Hello All,
Welcome back and I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and have created some wonderful memories with family.
We've been busy as usual in the Mouse Pad! Here's a recap.
Kindergartners started out the New Year with a great fun online talking pets program. You could just imagine what that was about. Students went to talkingpets.org and picked a pet, dressed them up and had it say what they wanted it to say. They had a ball hearing their pet say what they typed. Ask them about it! Kindergartners then were been introduced to the Sunburst Senses program. This takes off from the lessons about the senses from their homeroom classrooms. The program has nine lessons all about the five senses and once completed, they get a customized certificate. They've started with the sequence game, the matching game and creating your own portrait which includes inputting pictures from the five senses. They are now about to begin the nine lessons to obtain their certificates. This program really helps them develop their hand/eye mouse coordination and reinforces the five senses.
First Graders have been introduced to the Neighborhood Map Machine program in which they put their knowledge of map making skills to the test. The program uses x and y coordinates and the compass. Students first created their own maps and then they solved mysteries embedded within the program. They loved searching for treasure and aliens! Students were grouped together to solve mysteries and they showed great teamwork skills. I was amazed to see how polite and encouraging they were to their teammates.
Second Graders are continuing with the Alice program. We have lots of great programmers in 2nd Grade. They have learned to have more than one object move at the same time. They have incorporated music, speech bubbles and their own voice recordings. They are all writing more than 10 lines of code! Their project is to create an animated video which includes at least seven objects, speech bubbles, voice recordings and music and then they will share their finished product with the class using the smart board. I can't wait for that!
Third Graders were introduced to Google Earth, a navigation software that lets you go to anywhere on earth as well as the Sky, Mars and the Moon. Students started off with finding OWS, then from there they went home and then they went to India to visit the Taj Mahal. They had loads of fun especially seeing their homes. Students then went to the sky to identify constellations and then they visited Mars and the Moon and placed their mark on it! Ask them how they did that..... Next, they will be introduced to Scratch programming. Stay tuned for that.
Fourth Graders were introduced to photo editing using PhotoStory. They are creating a digital story. Students first were grouped in pairs and then they took pictures around campus to incorporate into their stories. Students uploaded their pictures and are making edits that would certainly surprise you! Students added lighting effects, text, cropping, music and voice narration. I can't wait to see their finished products!
Grades 1 - 4 have been practicing TTL4 as well for 10 minutes each week. I do encourage you all to download TTL4 so that your child can continue practicing at home. Instructions can be found on your child's teacher's website. Kindergartners will be introduced to TTL4 later on this school year.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Take care!
Rasha Sachdeva
