Tag Archives: 1st

Computer Lab News: Week 3

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This week we ran into Internet connection problems on some days and during some classes. This meant that things we had planned to do will have to wait another week. We are hoping that the issues have been resolved.

KINDERGARTEN:
This week in the Computer Lab, Kindergarten learned the printer verse to Our Computer song and sang all the verses they’d learned so far.

Kindergarten learned how to use the Wacky Pencil tools, Uh-oh Man and small eraser in Kid Pix and spent some time drawing pictures using just the pencil tools.

Kindergarten also visited the Starfall web site. There were Internet connection programs on the day we did this and didn’t get to spend as much time exploring there as we would have liked. We will be exploring this site more in the future.

1ST GRADE:
1st Grade reviewed how to use the Wacky Pencil tool, the small eraser and the Uh-oh Man in Kid Pix. They then drew a self-portrait using only the Wacky Pencil tool and added their name and age to the bottom of the drawing. After their portrait was finished they were allowed to use the Bucket tool to fill in the background if they wished. I will be sharing their self-portraits (without their names) soon.

1st Grade also spent time exploring Sebran’s ABC which is free software for kids.

2ND GRADE:
2nd Grade continued to work on their avatars in Kid Pix and we started recording our Summer Book Reviews too. We had Internet connection problems this week so the recording of these will be continued late next week or the following week.

During the time we were recording reviews, students who had finished visited Spelling City to play games using their weekly spelling words. We will be posting these each week and you can visit this site at home too for word review or games with your student’s spelling words. Just search for Mrs. Sedgwick in the Find A List option.

2nd Grade also reviewed how to use and change and resize stampers in Kid Pix and then started working on an ABC Chart. They will be finding pictures of things that start with the first letter of each letter of the alphabet. We will be finishing these next week and I will post these online so you can see them and your child will also be printing these when they are done.

3RD GRADE:
3rd Grade finished the basics review in Word. We reviewed: changing fonts, font sizes, font colors, text alignment, bold & italic text, word art & clip art. We will using Word for many writing projects this year.

3rd Grade also reviewed how to use, resize, delete, flatten and erase stickers in Kid Pix and then started working on an ABC Chart. They are finding pictures of things that start with the first letter for each letter of the alphabet. We will be finishing these next week and I will post these online so you can see them and your child will also be printing these when they are done.

4TH GRADE:
4th Grade finished the basics review in Word. We reviewed: changing fonts, font sizes, font colors, text alignment, bold & italic text, word art & clip art. We will using Word for many writing projects this year.  Some of the 4th Grade students finished their avatars at Mini Mizer. Due to problems with the Internet connection we were not able to start recording 4th Grade Book Reviews. 4th Grade also spent one day working on their keyboarding skills using Disney’s Adventures in Typing.

5TH GRADE:
5th Grade completed their avatars at Mini Mizer or DoppleMe. They began writing the script for their Summer Book Reviews using Microsoft Word and began recording their reviews on our Summer Book Reviews VoiceThread. We will continue with the recording next week. 5th Grade also spent one day working on their keyboarding skills using Mavis Beacon.

6TH GRADE:
6th Grade completed their avatars at DoppleMe, Otaku Avatar Maker, Portrait Avatar Maker or Portrait Icon Maker. They began writing the script for their Summer Book Reviews using Microsoft Word. We will record our reviews next week. 6th Grade also spent time working on their keyboarding skills using Mavis Beacon.

7TH GRADE:
7th Grade completed their avatars at DoppleMe, Otaku Avatar Maker, Portrait Avatar Maker or Portrait Icon Maker. They began writing their script for their Summer Book Reviews in Microsoft Word and will be recording their reviews next week. 7th Grade reviewed formatting for Book Reports & Science Labs.

8TH GRADE:
8th Grade completed their avatars at DoppleMe, Otaku Avatar Maker, Portrait Avatar Maker or Portrait Icon Maker. They began writing their script for their Summer Book Reviews in Microsoft Word and will be recording their reviews next week. 8th Grade spent one day working on their keyboarding skills in Mavis Beacon.

Computer Lab News: Week 2

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KINDERGARTEN:
This week in the Computer Lab, Kindergarten learned about the parts of a computer using Katie’s Computer and then coloring a picture of a Monitor, CPU, Keyboard & Mouse. They also reviewed the first verse of Our Computer song and learned the keyboard and monitor verse.

Kindergarten also used the educational software program Bailey’s Book House. Baily and his friends inspire early readers to learn letters, words and word families, rhyming, prepositions, adjectives and storytelling.

1ST GRADE:
This week in the lab, the 1st graders continued to review mouse basics using the web sites Mousing Around and Lecky’s Friends. They also learned and reviewed the parts of the computer using an interactive Powerpoint presentation and by visiting the TechKnowledge: Parts of the Computer web site. 1st Grade also practiced the mouse, keyboard, monitor and printer verses of Our Computer Song. They also used KidPix to color a picture of a Monitor, CPU, Keyboard and Mouse and were able to explore in Kid Pix after they had completed the picture.

2ND GRADE:
This week in the Computer Lab, 2nd Grade continued to learn about the parts of the computer using the following web sites:

2nd Grade was introduced to some of what you can do in Microsoft Word:

  • Fonts & font sizing
  • Left, center & right alignment
  • Bold, italicised & colored text
  • Word Art
  • Clip Art

2nd Grade also used Kid Pix to create a self-portrait to be used as an avatar for the year. Not everyone was able to finish their self-portrait so these will be completed next week.

3RD GRADE:
3rd Grade visited each of these sites to review the Parts of the Computer:

3rd Grade then completed an assignment in Microsoft Word to demonstrate if they knew how to:

  • Change Fonts & font sizing
  • Left, center & right align text
  • Bold, italicize & color text
  • Insert Word Art
  • Insert Clip Art

We will review this together in class next week.

Some of the 3rd Graders also visited the site Reasonably Clever to create an avatar to use this year during computer class. This will be completed in the future for those students unable to finish it this week.

4TH GRADE:
4th Grade began the week with a Jeopardy Game to review Parts of the Computer and the Class Rules. They then began an activity in Microsoft Word to demonstrate if they knew how to:

  • Change Fonts & font sizing
  • Left, center & right align text
  • Bold, italicize & color text
  • Insert Word Art
  • Insert Clip Art

We will finish this activity next week.

5TH GRADE:
A Jeopardy Game started the week in 5th Grade – this was to review knowledge of parts of the computer and class rules. 5th Grade then completed an activity in Word to review how to:

  • Change Fonts & font sizing
  • Left, center & right align text
  • Bold, italicize & color text
  • Insert Word Art
  • Insert Clip Art

6TH GRADE:
6th Grade played a Jeopardy Review game to test their knowledge on Parts of the Computer and the Class Rules. They also set up their folders for their work this year and started their Daily Typing Log. 6th Grade will be typing almost every day in class this year for the first 10-15 minutes of class. We also started an activity in Word to learn how to save templates for Middle School Book Reports and Science Labs.

7TH GRADE:
7th Grade only came to the Computer Lab once this week due to the Fall Fundraiser Kick-off assembly on Friday. They played a Jeopardy Review game to test their knowledge on Parts of the Computer and the Class Rules.

8TH GRADE:
8th Grade started the week with a Jeopardy Review game to test their knowledge on Parts of the Computer and the Class Rules. They also set up their folders for their work this year and completed an activity in Word to learn how to save templates for Middle School Book Reports and Science Labs.

Computer Lab News: Week 1

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The first week in lab always starts with a review of the Rules of the Road (aka Lab Rules). This year each grade was shown a PowerPoint presentation as the rules were explained. Next week some of the grades will be playing a Jeopardy type game which will include questions/answers about the rules.


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KINDERGARTEN:
What fun it is to have new Kindergarteners in the lab. I know for some of them it’s a very fun place to visit but for others it might be a little intimidating. This week in addition to hearing about the rules of the lab, Kindergarten started learning a song all about computers. We’ve practiced the first verse as the students worked on learning to use the mouse. This can be a tough skill to learn – knowing the left button from the right button, clicking, double-clicking, clicking and dragging and just having your hand positioned correctly on the mouse when your hands are so small!

All mouse practice this week was done using various web sites and here are the ones that we used:

All of the students visited and did the activites on the first two sites listed and some of the students were also able to use the last two sites.

1ST GRADE:
This week in addition to reviewing the rules of the lab, 1st grade learned where they were going to sit in the lab and worked a little on their mouse skills. Even though 1st grade had computers all last year (at least those that were at St. Martin’s) it can take some time to master the mouse. It’s a hard skill to learn: knowing the left button from right button, clicking, double-clicking, clicking and dragging and just having your hand positioned correctly on the mouse can all be a challenge!

All mouse practice this week was done using various web sites and here are the ones that we used:

We had a few technical problems on some of the computers so not everyone got a chance to really practice on these sites. We’ll be continuing to work on mouse skills in the coming weeks with these sites and more.

2ND GRADE:
We reviewed rules of the lab and then went to some web sites to review the Parts of the Computer.  First the students visited Booker’s Computer and clicked on the various parts of the computer to hear what they do and whether they are Input or Output devices. When they were done with this, they visited ABCya! Find the Technology to search and computer parts in a very messy room.

Since 2nd Grade only came to the lab one time this week, many of the students weren’t able to fully explore both of these sites. Next week we will continue our review of the parts of the computer and play a game to review these and the rules.

3RD GRADE:
3rd Grade’s first visit to the lab was spent reviewing the rules of the lab and learning about what we will be doing this year in computers. All of the 3rd graders had great feedback on the rules and are ready to get started with the Parts of the Computer review that we will be doing next week.

4TH GRADE:
For 4th Grade our journeys in the computer lab started out with a review of the rules of the lab. After the rules were completed, 4th graders went to the Computer Lab Wiki and visited Carmen’s Computer and clicked on the various parts of the computer to hear what they do and whether they are Input or Output devices.

Next week we will continue our review of the parts of the computer and play a game to review these and the rules.

5TH GRADE:
This week in addition to reviewing the rules of the lab, 5th grade reviewed the parts of the computer using the following web sites:

  • Dwayne’s Computer – On this site, 5th grade clicked on the various parts of the computer to review what each part did.
  • ABCya! Keyboard Challenge – The challenge on this site is to place all of the letters, numbers and punctuation marks where they belong on the keyboard while trying not to peek at any of they keyboards in the lab.
  • Computer Hangman – Computer terminology review with a fun hangman type game.

5th Grade was one of the lucky grades that had both computer classes this week so in addition to review the parts of the computer, 5th grade worked on creating avatars to represent themselves in the lab this year using either DoppelMe and Mini Mizer.

MIDDLE SCHOOL:
The year in the computer lab started with a review of the rules of the lab. Once we went through all of these, 6th, 7th & 8th grade completed a review of the parts of the computer using these web sites:

  • Yasmin’s Computer – On this site, students clicked on the various parts of the computer to review what each part did.
  • ABCya! Keyboard Challenge – The challenge on this site is to place all of the letters, numbers and punctuation marks where they belong on the keyboard while trying not to peek at any of they keyboards in the lab.
  • Computer Hangman – Computer terminology review with a fun hangman type game.

8th Grade’s major project this year in computers will be the 8th Grade Social Studies Wiki which they will be building throughout the year. The wiki will be viewable by anyone but can only be maintained by me and the 8th Grade students. In order to participate in the wiki all 8th Grade students must return a signed Wiki Warranty. They should have brought this home for your review and signature. If you have not seen this please download it, sign it and have your 8th grader return it.