Tag Archives: keyboarding

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?

Computer Lab News: Week 4

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2ND GRADE – 8TH GRADE:

All students in grades 2 through 8 are adding their opinions about their Summer Reading Books to our Summer Reading VoiceThread. We are still recording some grades and/or students but you can check out what we have so far:

KINDERGARTEN: We continued to review the parts of the computer both by singing Our Computer Song and by learning about the desktop using a PowerPoint presentation:


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by stmcomputers

Kindergarten also continued working in KidPix this week creating pictures using different size stampers and the pencil tool. They also spent some time on the Starfall web site. This is a wonderful site for pre-readers to early readers with many activities at each level.

1ST GRADE: This week 1st Grade also learned about the Computer Desktop and sang Our Computer Song to review the parts of the computer that they already know. They also spent time in KidPix reviewing the bent pencil tool, stamps and the flood fill tool. 1st Grade created pictures of a hill and added stamps to make their hill all their own. These were printed and the students could take them home. I hope that you all had the chance to see your child’s creation. In addition, 1st Grade also spent time on the Starfall web site.

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade continued to work on their initial letter sounds ABC Chart using stamps in KidPix. We will be printing these and sending them home next week. The students in 2nd Grade also began to add their voices to the VoiceThread above. Check out their reviews. A few of the students do not have avatars yet – these will be added once they are completed – and a few of the students were absent.

3RD GRADE: 3rd Grade continued to work on their initial letter sounds ABC Chart in KidPix using stickers. We will be printing these and sending them home next week. 3rd Grade will be adding their voices to our Summer Reading VoiceThread next week.

4TH GRADE: 4th Grade wrote their Summer Book Reviews in Word and began recording these on our Summer Reading VoiceThread. Scroll back up to the top and listen to those that have been completed. We will be continuing to record the rest of 4th Grade next week. We also began an All About Me project in KidPix.

5TH GRADE: The focus for 5th Grade this week was to complete their written Summer Book Review in Word and to record those on our Summer Reading Voice Thread. Most of the class has completed this so scroll back to the top and check out what 5th Grade had to say about F is for Freedom. Since 5th Grade had to recite the preamble this week, they were also given the opportunity to review this by playing an Unscramble The Preamble game or by watching a video:

Some of the 5th Graders also helped donate rice to those in need by playing the Free Rice game while they were waiting to record their reviews. Once they were done with their reviews, 5th Grade started an All About Me project in KidPix.

6TH GRADE: Since the next book report due in English requires a Crossword Puzzle, this week 6th Grade learned how to create one using Excel. 6th Grade also worked on their Summer Reading Book Reviews in Word and began recording these on our VoiceThread. There have been a few issues with background noise or microphones that seem to cut out so some students didn’t get a chance to record yet and some need to re-record their reviews. They will be doing this next week. 6th Grade also spent part of one day doing their Daily Typing exercise and some began working on an All About Me project in Word.

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade learned how to create a Crossword Puzzle using Excel since their next book report requires a crossword puzzle. They also worked on their Summer Reading Book Reviews in Word and began recording these on our VoiceThread. We will be finishing these next week but scroll up and listen to 7th Grade’s opinions so far about Where The Red Fern Grows. 7th Grade also set up their folders on their computers and completed a Daily Typing exercise. 7th Grade will usually be typing once a week for approximately 15 minutes.

8TH GRADE: 8th Grade also learned how to create a Crossword Puzzle using Excel since their next book report requires a crossword puzzle. They also worked on their Summer Reading Book Reviews in Word and began recording these on our VoiceThread. Most of the 8th Graders have completed these but we will be finishing those who haven’t next week. Scroll up and listen to their opinions. 8th Grade also completed a Daily Typing exercise. They will usually be typing once or twice a month for approximately 15 minutes. Most 8th Graders type well so we will not be focusing on this as much this year. There may be exceptions for some of the students who have not yet memorized the keyboard.

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.

Summer Learning Ideas

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Did you know that many students lose more than 2 months of knowledge over the summer and all children experience some learning loss if they do not engage in educational activities during the summer? So, while summer is a time for fun, there should also be time for educational activities. Here are some suggestions of things you could do with your child this summer for both fun and learning:

  • Visit the library and read – not just what is required for the summer reading but other books that interest your child. Why not learn about something new with your child? Check back here for a fun idea of something you can do after your child reads their summer reading book!
  • Visit museums, aquariums or other attractions that educate as well as entertain.
  • Spend some time visiting some of our What Can I Do When I’m Done Sites – these are all sites that have educational value as well as fun activities. Please make sure that your children are supervised if they are using the Internet!

I would highly encourage consistent typing practice (10-15 minutes at least every other day) for any St. Martin’s Middle School student who is not typing at least 25 words per minute and it never hurts for younger students to practice typing too. Knowing the keyboard and being able to touch type is a skill that will help both in Middle School and beyond. This should be supervised to insure that your child is using correct posture, hand positioning and is trying to type without looking at the keys.

How can you practice typing over the summer? You can purchase and install a typing program such as Mavis Beacon which costs about $20 but there are free online typing lessons available. Many of these sites do have ads though some of these sites have a premium option which you can purchase that will remove the ads. Here are some free typing sites with lessons:

  • TypingWeb.com – Lessons, Graphs to track progress, typing games. This site requires registration and can be ad free for a $5 one-time donation. You can customize the look of your background and some other features.
  • GoodTyping.com – 27 lessons. This site requires registration.
  • Learn 2 Type – This site has various excercises, preformance charts, typing speed tests and more. Lots of ads and it’s a little difficult to know exactly where you are in your typing knowledge. Registration is required. There is a pay option to get rid of ads.
  • FreeTypingGame.net – This site has lessons, games & speed tests. You can use this site to see what speed you are currently typing at. I recommend using at least a 2-minute speed test and any of the following lessons: 9, 11, 13, 26-30. We often use this site in class to test speed.
  • PowerTyping – Simple typing lessons where you can type to music to encourage rhythmic typing. Records your WPM on each lesson and assigns a grade.
  • Sense-Lang – A simple site with lessons starting with the home row. This site also allows you to paste text from anywhere and practice typing using that text. This is a nice feature since it practices real typing rather than just random words or letter combinations.
  • Custom Typing Training – This is a subscription site for $7/month but you can sign up for a free 4 week trial. You must have a credit or debit card for this free trial. This site is unique because it does not use the traditional homerow approach to teach typing. For students that seem to be having a hard time with typing, this could be a solution since it approaches typing from a different way.
  • NimbleFingers – This site has online typing tests and a typing program you can download called Word Wacker. This is a free to try program. Read the Tent Trick here for information on how to make a cover for your child’s hands and for information on when your child should move on from the Home Row. And, check out the Healthy Typing section for some exercises to prevent carpal tunnel.
  • E-Learning For Kids – May be a little young for most middle schoolers but this is a fun animated course.
  • Dance Mat Typing – Fun Characters and songs to introduce Touch Typing for children 7-11 years old from the BBC. This might be a little young for most middle schoolers but it has fun characters. No speed feedback until all lessons are completed.