Hello,
As usual we are keeping very busy in the pad!
Kindergartners were introduced to a website to help enhance their mouse clicking. Please click on the left link, Talking Pets, to see and have them show you what they have learned. Students enjoyed picking their pet, choosing backgrounds and dressing them up. We've got some great designers in here!
First Graders were busy with a little typing practice with TTL4 and the Talking Pets link. They took this site one step further and typed in simple sentences for their pets to say. You can just imagine the kinds of sentences they came up with. They loved hearing the animals say what they typed. Please have your First Grader show you!
Second Graders were busy with a little typing from TTL4 as well as bringing together their pictures from KidPix into their very own slide show. Students have been sharing their finished products through their very own presentation using the smart board! They love that magic board.
Third Graders have been busy learning about Power Point and are working on a presentation 'All About Me'. They are using many of the features such as slide transitions, animation, sound, importing pictures and design layout. Many students have taken this skill further and have made Power Points at home on various subjects such as Halloween, NFL, and Lego creations! I love when they take their knowledge outside the box!
Fourth Graders are busy wrapping up their Power Point presentations on an element from the periodic table. This came about from their science unit of Mixtures and Solutions. Ms. Scott requested that they research an element and present it's properties. They are incorporating all of their research into a colorful Power Point Presentation. Students have been researching in the lab using databases such as Nettrekker, Worldbook Online, and various other approved websites and documenting those resources. This lead to a discussion of 'why can't we just Google'. This in turn lead to a demonstration of safe, legal and ethical internet practices.
Fifth Graders solidified their math skills on the order of operations using our very popular How the West was 1+3*4 software. Many faced the challenge using negative numbers! Ask them about this. They also got introduced with creating mathematical formulas using Excel. They learned the basics of columns, rows, charting and deriving formulas. They completed a Halloween activity using Excel and finding out if Vampires really exist. They derived a formula and used the autofill to see the magic. They compared the number of vampires to the human population using the census website. Ask them if vampires really do exist! This was a great lesson on exponential growth. Concepts being taught currently in their math classes.
Digital photos were also taken of each Fifth Grader and placed on their server folders. Students will be manipulating their image using a pretty nifty app called picnik. Stay tuned for that. The link is at the left if you would like to preview it.
Grades 3-5 are required to keep a typing log each week and signed by a parent/guardian. Please help your child to keep those logs coming in.
Please contact me anytime you may have questions.
Regards,
Rasha Sachdeva
