Welcome to the 2010-2011 School Year

Wow, September is almost over and this is the first chance that I have had to update this blog. We’re already busy in the computer lab and all grades have completed their first project of the year in honor of International Dot Day!

Dot Day 2010

After enjoying the book, The Dot, all students created their own dot (or dots). Dot Galleries for Kindergarten through 4th Grade are now available on the Computer Lab Wiki – you can view them individually by going to the Techno Star Scrapbook page and selecting each grade. The galleries for 5th-8th grades will be added soon!

In addition to celebrating International Dot Day, students have also been learning and doing other things in the lab:

  • Kindergarten & 1st Grade have done some mouse exercises to learn or practice mouse skills
  • Kindergarten through 5th Grade have drawn (or are drawing) self-portraits using KidPix or Paint.
  • Middle School is busy reviewing how to format Book Reports and Science Labs and how to create Crossword Puzzles in Excel.

Starting in October, 4th through 8th Grades will be getting their very own class blogs where they will be updating what is happening in the lab themselves!

Computer Lab News 6th Grade: Weeks 30 – End of Year

6th Grade completed their 12 class Keyboarding Boot Camp with a class average typing speed of 28.5 WPM and an average speed increase of 21%. All but two of the students increased their typing speed during the 12 class session. 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. 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.

For Earth Day, 6th Grade watched and then discussed the presentation, The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. As a follow-up to this presentation, each student created original artwork and then created a ribbon piece on the PlanetFesto ribbon to celebrate the reasons they love the earth and to commit to doing something to help perserve the earth.

6th Grade also spent some time correcting errors in three poems about Spell Checkers. Often we all rely too much on the spell check feature in Microsoft Word and these poems point out that this tool will not catch every error you make in something you write. Try these yourself? Can you find all the errors?

6th Grade also wrapped up the A Room With a View Project with pictures and reflections added for April and May. Each student took a picture around the campus in May and posted that to the timeline on the project. Have your child show you which picture they took!

6th Grade also completed How To Survive Middle School brochures for 5th Grade using Microsoft Word. These were allowed to be humorous or serious but were supposed to be truthful and not derogatory to the teachers or the 6th Graders. Each student printed two copies of their brochure – one that they kept and one that was given to one of the 5th Graders. The students seemed to enjoy making these however I believe the point of helping the 5th Graders may have gotten lost. I hope that when school starts that this class truly does help the new 6th Grade class to survive and thrive in Middle School.

The final task for 6th Grade was to fill out a survey about the projects and activities they completed this year during computer class. As you can see the brochure project was the most favorite project this year. For your Information, ARWAV is the A Room With a View Project.

Christmas Around the World followed by the 12 class Keyboarding Boot Camp were the least favorites this year, however, more students felt that the Keyboarding Boot Camp was the most useful project or activity they did this year than disliked it.

The Most Useful Project or Activity was the Keyboarding Boot Camp according to the survey, however, many other projects/activities received votes too:

I look forward to next year in the Computer Lab where we will continue to improve our typing speeds, learn more about Microsoft Office and participate in more collaborative projects.

Computer Lab News 8th Grade: Weeks 30-End of Year

It was a pleasure teaching this year’s graduating 8th Grade class. They are all creative, wonderful students who will do great things in high school and beyond. They were very busy at the end of the school year with their End of Year project which resulted in the DVD they all received at the Graduation Breakfast. I hope that each of you has had a chance to watch this beyond the excerpts shown at the breakfast.

Prior to the End of Year Project, all 8th graders spent one day taking a series of timed typing tests and creating Excel spreadsheet to calculate their average typing speed. Many of this year’s 8th grade class loved Mavis Beacon and would spend time working in it every chance they got and this showed in some of the average speeds. For any 8th grader who isn’t already typing at least 40 wpm, I would highly encourage some keyboarding practice before they begin high school.

Each 8th grade student also viewed all of the Think Before You Post presentations and voted for their favorites in 3 different categories. The awards for these were given out at the Graduation Breakfast and congratulations again to the winners!

8th Grade also spent some time correcting errors in three poems about Spell Checkers. Often we all rely too much on the spell check feature in Microsoft Word and these poems point out that this tool will not catch every error you make in something you write. Try these yourself? Can you find all the errors?

For Earth Day, 8th Grade watched the discussed the presentation, The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. As a follow-up to this presentation, each 8th Grade student created a ribbon piece on the PlanetFesto ribbon to celebrate the reasons they love the earth and to commit to doing something to help perserve the earth. Some of the 8th Grade students created original artwork for their ribbon piece while others used one of the stock photos available for this project.

Last but not least, 8th Grade added to the Social Studies wiki with their Wordles and analyses of Presidential Inaugural Speeches.

Computer Lab News: Weeks 12-13

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

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: Week 10

Welcome to the 2nd Quarter of the school year!

KINDERGARTEN: Kindergarten spent their time in the computer lab this week using Bailey’s Book House and Jumpstart Kindergarten.

1ST GRADE: 1st Grade again worked on the How Tall is a First Grader project. We read the book Not So Tall for Six by Dianna Hutts Aston and talked about height. Then each 1st Grader was measured and they typed their height into an Excel Spreadsheet and watched the graph of their heights show on the screen. It will be interesting to see how our 1st Graders compare in height to the other 1st Graders participating in the project. 1st Grade also spent time using the educational software program Jumpstart 1st Grade.

2ND GRADE: 2nd Grade also used an educational software program, Jumpstart 2nd Grade, during the week. In addition, they recorded their comments about their Favorites of Fall for the Online Autumn Project.


3RD GRADE: 3rd Grade continued to work on their Life Cycle of Plants project in KidPix. As they finished these, they visited various web sites about the life cycle of plants. Most of the students have or will complete these next week and we will be sharing their slideshows online.

4TH GRADE: 4th Grade watched a short video on Presidential Elections, learned about the candidates for President and visited our Voting Booth and selected their choice for the next President/Vice President. They also completed their work on their All About Me projects and their Internet Safety posters. We will be sharing at least the Internet Safety posters online soon.

5TH GRADE: This was a catch up week for 5th Grade who spent their time working on their All About Me projects in KidPix and their Internet Safety videos, quizzes and posters. Most students have completed these and we will be sharing them very soon. Students that were finished with their work played math or spelling games at Tutpup.

6TH GRADE: 6th Grade practiced keyboarding and continued to work on the Cyber Bullying comics in Microsoft Word. Most students have finished these and we will be sharing them soon.

7TH & 8TH GRADE: This week was spent discussing the election and how the electoral college works. 7th and 8th Graders created an Excel Spreadsheet to count “electoral” votes from the school by assigning each class 1 electoral vote for each 5 students in the class. They discovered that while McCain had 50% of the popular vote at school using an electoral distribution he ended up with 60% of the electoral vote.

Computer Lab News: Weeks 6-8

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 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 4

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.