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
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Message from the Mouse Pad!
Hello Everyone,
I want to take this time to wish you and your family a very happy and safe holiday season. Please take this time to enjoy family and friends and get some much needed rest for yourself! I'll see you back here in 2013.
Best Wishes,
Rasha Sachdeva
I want to take this time to wish you and your family a very happy and safe holiday season. Please take this time to enjoy family and friends and get some much needed rest for yourself! I'll see you back here in 2013.
Best Wishes,
Rasha Sachdeva
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Update From the Mouse Pad!
Hello Everyone,
Hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving break. For my 3rd and 4th Grade families, please keep in mind that when we have holiday breaks, I do not expect typing homework logs the following week. Many people travel and may not have that access.
Kindergartners have completed the robotics unit by virtually seeing their BeeBots on the screen. They loved being able to see their actual instructions come to life (which is basically what programming is all about). Many students took it even further and added lovely patterns in the background and had their BeeBots go to specific colors. I hope they told you all about it. Next, they were introduced to our art program called KidPix where they created digital masterpieces and even got to record their own voices on their drawings. They loved hearing themselves.
First Graders delved deeper into the Microworld's Jr. program and created animation using the turtle graphics. Their animation included at least 3 moving objects, a background, a textbox and a recording which could be composed music of their own or their own voice recording. They became pros at opening up the turtles backpack and adding code into it. They did not even realize that they were programming the turtle. We had a showcase in class where students got to walk around and see their peer's animated turtle and had questions answered. Stop by and see their saved animation.
Second Graders completed their KidPix slideshows and shared with their peers using the smart board. They loved presenting their creation. Many students even added music and their own narration on each slide for a more dramatic effect. I was so proud to see the audience be so attentive and respectful as their peers were presenting. These kids have such great confidence in public speaking. We then began our programming unit using Alice. It's a wonderful 3-D graphics program where you can drag and drop code to make your objects move. Alice is available free to download. Just search for Alice and choose the elementary version.
Third Graders are continuing with their Pixie project. They each chose a topic of their choice to present it as a slideshow format. They love being able to search the programs' controlled Internet gallery of pictures.
Students are using many if not all of the options to create their slideshows. I can't wait to see the finished products.
Fourth Graders completed their dream homes using SketchUp. I was really amazed to see their creativity. I was equally impressed to see that many students created their own structures without the help of the Google search option. Our next unit will be an introduction to word clouds which is a great way of putting words into a graphical format. Stay tuned for that....
As usual please feel free to email me whenever you have any questions. Take care!
Rasha Sachdeva
Hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving break. For my 3rd and 4th Grade families, please keep in mind that when we have holiday breaks, I do not expect typing homework logs the following week. Many people travel and may not have that access.
Kindergartners have completed the robotics unit by virtually seeing their BeeBots on the screen. They loved being able to see their actual instructions come to life (which is basically what programming is all about). Many students took it even further and added lovely patterns in the background and had their BeeBots go to specific colors. I hope they told you all about it. Next, they were introduced to our art program called KidPix where they created digital masterpieces and even got to record their own voices on their drawings. They loved hearing themselves.
First Graders delved deeper into the Microworld's Jr. program and created animation using the turtle graphics. Their animation included at least 3 moving objects, a background, a textbox and a recording which could be composed music of their own or their own voice recording. They became pros at opening up the turtles backpack and adding code into it. They did not even realize that they were programming the turtle. We had a showcase in class where students got to walk around and see their peer's animated turtle and had questions answered. Stop by and see their saved animation.
Second Graders completed their KidPix slideshows and shared with their peers using the smart board. They loved presenting their creation. Many students even added music and their own narration on each slide for a more dramatic effect. I was so proud to see the audience be so attentive and respectful as their peers were presenting. These kids have such great confidence in public speaking. We then began our programming unit using Alice. It's a wonderful 3-D graphics program where you can drag and drop code to make your objects move. Alice is available free to download. Just search for Alice and choose the elementary version.
Third Graders are continuing with their Pixie project. They each chose a topic of their choice to present it as a slideshow format. They love being able to search the programs' controlled Internet gallery of pictures.
Students are using many if not all of the options to create their slideshows. I can't wait to see the finished products.
Fourth Graders completed their dream homes using SketchUp. I was really amazed to see their creativity. I was equally impressed to see that many students created their own structures without the help of the Google search option. Our next unit will be an introduction to word clouds which is a great way of putting words into a graphical format. Stay tuned for that....
As usual please feel free to email me whenever you have any questions. Take care!
Rasha Sachdeva
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)