Well, just as I thought, my time with your children is racing along. It has been a lovely opportunity to reconnect with so many familiar faces and families, and I am enjoying the gift of improving my own technology skills as well. Mrs. Bullock will remain cozily at home with her boys until after the first of the year, and I know you will warmly welcome her back come mid-January.
In the meantime, here’s a brief update on some of the activities I have completed with the students over the recent weeks.
All students in first and second grades have enjoyed holiday games of varying kinds: Transylvania, Turkey Bowl, and Where’s is Rudolph seem to be some of their favorites. If you haven’t already, you can access all of these games from Mrs. Bullock’s webpage.
First graders have enjoyed drawing with the Doozla program, illustrating amounts of money in different ways. They have also used Doozla to illustrate and write about what they were thankful for at Thanksgiving, the emphasis being on capitalization and punctuation. Most first graders have had the chance to practice their keyboarding skills via Dance Mat Typing, and currently, students are typing, punctuating and capitalizing again as they write down their wish lists for giving this holiday season.
Second graders have tried their hand at creating animated videos using the program ABCya animation, and they have had a little bit of extra math practice drawing pictures using only geometric shapes. You can see their pictures on their teacher’s respective webpage.
Third graders have been working hard to complete their units of study using the Digital Passport computer program. We are discussing many issues related to appropriate use of technology, including but not limited to the following: what to do when cyberbullying occurs, when to use a cell phone or send a text message, what is appropriate to share online, how to avoid plagiarism, what does copyright mean, and how to begin an online search on a topic you might be exploring in the classroom. These topics are revisited consistently throughout the year, but the Digital Passport lessons give us a chance to talk explicitly and openly about these issues in order to troubleshoot future problems.
Perhaps most importantly is the work the 2nd and 3rd grade students have been doing to participate in Computer Science Week and the Week of Code. As a nation we are realizing that our coding skills are falling behind and some very important names in the industry are encouraging children to start coding NOW. The students have really enjoyed the apps and on-line work introducing them to coding and we hope, as a family, you will too.
In the meantime, here’s a brief update on some of the activities I have completed with the students over the recent weeks.
All students in first and second grades have enjoyed holiday games of varying kinds: Transylvania, Turkey Bowl, and Where’s is Rudolph seem to be some of their favorites. If you haven’t already, you can access all of these games from Mrs. Bullock’s webpage.
First graders have enjoyed drawing with the Doozla program, illustrating amounts of money in different ways. They have also used Doozla to illustrate and write about what they were thankful for at Thanksgiving, the emphasis being on capitalization and punctuation. Most first graders have had the chance to practice their keyboarding skills via Dance Mat Typing, and currently, students are typing, punctuating and capitalizing again as they write down their wish lists for giving this holiday season.
Second graders have tried their hand at creating animated videos using the program ABCya animation, and they have had a little bit of extra math practice drawing pictures using only geometric shapes. You can see their pictures on their teacher’s respective webpage.
Third graders have been working hard to complete their units of study using the Digital Passport computer program. We are discussing many issues related to appropriate use of technology, including but not limited to the following: what to do when cyberbullying occurs, when to use a cell phone or send a text message, what is appropriate to share online, how to avoid plagiarism, what does copyright mean, and how to begin an online search on a topic you might be exploring in the classroom. These topics are revisited consistently throughout the year, but the Digital Passport lessons give us a chance to talk explicitly and openly about these issues in order to troubleshoot future problems.
Perhaps most importantly is the work the 2nd and 3rd grade students have been doing to participate in Computer Science Week and the Week of Code. As a nation we are realizing that our coding skills are falling behind and some very important names in the industry are encouraging children to start coding NOW. The students have really enjoyed the apps and on-line work introducing them to coding and we hope, as a family, you will too.