Monday, June 18, 2012

Happy Summer!

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take this time and wish you all a very wonderful and safe summer. It was a pleasure teaching your child technology. I will see you all again in the fall. For those of you going on to Vista, please stop by the Mouse Pad as I would love to see you!

Take care,
Rasha Sachdeva

Monday, June 4, 2012

Update from the Mouse Pad!

Hello All,

I can't believe this year is winding down. A reminder that I will keep all TTL4 accounts active if your child is a returning student. I will upgrade them to the next grade level so they will need to take that initial pre-test to see where the program places them. If your child finishes their grade level over the summer and wants the next grade level access, please just email me and I'll be able to bump them up.

Kindergartners this month got to explore the SmartBoard tools. They've seen it in action but this time they got to explore with the actual software. They created pages in a single document, used tools such as text, color, lines, fancy pens, shapes and their most favorite, the magic pen. Be sure to ask them about it. This was a great introduction to the tools as they will surely be using the SmartBoard in their homeroom classrooms in the future years.

First Graders got to explore with MS Word. They created documents and added clipart, wordart, colors, borders, copy/paste function and the wonderful spellchecker! It was great to see how they inserted pictures to size and they were amazed to see that clipart held so many kinds of images.

Second Graders were introduced to MS Excel. We took an ice cream survey and we created a simple but useful chart on our results. For your information in both classes sherbet was the most favorite and strawberry was the least. Students then took their chart knowledge and created charts themselves. They took surveys on favorite colors, foods, animals and sports to name a few. Students also got a quick introduction on PowerPoint. We will go in dept with a project of their choice in Third Grade but this year, they got to see how powerful presentations are made!

Third Graders were introduced to a popular simulation called SimSafari! Here they are safari owners and they must run a successful safari to survive. They have three zones which must run successfully, the park, the camp and the village. This simulation uses all their knowledge on math and the sciences. The goal is to obtain 5 stars and many are well on their way. Ask them about it!

Fourth Graders are busy making animated videos using their account on GoAnimate. They love being able to log on from home as well to continue their videos. All students got a lesson on ground rules for videos before posting on our platform (note, only myself and OWS 4th Graders can view the videos). GoAnimate lets you create skits from their apps, create characters and make a full blown video using all the bells and whistles. Be sure to ask your child about it and log on using their ids. I will remove their access sometime over the summer to prepare for the new Fourth Graders.

As usual, if you have any questions, please just send me a quick email! Take care.

Rasha Sachdeva