- PreK - most of the PreK students came in not comfortable using a mouse. This is because these days most of the devices they have been using at home are cell phones or tablets. They want to use their fingers on my screens but can't. It took them only a couple weeks to get comfortable with the mouse! There are still a few that need more practice, but not many! Using a mouse is good fine motor practice. In August and September they have been playing educational games on the internet. The teachers tell me what they are learning in class and I put links to web games that reinforce the concepts.
- Kinder - man of the kindergarteners also had trouble using a mouse coming in to school but have quickly adapted. They have played games online that reinforce concepts learning in the classrooms. They are also starting to use a program called PIXIE. Pixie is a drawing package that we've purchased for the computers in the lab. The students are learning how to use the tools inside the package and soon you might see some work come home (if the teachers don't keep it for decoration in their rooms!)
- 1st - first grade spends 1/2 their time in lab doing language arts games and 1/2 the time doing math and science sites. They also used Pixie to create a math problem. This next week they will get a chance to use the ipads during class.
- 2nd - second grade has done some online games. They've also learned how to take their photo, erased everything but their head, then created a drawing in Pixie of a community worker. They put their head on this community worker and then we recorded them telling us why that particular community worker is important to society. It is SOOOO cute and we can't wait to share it with you online soon (those that have permission).
- 3rd - Third graders were told to memorize their login and password starting the first week. This login information will be theirs from 2nd grade through 12th grade. Every lab day, the students login and do 15 minutes of keyboarding. The most important thing 3rd graders need to learn is what finger types what keys. They are doing really well! One week we did a lesson on cyber bullying. We've started a long term project to create a movie about scientists. Each student will research different kinds of scientists and then we will create a video interviewing them dressed as the scientist. We will get back to this project after Veteran's Day. Third graders are currently learning how to create a Google doc on the AISD cloud. They are learning about Word processing and creating and editing documents. Third grade also had a lesson on using the 3rd grade laptops. 3rd grade has two carts of 10 ASUS pc laptops. The teachers check these computers out to use in the classrooms for specific lessons.
- 4th - Fourth grade does 15 minutes of typing in computer lab. They are required to do 25 mins/wk - their lab time goes towards this. The goal of 4th grade typing is to end the year typing 15 wpm. By the end of 5th grade 24 wpm. This so that by the middle school they can take a fun elective instead of keyboarding! If they finish all the lessons in the typing program they usually come out typing at least 10 wpm. In class we did a lesson on cyberbulling. We are currently working on a project about Texas landmarks. The students did research on the web, then in writing wrote a report. In the lab they typed up their reports to be used with an Art project they've done. These will be on display for the 4th grade project. Also with this information they are creating on online presentation using PREZI. Hopefully you'll see these soon!
- 5th - Fifth grade also does 15 minutes of keyboarding in class that goes towards their 20 mins of keyboarding homework. Once students test at 20 wpm or greater, they no longer have to do homework. Again, we are stressing good keyboarding skills (correct fingering without looking at their hands) so that when they go to middle school next year they don't have to take an hour long class in keyboarding but can take a fun elective instead. 5th grade got a lesson in cyber safety and bullying. They did some science work, some math sites and have started a Native American project. This will take us to the end of November. They will learn about a tribe and then write journal entries like they are the indian themselves. They will learn a little Photoshop and some graphic design as they create a polished brochure as the final product.
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PreK - didn't get to come because they went on a field trip!
K - did farm games since they just went to Crowe's Nest. Found some writing sites to help with formation of letters and numbers, a site to order numbers, and a site to compare different objects. 1st - printed a math word problem they did in Pixie! They chose 8 different stickers and added 3 or 4 more and came up with the number sentence. They learned how to place multiple stickers, type in numbers and letters, and what it looks like printed! 2nd - I went to the 2nd grade classrooms and we did a lesson on how to use the laptops. 2nd grade has 20 laptops in 2 carts that can travel room to room and be used in different subjects. They loved them! 3rd - Third grade started a test to show off what all they have learned with google docs. We should print them this week 4th - continueing to work on their landmark projects. This week we created a google doc in which 8 students are working at the same time! Each student is doing one slide and in the end we'll have a slideshow with 8 different landmarks! 5th - Fifth grade is working on becoming an American Indian. They should have to do an Indian name, a tribe, an introduction, and a journal entry. PreK - getting MUCH better with the mouse. STill a few with unusual grips but their clicking is good. We are doing sites about the letter of the week, numbers, and shapes.
K - Kinder is also getting better with the mouse. They are doing a great job of only playing the games I've outlined and not straying to other websites. Kinder has done some Spanish culture sites, some measuring, some family tree sites as well as phonics and numbers. 1st - Last week we had a lesson on how to use the IPAD cart. We have a cart with 20 (well 19 now that one has a broken HOME button). The teachers can check them out and let them use them. We want them to play apps to reinforce their adding and subtracting skills, phonics, and reading. We noticed that some are just clicking buttons and not really paying attention to how to play the game correctly. If you have tablets at home, download educational games and work with your children to play the game as it was designed - not just to make noises or speed throught an activity. 2nd - Second grade is using a drawing package, PIXIE, to learn how to copy and paste an image. This week they created a math word problem using "stickers". They came out great! 3rd - Third graders are learning Word Processing. We are using google docs and learning all the commands. They are also doing their 15 mins. or keyboarding and are doing great! 4th - In fourth grade we've started a research project on Texas landmarks. With this project they will learn how to collaborate using google presenter to create a group slideshow. So far we are just researching. 5th - Fifth grade is starting a research project on American Indians (pretty much all but those in Alaska or Texas). They will create a brochure that will document 3 days in the life of their Indian they will become. We will learn a little photoshop, a little publishing, a little research, and a little about biographies. This will be a multi-week project with check points. They are also doing their 15 mins. of keyboarding in class and should be doing it at home as well! hey are also doing their 15 mins. of keyboarding in class and should be doing it at home as well! PreK - We are slowing down and only doing a few games because the kids need to work on mouse skills and they get frustrated when they can't make it work like they want. We showed a video about the letter B and Greenell's numbers. Then from last week Starfall's ABCs and Goodnight Moon painting.
K - We did a game about family trees, measuring using smaller objects, and another digby story. Plus all the games we've done before. 1 - Zac the Rat, Arthur's story scramble, picture scramble, clifford story, non fiction stories, bug shoe adding, fruit shoe adding, word problems starfall, cyber five, and nutrition walking. 2 - Learned how to copy in paste in Pixie, a drawing package. Next we will make a math word problem with our stickers. 3 - Typing Club and Think Through Math were introduced. 4 - We finished learning word processing and took a little test to see what we learned. We also started using typing club with a login and password so it will keep track of speed and accuracy. 5 - We did typing club with login and password, stemscopes (a science website), and learning.com PreK & Kinder - we did online games focusing on mouse skills. PreK we discovered has too many games so we will cut back next week. Kinder was introduced to my very favorite game - redfish. It's an exploratory game that gives the students no instruction on how to make things go - they have to move the mouse, click it and just figure out what happens - it's AWESOME! PreK we did the letter A & a gingerbread man video, a puzzle, teddy sweets, turtle diary learn numbers. Again, too many. Kinder did one on community workers and redfish.
1st - links to clifford games having to do with letter sounds, clifford interactive story, aesops tales and words book, and the thirsty crow. In math we did addition games - tweet tweet, bricks, pirate marbles, and a cool science game with heating and cooling different objects. 2nd - In second grade I showed them addition games they can use at home for their homework (add to ten, penguin addition, alien addition, fruit shoot, thats a fact,and addition table). They also saw a study jam about states of matter, and did an interactive states of matter game. They also did BBC's story maker and sequencing for readers. 3rd - We are starting a new typing program - typing club. This program keeps track of their progress and they can't go on until they get the keys right. We also learned how to do STEMSCOPES which is an interactive science program that kids can do at home or at school. It was developed by Rice University and the kids seemed to enjoy it. 4th- 4th is typing for 15 mins. and is suppose to type at home for 5 mins/ night for 5 nights. Next week we will change typing programs. 4th grade is continuing to review their knowledge of word processing programs. Next week we'll have a little test to see what they learned. 5th - 5th is also typing for 15 mins and this past week had a lecture on Copyright and all the rules that go with that. i thin Every year I have about 2-3 Kindergarteners and PreK kids who come in and have no clue how to use a computer mouse. This year was very different. Most of the students didn't know how to use it! We finally figured it out! This is the first wave of kiddos who have grown up using their parents cel phone or tablet to play interactive games and not a computer mouse! Parents with younger kids - please teach them to use a mouse! They get frustrated when they can't do what they want to do and until we get personal i
K - worked on games where you have to click and drag. Puzzles, Let's Count, ABC Doors and an interactive story called the Wishing Tree. This along with the games from last week
1 - This week I introduced the idea of 1/2 of the time working on language arts games, and 1/2 the time working on math games. I've noticed in the past that if a student is good at one or the other subject they ignore the other. This makes them explore both sides. I makes sure the games reflect the curriculum that is going on in the classroom. So this week it was WHO AM I, the letter a & it's sounds and on the science side healthy food choices as well as ordering numbers to 100 in Math. I always have an area where they can listen and follow along with stories being read. 2 - This week I put up games having to do with story sequencing (Arthur, Enormous Turnip, Brushing Teeth & Garfield Sequencing), working with number lines (line jumper and target subtraction), and Base10 and 100s chart (100 number grid, base 10 counting up to 999, base 10 number line, math match, hundreds chart game, and bear bars). We also had to login again and do 5 mins of keyboarding games. 3 - This week I traveled to the 3rd grade classrooms and did a lesson on how to use the laptops. The kids did great! Each student had a laptop, knows now how to login, find the homepage and the Gullett shortcut. They also got to try out the new typing game we've decided to use in 2nd and 3rd grade - typing club. They liked it!!! They might be getting homework in this so stay tuned. 4 - This week 4th grade did their usual keyboarding time (15 mins of typing club). We explained that we want them to do 5 mins a day for 5 days a week. We've put a form on the web that they can fill out telling us what they did. This is very important! The middle school would love it if they came in typing 24 words a minute! That can't be done with just 15 mins of lab time. Also in 4th grade we did a review of word processing. We are working in google docs. The students learned a lot of this last year but this year we will be creating a lot of documents so they really need to know how this works. I'm teaching them how to get onto the AISD cloud with hopes of having them login from home in a couple months (we want to make sure they are mature enough first). They are doing great! 5 - Fifth grade first did their 15 mins. of typing. They will be learning a new typing program next week so this week they did their old programs. We've told them that we (and Lamar) would like them typing 24 words a minute by the end of the year. After keyboarding the students learned how to make a google form. This is how they will collect data on how fast they are typing each week. They will take a typing test and record it in this form. The chose a theme for their form, made a field for date and word per minute. Then they learned how to make a shortcut for their desktop to the form. We will see how this goes! Fifth grade was such good listeners and could follow my verbal instructions so well. Is that because this is the first group who has had Ms. JArriel for all 6 years?! Kinder - learned the rules of the lab, parts of the computer (screen, mouse, keyboard...), how to use a mouse to click, homepage to get to their games, 3 games to practice clicking (bubble pop, painting, ABCs)
1st - learned the rules of the lab, how to make window bigger and smaller and move around, 1st grade bookmark to get to games, end of kinder games to practice moving mouse... 2nd grade - rules of the lab, what is a login, what is a password, gave out logins and passwords they will have until 12th grade, practiced logging in, did keyboarding games (simple find keys on keyboard), a few 1st grade favorite games 3rd grade - rules of the lab, practiced keyboarding, place value games, nouns video 4th grade - rules of the lab, practiced keyboarding, logged into the cloud and changed their backgrounds 5th grade - rules of the lab, practiced keyboarding, logged into the cloud and changed their backgrounds
and number 10 .............LOG OUT OF YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE YOU LEAVE!!!!! The next person cannot login until you log out! This is soooooooooooooooooooo important. HAve you been doing your keyboarding (3rd-5th)? If you have, GREAT! Being able to keyboard correctly and fast will enable you to get through your homework in middle school and high school faster! You will also be able to finish assignments in the lab in a timely manner and move on to more challenging work or have some free time. I PROMISE, you will keyboard EVERY DAY of you life starting in middle school - it's really a must have skill!
I'm looking forward to starting another great year with you. The teachers have fun ideas of what they would like to do in the lab with you. I also got a grant and bought 2 lego kits that we will be able to tinker with in the lab. I think you will enjoy them! Can wait to see you! Hope none of you grew over the summer - I hate shrinking! |
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October 2014
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