Computer Lab News: Weeks 21-29 – 5th Grade

5th Grade continued to work on the Time Zone Experiences project. Most of the time assignments have been completed and you can see what each 5th Grader has done on our Time Zone Experiences page and most of the students have added their information to the Time Zone Experiences wiki too. This project has been a bit of a struggle because the students are learning new concepts and many new skills. I think they’re doing a great job so far. Currently they have started working on their assigned month for the Month by Month portion of the Time Zone Experience project. When these are completed they will also be shared online.

5th Grade also participated in World Math Day in the Computer Lab on March 4th. World Math Day is an International event with students from around the world competing against one another in mental math games to try to set a world record for the most correct math answers in a 2 day period – 2 days because the event ran during the time that it was March 4, 2009 anywhere in the world. 5th Grade answered 3,376 questions correctly during World Math Day. Each 5th Grader received a participation certificate from this event. Here are just a few statistics from World Math Day:

  • 204 Countries represented
  • 12,647 Cities/Towns participating
  • 38,058 Schools participating
  • 1,952,879 Students participating
  • 452,682,682 Questions correctly answered

There were a few days where most of the class was absent for band or choir or sports and on those days 5th Graders played various academic or Easter related games.

Computer Lab News: Week 5

KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten only had computers once this week and spent their day in the lab exploring the educational software program, Jumpstart Kindergarten. They will be using this program throughout the year.

1ST GRADE: 1st Grade had an introduction to Microsoft Word this week in the lab. They first learned about some important keys on the keyboard using a paper keyboard: Space Bar, Caps Lock, Enter and Backspace. Did they bring the paper keyboard home to show you what they had learned? After learning where the important keys were, they went into Word and typed their name multiple times making it bold or italicised or underlined. During their second day in the lab, they once again used Word typing their name again but playing with making it multiple colors and changing the font and font sizes. Most of the students printed out what they had typed. Did you see your child’s rainbow name?

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade finished their ABC Charts in KidPix. They were then introduced to the collaborative project they will be working on called Online Autumn. They then brainstormed ideas about Autumn using an online tool.

After the brainstorming session, the 2nd graders began creating pictures of the things they like best about Autumn using KidPix.

3RD GRADE: This week in the lab, 3rd Grade finished up their ABC Charts in KidPix and reviewed the parts of the desktop. They then began to work on and All About Me project in KidPix. KidPix is a very fun program with a lot of built in stickers and stamps and special effects but for this project they need to use the basic drawing tools to draw themselves and use the ABC Tool to list some facts about themselves too. When these are complete, your student will be bringing theirs home and we will be displaying them in the computer lab too!

4TH GRADE: This week in the lab, 4th Grade learned all about the collaborative project they will be working on all year called Voices of the World. They were introduced to some of the schools that will be participating using a Live Search Map and then we recorded the class saying “Hello, we are (name of school), from (location) and you are listening to Voices Of The World, Goodbye.” on a Voki:

You can listen to all of the Vokis created on the Voices of the World Wiki. 4th Grade also started creating their All About Me picture in KidPix. Like 3rd Grade they will be drawing a picture of themselves using the standard drawing tools in KidPix and adding at least 8 facts about themselves and decorating this with stamps and stickers as they wish.

5TH GRADE: 5th Grade only had computers once this week and they spent their time working on their All About me pictures in KidPix. Also, a few of the 5th Graders finished up their recording for the Summer Reading VoiceThread.

6TH GRADE: This week in the lab, 6th Grade practiced their keyboarding skills each day. They were introduced to their year-long collaborative project, A Room With a View and some of the classes that will be participating in the project using a Live Search Map. One of the 6th graders will be taking a photo from the same place in front of the Computer Lab each month and another will be recording information about weather, etc. and submitting the photo to the project as well as posting it online. All students in 6th grade also be reflecting on each month with a VoiceThread. We also reviewed the formatting of Science Labs and worked on this during class for anyone with questions. 6th Grade also worked on an All About Me project in Word.

7TH GRADE: 7th Grade only came to the computer lab on one day this week due to the Fall Fund Raiser Assembly on Friday. On that day, they were introduced to their collaborative project Human Genetics: A Worldwide Search for the Dominant Trait and taken on a virtual tour of where the participating schools are located. They also spent some time working on their keyboarding skills in Mavis Beacon.

8TH GRADE: 8th Grade continued to explore the Social Studies Wiki and create their profiles. They will be starting to update the content on the wiki in the 2nd quarter.

Computer Lab News: Week 1

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.


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by stmcomputers

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.