path of making wise decisions online. Twitter (and most social media sites) are legal only for children ages 13 and up, so to the students' dismay we did NOT become into crazy tweeters. Instead, we used a site called wallwisher.com (paper for the web) to practice appropriate "tweeting," and they seemed to enjoy themselves and do a nice job following instructions. I directed this activity by asking them to post to a specific prompt, and to remember to keep themselves protected by using first names or initials only. Here is an example of one "twitter" type wall:
First GradeThis week the first graders worked on writing letters to Santa and Frosty! We used Pages to draft our letters and then submitted them using Santa's certified Mailroom Elf, Bif, from the website www.northpole.com. The children each have a unique username and password that they will use to log in and retrieve their letters from Santa. If you would like access to your child's information, please contact me at [email protected]. I sure do love this time of year! Second GradeThe second graders worked on their Storybird books this week! To learn more about Storybird, please read this post. Stay tuned! Third GradeWith the third graders, I finished up learning about becoming a better searcher. The children did a nice job with this activity and should feel more confident when it comes to conducting Web research in the future.
First Grade - JennieJennie, I am so proud of how you came in to computer last week and got right down to business working on your temperature map! It seemed like you remembered what you had learned the week before because you worked diligently and found answers to your own questions. Keep up the good work! Second Grade - HowellHowell worked very hard this week to complete an activity that went along with his nonfiction writing in Mrs. Johnston's class. He used a website to search for pictures, imported the pictures into another program called Pages, printed his pictures from Pages, and then cut out and glued his pictures into his book--all in one class period! Howell worked diligently and quicky, and he should feel proud of himself! Third Grade - LucaLuca earned his Digital Passport from Common Sense Media this week! The final module was called "Mix-n-Mash" and for this activity Luca created a fantastic video filled with music and images. He did a nice job creating a video that stuck to one theme--not an easy task! Bravo, Luca!
We have been enjoying lots of time off from school, so this newsletter will cover what's been going on in the lab since November 19th. ☺ First GradeIn first grade lately, we have been finishing up our temperature maps. Be sure to check out the students' hard work on Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Raymer's class pages! Second GradeI am so excited to announce that in second grade, we have started a new project using the online tool, Storybird. I learned about this Storybird at the iSummit technology conference at Greater Atlanta Christian School in July of 2012. So far, Mrs. MacEwen and Mrs. Smith's classes have begun this project. Storybird enables students to make beautiful, polished-looking online books using pieces of art created by artists all around the world. In fact, artists can make royalty money through Storybird! For a writer, using Storybird is a challenge: the children begin the writing process differently than how they are used to--by selecting art that speaks to them and uncovering the story hidden inside that art! Storybird requires a username and password for use, but I have created "classes" (or groups) using my teacher account and set up secure usernames for the children. If your child is interested in building a Storybird at home, please feel free to contact me for his or her login information. Additionally, when the Storybirds are published, the children's actual names will not visible to the public, and if you prefer, I can set your child's book to be private. One of my favorite Storybird features is that the children's books are available for purchase (download - $1.99, softcover- $13.95, $25.95 and up - hardcover, $29.95 and up - premium hardcover). You can learn more about Storybird here. By scrolling down on this page, you can actually search for Storybirds created by other users that are categorized by the age groups for whom they are most appropriate. I encourage you to take a look! Stay tuned! Third GradeIn third grade we have begun a lesson on becoming a super Web searcher. My hope with this lesson (and subsequent lessons) is to teach the children how to use the Web for research in an efficient manner. We will no longer be typing entire questions (i.e. "Why can I see my breath on cold days?") into the search bar! To begin this lesson, I shared this visual with the children (adapted from Common Sense Media): I used this visual to show the children the steps I followed to conduct a search for a delicious dessert when it came time to make my Thanksgiving menu. My step one: I decided on the topic "dessert." The keywords that went with my topic were "chocolate, cake, delicious, cookies, brownies, recipes, easy, food, and yummy." My purpose in throwing in terms like "delicious" and "yummy" was to teach the children to differentiate between useful keywords and words that we would not use in a Web search. From that long list of keywords, I circled the most powerful ones and use them to create a search query for a kids' safe search engine called Kidrex.org. I settled on "chocolate cake recipes" and also taught the children to use the minus key on the keyboard for a further specialized search (-nuts, -coconut; two ingredients I knew I did not want in my Thanksgiving dessert!) Finally, I showed the children how to examine search results for what might be the best hit. We talked about looking closely at the web addresses of search results as a way to determine if the information on the site will be useful to the researcher. Our finished visual: The next step was to encourage the children to follow the same series of steps to conduct their own Web searches, also using Kidrex.org. They were broken into partnerships and encouraged to record their search progress using a Google Form that I embedded into the third grade page (see it by scrolling down this page). I was impressed by how well the children did with this activity! Most of the partnerships were able to find useful information from the top hit of their search, and if not, they took steps back and figured out how to modify their search so they could try again. Way to go, third grade!
First GradeIn first grade this week we worked on finding current temperatures of cities around the U.S. The children have been studying temperature in math, so I wanted to put their new knowledge into action. In computer class, they were directed to find the temperatures of 4 specific cities around the country using www.weather.com and then record the data on a drawing of the U.S. If they completed the four cities they were encouraged to then research the temperatures in cities of their choosing. Second GradeThe second graders worked on finishing up their annotated diagrams this week. Many students have decided to include their diagrams in their published pieces for wirter's workshop. Here are a few more examples to enjoy! In one of the second grade classes this week, we tried a fun drawing/painting activity once the children finished up their annotating. I asked them to draw a picture of their choice using Doozla, but my expectation was that their pictures only contain lines, line segments, points, and quadrangles--all terms they have been discussing in math. Here are a few of the finished products: Third GradeMrs. Foster's class made short videos this week in computer explaining what they have learned about the four different types of sentences. The children were divided into groups by the teacher and then encouraged to make a video using whatever avenue they wanted. We ended up with a scene at school, at a clothing store, and at a sandwich shop. Take a look!
First Grade - BrianBrian is a dilligent worker during computer time, and he often finishes his tasks before the end of the period. In his most recent computer class he worked on a Thanksgiving project and decided to add an interesting fact about turkeys to his work. Great job going above and beyond, Brian! Second Grade - JoshuaJoshua's class was working on annotation images with the goal of teaching an audience something, and he ended up putting together a fantastic resource about his home country of Cypress. Way to go, Joshua! Third Grade - BradenBraden is consistently a model student in computer class. He listens and follows directions and is serious about getting his work done. Thank you, Braden!
First GradeOne of the first grade classes used Doozla this week to make "I am thankful for..." pictures. This project puts a techie spin on the traditional trace-your-hand-to-make-a-turkey project. They turned out well! Also in first grade this week, we played an alternate version of "Name that Number" using the computers. The children each wrote a target number at the top of their computer screen (using Doozla), and when the bell rang in the lab they were asked to travel to another computer in the room and write a number sentence that equaled the target number (i.e. if the target number was 15, a child could write 10 plus 5, etc.). The bell rang numerous times during the period, so by the end of class each student's computer had a smattering of number sentences containing several numbers and various operations. I was proud of their hard work and creativity! Second GradeMany of the second graders finished up their nonfiction picture annotations this week. Have a look at the cool work they did to teach an audience what they know about their topic of choice. Third GradeWe worked very hard to wrap up our Vokis this week in third grade. If you haven't seen them, be sure to run your mouse over the 3rd grade link above and find your child's class.
1st Grade In first grade this week, we practiced using the mouse and got better acquainted with our computer and technology webpage by playing some of the games posted to the first grade page. The children should now have a better handle on how to navigate to "Mrs. Bullock's page" from Ms. Becker's fabulous LS Faculty Webpages site and they should also feel more confident using the browser's back button. In the Lower School, we use Firefox and Safari interchangeably; Chrome is installed on our machines, but we have not added it to the dock for regular use just yet--although we do encourage our teachers to use it! 2nd Grade In second grade this week, we started a new activity that is meant to correlate to the current nonfiction reading and writing units of study taking place in the classrooms. The children were taught how to use Britannica's Image Quest to search for rights-cleared images that they could then manipulate in the computer lab. They were encouraged to find images of the subject(s) they have chosen to write about with their lead teacher, but this was not a requirement of the project. The images that the children selected varied from a sea star to the Olympic flag to a newborn baby, and they were all taught how to save their images to the Desktop of their computers. The next step of the project was to teach them how to use the application, Preview, to annotate and edit their images. We talked about how many of the nonfiction books we read contain annotated diagrams and illustrations (examples I shared were the DK Eyewitness Dogs, Swimming, and Baseball books), and that we could use the power of Preview to add labels and text boxes to our images and use them as teaching tools for our audience. I was so proud of how well the children followed my example this week, and I'm looking forward to seeing their work in their published nonfiction writing very soon! Here is a sneak peek of Zion's work: 3rd Grade In third grade this week, we worked hard on our Voki projects. Be sure to check them out on the lead teacher's webpages that appear when you hover over the 3rd grade link above!
1st Grade - Charlie P.In Charlie's class this week, the children were working on writing thank you notes to people who help us around the school building. Charlie worked extra hard to write a very kind note with lots and lots of words. I'm proud of you, Charlie! 2nd Grade - SpencerSpencer impressed me so much this week! She came in before announcements one morning to finish up her germs book project (which she did!) and then she was able to follow some pretty tough directions and finish up another computer project in one class period. Spencer, that kind of diligence is rare. Way to go! 3rd Grade - MichaelMichael missed his last computer class, so imagine my surprise when I filled him in on our current project and he managed to complete it in one class period! Michael worked diligently, and I was so pleased that he was able to catch up. Awesome job, Michael!
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