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Computer Lab News 0910 – 8th Grade

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Wow, what a year it’s been! 8th Grade has been really busy in the Computer Lab this year. Here’s a recap of what they’ve done:

September: 8th Grade started the year listening to President Obama’s Back to School speech and setting goals for the new school year and contributing to a VoiceThread about those goals.  They then created self-portraits and a resume, reviewed how to format papers for English and Science Labs and did a short Keyboarding assessment to gauge where they were in their keyboarding skills to start the year.

October: October kicked off with a review of basic Internet Safety and the month ended with creation of Leaf people in KidPix and writing of Bio Poems for their Leaf people.

November: During November, 8th grade created their very own Home Pages on the Computer Lab wiki and set some safety rules for themselves on those pages. As November came to an end, 8th Grade created turkeys in KidPix to celebrate Thanksgiving.

December: Since December means Christmas, one project completed during December was a rewrite of the Twelve Days of Christmas with a partner using Scribblar to collaborate on the project. This project kicked off with a really fun rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas used as inspiration:

January: 2010 started out with a few catch up days for those students who hadn’t completed their Wiki Home Pages or other projects. 8th Grade then began creating short videos to educate younger students about Internet Safety. They used PowerPoint to put together slides which they exported as images and then created the video using Animoto.

February – April: There was more work on the Animoto videos and then alternate versions were created using Flixtime and PowerPoint uploaded to the web at authorSTREAM and finally Windows MovieMaker uploaded to SchoolTube. At the end of the project, all completed versions were posted to the wiki and the students compared the tools that they had used. More than 50% of the class said they could see themselves using both Animoto and Flixtime for their own projects at home. Here’s what they had to say about the different tools they used:

Easiest To UseFastest To Use0910AFP-FlexibleBest Music ChoicesEnjoyed The Most

Also during this time, 8th Grade participated in World Math Day, helped 7th Grade out with a survey project they were doing and voted for their favorites of the videos they had created.

May: May was Keyboarding time. 8th grade spent five classes working on their keyboarding skills. As 8th grade moves on to high school and then college, they’ll be called on to do more and more typing so we like to spend some time on refreshing keyboarding skills.

Now, it’s nearly the end of the year and 8th grade is working on their final project which will be previewed at the Graduation Breakfast!

If you would like to see some of 8th Grade’s completed work, you can find it in our Safari Scrapbook on the Computer Lab Wiki.

Computer Lab News: Weeks 14-16

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Wow, December was a busy month at St. Martin’s and not just in the Computer Lab!! I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas. First, I’d like to share with you an online holiday card that I created for a collaborative project that Kindergarten through 3rd Grade are currently doing. All of the Kindergarten & 1st Grade students drew nativity pictures in KidPix and I used this to create our Holiday Card. You can see our card and a card created by another school in the project on the Winter Wonderland Holiday Cards page. And now, here’s a recap of what happened in the Computer Lab during December and a whole lot of projects for you to take a look at.

Kindergarten through 3rd Grade focused on the Winter Wonderland project during December. This is an online project for grades K-3 that includes winter-themed technology activities for December, January & February. Kindergarten-3rd Grade will be doing at least some of these activities during these months and reviewing the activities done by other schools.

KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten worked on learning more letters on the keyboard focusing on the letters “C” and “D” this month. KidPix was put to good use drawing both Winter Wonderland pictures and Nativity pictures. The Winter Wonderland pictures were made into a video which also includes Kindergarten singing “Jingle Bells”. The Nativity pictures were used in our online Holiday Card and Kindergarten signed some real cards that we sent to a few of the participating schools in the Winter Wonderland project. Kindergarten also took holiday polls as part of the Winter Wonderland project and we graphed the results in Excel. And when we were all done with that, Kindergarten played some fun Christmas games on the Internet. Check out Kindergarten’s Winter Wonderland page to see their video and the results of our polls.

1ST GRADE: 1st Grade worked on keyboarding focusing on the letters “C” and “D”. We will be continuing this each week for most of the rest of the school year and will have a mini-alphabet book when we’re done. 1st Grade took the Holiday Polls for the Winter Wonderland project and created a Winter Wonderland video with pictures they drew in KidPix and a recording of them singing “Jingle Bells”. 1st Grade also drew Nativity pictures for our online Holiday Card and signed some real cards that we sent to a few of the participating schools in the Winter Wonderland project. Check out 1st Grade’s Winter Wonderland page to see their video and the results of our polls. 1st Grade even had some time just before Christmas to play some fun Christmas Games online. I’ve also posted 1st Grade’s Hand Turkeys that they created in November on our Travel Scrapbook so check those out when you get a chance.

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade spent December focused on Winter Wonderland projects. First, they took the Holiday Polls for the Winter Wonderland project. They did this by filling out a form online on the Winter Wonderland wiki and submitting their answers. If you want to see the results of these polls for all the schools in the project, you can go to Winter Wonderland Holiday Polls and have a look. Then 2nd Grade drew pictures of what Winter Wonderland looks like to them and they sang “Jingle Bells” and were recorded during a computer class. Their pictures and their singing were combined to make a video. 2nd Grade wasn’t done with Winter Wonderland yet though. They also created Gingerbread Houses in Excel by coloring cells based on a template and then adding clipart to decorate their houses. You can see 2nd Grade’s video and their Gingerbread Houses on their Winter Wonderland page. I have also posted 2nd Grade’s Pumpkin Math Books and their November projects on their Online Autumn page – make sure you check these out too!

3RD GRADE: 3rd Grade completed Winter Wonderland activities during December. First, they took the Holiday Polls for the Winter Wonderland project. They did this by filling out a form online on the Winter Wonderland wiki and submitting their answers. If you want to see the results of these polls for all the schools in the project, you can go to Winter Wonderland Holiday Polls and have a look. When the polls were done, 3rd Grade drew pictures of what Winter Wonderland looks like to them and they sang “Jingle Bells” and were recorded during a computer class. Their pictures and their singing were combined to make a video. 3rd Grade also created Gingerbread Houses in Excel by coloring cells based on a template and then adding clipart to decorate their houses. When they completed their Gingerbread Houses, they were able to play some Gingerbread or Christmas Games. You can see 3rd Grade’s Winter Wonderland video and their Gingerbread Houses on their Winter Wonderland page. 3rd Grade’s “What I Am Thankful For” and “Turkey Glyph” projects are also now available on our Travel Scrapbook – check them out!

4TH GRADE: 4th Grade completed the December activity for their online project, Voices of the World.  You can see this on their Voices of the World page and check out all of the other voices on the Voices of the World wiki. Do you know how to say Peace, Love, Hope and Joy in other languages? You can find out at Voices of the World! 4th Grade has also started working on their keyboarding skills using Sponge Bob Typing. 4th Grade’s Christmas project was a fun one. They selected a Christmas Tongue Twister and illustrated it and then added it to our Tongue Twister VoiceThread where they said the Tongue Twister and then challenged others to say it too. Students from a school in New Jersey have taken their challenges and you can hear them on the VoiceThread too! Can you meet the challenge? Set up a VoiceThread account (it’s free) and try it! 4th Grade’s Internet Safety Posters and their Persuasive Turkeys have been added to our Travel Scrapbook. Make sure you take some time to look at these too.

5TH GRADE: 5th Grade spent some time keyboarding in Mavis Beacon this month and they did a fun Christmas Typing activity. They were challenged to type the lyrics to a song using Microsoft as they listened to the song. Try this – it’s harder than you think. Once they were done with the lyrics, they had to add at least one clip art picture to decorate their lyrics. 5th Grade also completed a spreadsheet in Excel in order to figure out how many presents were received in total for the 12 Days of Christmas. Do you know? Ask your 5th Grader! 5th Grade’s Internet Safety Posters and their Persuasive Turkeys have been added to our Travel Scrapbook – check them out. We will be starting an online collaborative project in January and this requires that each 5th Grader return a signed Wiki Warranty. If you have not seen and signed this, please download it from here, discuss it with your 5th Grader and sign and return it to school.

6TH GRADE: 6th Grade completed their reflections for December and posted them to the discussions tab on their A Room With A View page. Head over to the page to check out the photos so far and read the reflections by clicking on the Discussions tab and then on each month. 6th Grade also tried the lyrics typing. I bet they can still sing the chorus to the song! 6th Grade has started a Christmas Around The World project that we will finish when they get back in January. Each student is researching how Christmas is celebrated in a different country and is creating a PowerPoint presentation about it. They are learning how to use the Outline feature in Word to take their notes and then transfer that to a PowerPoint presentation.  6th Grade’s Cyber-Bullying Comics and their Persuasive Turkeys have been added to our Travel Scrapbook. Take a look!

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade continued to finish up their Cyber-bullying Glogs and analyzed the final results for the Human Genetics project. We will be finishing these up when we return from the Christmas break. 7th Grade also tried the type the lyrics activity. Ask them to sing you the chorus to the song! As their main Christmas activity, each 7th Grader was told that they won a shopping spree to one online store. They had to create a spreadsheet in Excel that would keep track of what they bought and keep a running total of what they spent including sales tax. The catch was they had to spend between $995 and $1000 including tax. They had fun shopping and most of them managed to spend within that $5 range. A few students figured out that some stores have loss-leader products that sell for nothing or almost nothing so they used these to hit the magic $1000 even total. Check out the Travel Scrapbook for 7th Grade’s Cyber-Bullying Glogs and their Persuasive Turkeys.

8TH GRADE: Did your 8th Grader come home singing some Christmas song you had never heard? That’s because they spent a class typing the lyrics as they listened. It’s much harder than you think but there were a few students who got almost all the lyrics correct! 8th Grade also went on a Shopping Spree this month – okay not a real one but they did get to window shop. Before they could shop, each student had to create a spreadsheet in Excel that would keep track of what they bought and keep a running total of what they spent including sales tax. Then they could go and shop but the catch was they had to spend between $995 and $1000 including tax. They had fun shopping and most of them managed to spend within that $5 range. A few students figured out that some stores have loss-leader products that sell for nothing or almost nothing so they used these to hit the magic $1000 even total. Check out the Travel Scrapbook for 8th Grade’s Cyber-Bullying PSAs and their Persuasive Turkeys.

Computer Lab News: Weeks 12-13

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KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten didn’t have classes the week of Thanksgiving since they come to the lab on Wednesdays and Thursdays and we were off then. But, the week before, they completed their B page in their Adventures in Keyboarding book, watched and listened to the book Thanksgiving Is and created turkeys out of hand templates in KidPix. Did you see your Kindergartener’s turkey? If it didn’t make it home or if you want to see all of the turkeys created by Kindergarten, you can find them in a slideshow on Kindergarten’s Online Autumn page.

1ST GRADE: 1st Grade also completed their B page in their Adventures in Keyboarding book. They watched a video about Thanksgiving at BrainPop Jr. and created turkeys out of hand templates in KidPix. Did you see their turkey? A slideshow of all of the 1st Grade turkeys will be available in our Travel Scrapbook soon. 1st Grade also used the educational software program Jumpstart 1st Grade.

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade watched a video about Thanksgiving at BrainPop Jr. and read the book Thanksgiving Is. They completed two Thanksgiving related projects in KidPix: What I Am Thankful For and a Turkey Glyph. Watch for slideshows of these coming soon to our Travel Scrapbook. When they completed their projects in KidPix, 2nd Grade played some online Thanksgiving games or used the educational software program Jumpstart 2nd Grade.

3RD GRADE: Some of 3rd Grade is still trying to finish up their Plant Life Cycle slideshows in KidPix. These will be shared online very soon! In addition to working on these, 3rd Grade watched a video about Thanksgiving at BrainPop Jr. and completed one or two Thanksgiving related projects in KidPix: What I Am Thankful For and a Turkey Glyph. Slideshows of these will be coming soon to our Travel Scrapbook. When they completed their projects in KidPix, 3rd Grade played some online Thanksgiving games.

4TH GRADE: 4th Grade completed the November activity for Voices of the World which involved illustrating and saying the phrase All For One and One For All. Unfortunately one of the group pictures was overwritten but this should be redone in the future. Check out the November Voices of the World activity on our Voices of the World page. For their Thanksgiving project, 4th Grade created Persuasive Turkeys in KidPix. What’s a persuasive turkey? It’s a turkey that is doing it’s best to convince you not to eat it. Watch our Travel Scrapbook for a slideshow of these in the near future.

5TH GRADE: 5th Grade watched a video about Thanksgiving from BrainPop. They then completed Persuasive Turkeys by creating a turkey in KidPix by either tracing their own hand or using a hand template. They then exported their turkeys out of KidPix and brought them in to PowerPoint where they added a speech or thought bubble which contained a paragraph explaining why their turkey shouldn’t be eaten on Thanksgiving. These will be shared very soon in our Travel Scrapbook. When their turkeys were complete, 5th Grade played some online Thanksgiving games or tried to draw Thanksgiving related cartoons using online tutorials.

6TH GRADE: 6th Grade worked on completing their Cyber-Bullying Comics in Microsoft Word and then wrote their reflections about November for the A Room With a View Project. One of the 6th Graders also took our photo for the month which will be uploaded to the project page next week. Visit our project page to see the photos and click on the discussions tab to read the reflections about each month. 6th Grade also completed Persuasive Turkeys by creating a turkey in KidPix by either tracing their own hand or using a hand template. They then exported their turkeys out of KidPix and brought them in to PowerPoint where they added a speech or thought bubble which contained a paragraph explaining why their turkey shouldn’t be eaten on Thanksgiving. Watch for these in our Travel Scrapbook. 6th Grade also did some keyboarding in Mavis Beacon.

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade continued to work on their Cyber-Bullying Glogs and published them to our wiki when they were completed. Check out our Travel Scrapbook to see the glogs that have been completed so far. This project required that they create a background main idea in PowerPoint and then upload this to their Glogster account and embelish it using the tools there and then save it and post it to our wiki. In addition, 7th Grade created Persuasive Turkeys by creating a turkey in KidPix by either tracing their own hand or using a hand template. They then exported their turkeys out of KidPix and brought them in to PowerPoint where they added a speech or thought bubble which contained a paragraph explaining why their turkey shouldn’t be eaten on Thanksgiving. Watch for these in our Travel Scrapbook.

8TH GRADE: 8th Grade continued to work on their Cyber-Bullying Public Service Announcements. These were created by using PowerPoint to create 8-12 slides about cyber-bulling and exporting the slides as images. The images were then uploaded to their Animoto account and they created a short video which they then posted to our Cyber-Bullying PSA page. We run into some bandwidth and speed issues when everyone is working on these at once so there are still a few not posted but they will be soon. Any 8th Grade student that did complete their PSA created Persuasive Turkeys by creating a turkey in KidPix by either tracing their own hand or using a hand template. They then exported their turkeys out of KidPix and brought them in to PowerPoint where they added a speech or thought bubble which contained a paragraph explaining why their turkey shouldn’t be eaten on Thanksgiving. Watch for these in our Travel Scrapbook.

Computer Lab News: Week 11

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KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten reviewed the parts of the computer by singing Our Computer Song and they visited some age appropriate web sites: Peep & the Big World and Poisson Rouge. Kindergarten also began their introduction to keyboarding by meeting our mascot A Silly Dancing Frog, Giggles and using the web site Key Seeker along with green & purple stickers on their hand to begin to find letters on the keyboard using two hands. They also started working on their Adventures in Keyboarding project in PowerPoint. Each week in class they will be typing words that begin with a specific letter of the alphabet. This week they typed A words. After they finished their typing, they visited Caillou’s Magic Keyboard.

1ST GRADE: 1st Grade was reintroduced to A Silly Dancing Frog, Giggles and Harry (the) Jazzy Koala (with a) Little Semi and visited the web site Key Seeker to reinforce typing with two hands. They then completed the A page of their Adventures in Keyboarding project. Like Kindergarten, 1st Grade will also be completing one letter a week as their typing practice. In addition to typing, 1st Grade also used the educational software program, Jumpstart 1st Grade.

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade only had computers once this week and concentrated on keyboarding with a re-introduction toe Giggles and Harry to help learn the keys on the homerow. They then completed Stage 1 on the Dance Mat web site. 2nd Grade will be using this site as their primary keyboarding site this year.

3RD GRADE: 3rd Grade only had computers once this week and some of them were still working on their Plant Life Cycle projects in KidPix. Many of the students are done so they went to Tutpup and played math or spelling games against one another or other students around the world.

4TH GRADE: 4th Grade only had computers once this week and reviewed and discussed their Cyber Safety quizzes and Cyber Safety issues.

5TH GRADE: 5th Grade reviewed and discussed their Cyber Safety quizzes and Cyber Safety issues. They also worked on completing their Cyber Safety posters in PowerPoint and All About Me projects in KidPix. These are complete and will be shared soon. Once they were done they played some Internet Safety games and during the last 15 minutes of class they went to Tutpup and played math or spelling games against one another or other students around the world.

6TH GRADE: 6th Grade only had computers once this week and they worked on finishing up their Cyber Bullying Comics in Microsoft Word and writing their November Reflections for our A Room With A View project.

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade completed their Electoral Votes spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel for St. Martin’s voting and reported their results. They then worked on their Cyber Bullying Glogs.

8TH GRADE: 8th Grade completed their Electoral Votes spreadsheets for St. Martin’s voting and reported their results. They then worked on their Cyber Bullying Animoto videos.

Computer Lab News: Weeks 6-8

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There were some problems with our blog host and I wasn’t able to update the blog for a couple of weeks. The issues seem to be resolved so hopefully there won’t be problems in the future.

KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten spent Week 6 learning about Internet Safety. They were introduced to the characters at NetSmartzKids.org through the activities at Clicky’s Web World and were all awarded a Clicky’s Web World Certificate. Did you see it? During Week 7, Kindergarten was introduced to their on-line collaborative project called Online Autumn. They were shown a map of where all of the other schools participating are located and viewed a few of the projects already completed. They also listened to and watched the pictures of an online book, Leaf Jumpers and created a pumpkin picture in KidPix. Week 8 brought more activities about Autumn. Kindergarten has recorded a song called 10 Little Pumpkins and we will be showcasing all of their pumpkin pictures set to this song in the near future. They also completed a My Pumpkin Math Book using PowerPoint. This also featured their pumpkin pictures as the last page of the book. These were printed as mini books for each student to take home and share. If this didn’t make it home or if you would like to see what the other students in Kindergarten did, here’s a slide show of all of the books:

1ST GRADE: Week 6 was Internet Safety Week for 1st Grade. They were re-introduced to the characters at NetSmartzKids.org through the activities at Clicky’s Web World and were all awarded a Clicky’s Web World Certificate. Did this make it home for you to see? During Week 7, 1st Grade was introduced to their on-line collaborative project called How Tall is a First Grader. They were shown an interactive map of where some of the other schools participating are located. They then watched a short video clip from a show called Math is Everywhere and read an online book called Measuring at the Dog Show and then they played some online measuring games. Week 8 brought a seasonal activity and the creation of Pumpkin Math Books. There are still a few of these being worked on but they will be printed and shared online when they are all complete. Since 1st Grade had just completed some work with the states of the United States in Social Studies they also played some online USA States games if they had completed their Pumpkin Math Books.

2ND GRADE: During Week 6, 2nd Grade worked on their Favorite Things About Autumn pictures in KidPix and reviewed the parts of the desktop using a PowerPoint presentation. They also used the program Jumpstart 2nd Grade. Internet Safety was the focus for 2nd Grade during Week 7. They were re-introduced to the characters at NetSmartzKids.org through the activities at Clicky’s Web World and were all awarded a Clicky’s Web World Certificate. Did this make it home for you to see? They all fondly remember NetSmartz and had fun playing some games on that site during the week. It was back to Autumn projects during Week 8 with the creation of Pumpkin Math Books. These will be shared online soon as will the Favorite Things About Autumn pictures.

3RD GRADE: All About Me pictures were the focus of Week 6 and 3rd Grade continued to work on these. They’re still not all done so be looking for these to come home during November when we have a chance to get back to them. Week 7 was Internet Safety Week for 3rd Grade. 3rd Grade participated in an interactive presentation from NetSmartz all about how to be safe on the Internet. Did you hear all about the WizzyWigs? After the presentation, 3rd grade played Internet Safety Games at NetSmartz Kids and continued to work on their All About Me pictures. Since 3rd Grade has been working on the Life Cycle of Plants in Science, they began a Life Cycle of Plants project in KidPix during Week 8. They are creating a title page illustration and four pictures to show the life cycle of a flowering plant. They will then create a slide show of their pictures which we will export and share here in a few weeks.

4TH GRADE: During Week 6, 4th Grade continued to work on their All About Me pictures. Most of these are done but a few are still not complete. They will be printed once they are all finished. Weeks 7 and 8 were focused on Internet Safety. 4th Grade watched a series of videos about Internet Safety and answered quizzes after each video. The wrap up to their Internet Safety unit will be a discussion of the quiz results and the creation of an Internet Safety Poster. These will be shared online when they are complete.

5TH GRADE: 5th Grade continued to work on their All About Me pictures during Week 6. Most of these are done but a few are still not complete. They will be printed once they are all finished. Internet Safety was the focus of Weeks 7 and 8. 5th Grade watched a series of videos about Internet Safety and answered quizzes after each video. The wrap up to their Internet Safety unit will be a discussion of the quiz results and the creation of an Internet Safety Poster. These will be shared online when they are complete.

6TH GRADE: Most of 6th Grade finished their All About Me bios in Word during Week 6. They also did their Daily Typing assignment on one of the days this week and wrote their reflections of September in Word. Week 7 and 8 were focused on Internet Safety. 6th Grade watched and discussed a video called Adina’s Deck which focuses on Cyber Bullying. They are currently working on creating comics using the drawing tools in Microsoft Word about Cyber Bullying. When these are completed they will be shared online. In addition, 6th Grade also completed their October reflections in Word and learned how to add them to the discussion section of their A Room With A View page. Make sure you visit the A Room With A View page each month as 6th Grade adds to this project throughout the year. NOTE: In order to be able to maintain the information on the wiki, all 6th graders must return a signed Wiki Warranty form. If you have not seen and signed this, please do so as soon as possible!

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade continued to work on their collaborative project, Human Genetics: A Worldwide Search for the Dominant Trait, during weeks 6-8. They were introduced to Google Docs and worked together in small teams to write portions of our introduction letter for the project. This will be online on the wiki once it is submitted to the project. They also completed a genetic trait survey of their class and each 7th grader surveyed either 6th or 8th grade for a specific trait. This data was all recorded in an Excel spreadsheet and the totals will be submitted to the Human Genetics project in the next week or so. During Week 7, 7th Grade watched a video called Adina’s Deck which focuses on Cyber Bullying. We will be discussing this video and creating a Cyber Bully Glog during November.

8TH GRADE: During Week 6, 8th Grade completed their Wiki Profiles to include information about what they hope to learn from working with the wiki this year. Week 7 and 8 were focused on Internet Safety. Like 6th & 7th Grades, 8th Grade also watched and discussed a video called Adina’s Deck which focuses on Cyber Bullying. 8th Grade has also begun creating Public Service Announcements about Cyber Bullying using PowerPoint and Animoto. These will be shared online when they are complete. 8th Grade also voted on their choice for the yearbook cover. Do you want a sneak peek at the cover?