Monthly Archives: August 2009

Computer Lab News Kindergarten: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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Let’s start out by sharing some projects that were previously completed. Our first share is the Dinosaur Math & Art project:

Kindergarten & 1st Grade’s pictures from Easter have been put in to a slideshow for your enjoyment:

For Earth Day, Kindergarten was read the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax and then they drew pictures in KidPix showing what they think the Lorax’s world looked like after the boy was given the seed. You can see the pictures on our Earth Day page on the wiki along with the projects completed by other grades for Earth Day.

Kindergarten was also busy at the end of the year finishing up their Adventures In Keyboarding project which were printed as mini-books. I hope that you had an opportunity to see them and that you realize that your student typed all of the words themselves! They all did a great job.

Kindergarten’s final project for the year were Ladybug Math Books. This project started out with the reading of the Eric Carle book, The Grouchy Ladybug and watching some ladybug videos. Each Kindergartener then drew a picture of a Ladybug and then completed the Ladybug Math Book in PowerPoint which covered the following math concepts:

  • Counting (entry of number into a text box)
  • Pattern Recognition & Completion (dragging graphic which completes pattern into a box)
  • Matching of Number Words to a Number (drawing a line with the drawing tool)
  • Matching of Time to the Hour to a Clock, this includes references to The Grouchy Ladybug (drawing a line with the drawing tool)

Kindergarten was very busy at the end of the year but they still had time to play some educational games including trying out JumpStart 1st Grade!

Computer Lab News 1st Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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First, Kindergarten & 1st Grade’s Easter pictures have been put in to a slideshow for your enjoyment:

1st Grade was busy at the end of the year finishing up their Adventures In Keyboarding project. These were printed as mini-books and I hope that you had an opportunity to see them. All of the students did a great job using the keyboard to type in all of the words themselves.

For Earth Day, 1st Grade discussed things that we can do to help the earth and then drew a picture in KidPix to show why they love the earth:

1st Grade also were measured again for the How Tall is a 1st Grader project, drew a picture to illustrate comparative heights and played some measurement related online games. Check out our How Tall page to see how much our 1st Graders grew and to watch a slideshow of pictures drawn by the 1st Grade to show comparative heights.

Did you receive your Mother’s Day card? 1st Grade created these using Kerpoof Studio which can be used at home too.

The computer lab partnered up with the 1st Grade art program to help colorize pictures that each 1st grade student had taken. Using a program called, PhotoFiltre, each student colored their close up image 4 times. These were then printed by the mom doing the art program and put on to canvas. I was lucky enough to get one as a gift from the 1st grade. I hope you loved yours as much as I love mine!

1st Grade 2009 Photography Art Project

As if that’s not enough, 1st Grade also spent time on various web sites playing educational games and even had a chance to try out Jumpstart 2nd Grade!

Computer Lab News 2nd Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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For Earth Day, 2nd Grade discussed why they love the earth and things that we can do to help the earth. Each student then created original artwork using KidPix and these were added to the PlanetFesto ribbon along with their ideas of what they could do to help the earth. After this was completed, 2nd Grade used the PBS site, Eeko World which is designed to help children between the ages of 6 and 9 learn about the important role they can play in taking care of the earth.

The students continued to work on their typing skills using the Dance Mat Typing site. They will continue to use this site in 3rd Grade. 2nd Grade also practiced their Money Skills on various web sites, created a Mother’s Day Wordle which I hope made it home, practiced writing paragraphs in Word and played a variety of educational games to end the year including trying out Jumpstart 3rd Grade!

Next year, these students will participate in the Monster Project as well as continuing to learn about Internet Safety, Microsoft Office Products and Keyboarding.

Computer Lab News 3rd Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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3rd Grade’s final project for the year was to write and record their reflections about the Monster Project. This was a very fun project and the 3rd Grade students did a wonderful job, drawing, writing and reflecting:

After the Monster Project was complete, 3rd Grade ended the year by trying to help the robot Botley save the world from Polly Sparks’ attempt to change history by playing the educational game, Jumpstart 3rd Grade.

3rd Grade’s Plant Life Cycle projects did finally get posted to the Travel Scrapbook but in case you missed them, here they are.

Computer Lab News 4th Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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4th Grade finished off the 2008/2009 year by completing their Keyboarding Boot Camp and finish the last two Voices of the World Projects. The goal of Keyboarding Boot Camp was to improve keyboarding technique which will in turn improve keyboarding speed. The average increase in speed during the 12 class session was 60% with an average typing speed of 20wpm. All but two of the 4th grade students met or exceeded their goal for the class. Keyboarding instruction will continue in 5th Grade and beyond.

The April Voices of the World Project was all about the planets. Each 4th grader drawing a planet (or the sun) and then recorded themselves saying their planet’s name. This project included Pluto even though Pluto is not considered a planet any more. 4th Grade also visited some web sites about the planets to see what each planet looks like and read some facts about the planets and used an online image editor called SUMO Paint to create the planet pictures.

May’s task was a celebration of the two years of the Voices of the World project. Each school was to say in their own language: Happy Anniversary, Two years of Voices of the World, Congratulations all.

Finally, 4th Grade took an End of Year Survey about the projects and activities they did in the computer lab during the year. As you can see from the results, the favorite activity for the year was the Tongue Twisters. If you haven’t watched and listened to this one you really should.

4th Grade Favorites

Coming in as the least favorite project or activity for 4th Grade was Keyboarding Boot Camp. Interestingly though, the majority of the 4th Graders hope to learn how to type better in 5th Grade.

4th Grade Least Favorites

The votes for the Most Useful Project or Activity were split between many projects and activities with the Computer Parts & Internet Safety activities slightly edging out others.

4th Grade Mose Useful

I look forward to having this class in 5th Grade and look forward to seeing how fast some of them will be typing by the time the enter Middle School!

Computer Lab News 5th Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

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5th Grade completed their work on the Time Zone Experiences project. You can see what each 5th Grader completed on our Time Zone Experiences page. 5th Grade also completed the Month by Month portion of the Time Zone Experience project and here is a slideshow of their work:

Once the time & month portions of this project were complete, each 5th grader also answered a series of questions reflecting on the Time Zone Experiences project.

The end of the year included some keyboarding lessons for those finished with other work. Keyboarding is a major part of 6th Grade so those that didn’t have keyboarding time this year will get it in 6th Grade. Touch typing using correct technique is a skill that will be useful not only during Middle School but will be invaluable in High School and beyond. I would encourage your children to practice their keyboarding skills over the summer as we would like them to type at least 30 WPM by the end of 6th Grade. Check the Summer Ideas page for links to keyboarding sites but practice does not have to be actual keyboarding sites. Keyboarding skills can improve while IMing or playing games online or emailing, etc. as long as the correct technique is used each and every time any typing is done. Take some time to watch your child as they type and encourage them to properly position their hands and to use the correct fingers for typing. It’s much easier to learn to do this correctly then to have to unlearn bad habits.

5th Grade also completed an End of Year Survey about the projects and activities they did in the computer lab during the year. As you can see from the results, the favorite activity for the year was World Math Day. 5th Grade really enjoyed the online math activities that we did this year. If you child would like to keep up with their math facts during the summer, they can visit Tutpup and Arcademic Skill Builders and complete against others from around the world.

5th Grade Favorite Projects/Activities

While some of the students rated the month portion of the Time Zone Experiences project as their favorite activity, the least favorite activity was by far the time portion of the Time Zone Experiences project. This was a tough project with a lot of new skills. I am proud of all of the students for finishing the work and hope that they learned something in the process.

5th Grade Least Favorite Project/Activity

The majority of the 5th Grade felt that the World Math Day activity was the most useful to them.

5th Grade Most Useful Project/Activity

The final question on the survey was What do you hope to learn in computers in 6th Grade? The majority of the students hoped to improve their keyboarding skills in 6th Grade.

I am looking forward to the 2009/2010 with this class. We will be spending time on keyboarding and improving our knowledge of Microsoft Word as well as learning more about Internet Safety and much, much more.