Snow! Snow! Snow!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a great break! See you next year!

Make Your Own Posters

Last month on her blog, Mrs. Culver talked about a web site for making posters: Block Posters. I needed to update some posters in my room and used Block Posters to create the ones in the picture. As you can see, it worked great! Below are directions for making your own posters. All I ask is that you try to not make them too color intensive.

Winter Newsletter

If you didn't make it in for conferences, here is my Winter Newsletter:

Welcome!
Students are currently working on their December projects. First graders are making a special picture in the program Kid Pix. Third grade students are also using Kid Pix but their pictures will have a surprise twist. Second graders are writing a letter and fourth graders are making a year end newsletter. Both of these grades are using Microsoft Word for their projects.

Kindergarten
This winter, students will continue to explore the drawing program Kid Pix. Be on the lookout for printouts of their creations. The kindergarten curriculum will be reinforced through math and alphabet programs, too.

First Grade
Students will continue practicing using the keyboard and even learn how to type certain letters with their hands on the home row. Many of our upcoming lesson plans will revolve around literature. Miss Frank will read a story and the class will do a computer activity related to it.

Second Grade
A big part of Second grade is practicing keyboarding. Each week the students type for ten minutes on the web site Dance Mat Typing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ It is a free site and if you have Internet, students can practice at home, too. Second grade students will also be participating in literature based activities. In addition, keep an eye out for a slide show telling about Charlevoix landmarks.

Third Grade
Soon after the New Year, third graders will be making a slide show about the planets. We will also practice reading and math skills with various Internet web sites. These sites and others can be accessed at www.rayder.net/ces/kidlink.htm.

Fourth Grade
With the start of the New Year, fourth grade students will begin researching and planning their web pages. You can check out pages from past years at http://missfrankcomputers.blogspot.com/search/label/Projects . Keep an eye out for this year’s pages near the end of February.

Learning 'Wares

Each week kindergarten, first, and second grades have a computer word of the week. We talk about the word, and it is the students' job to remember it. This last week first grade students had two words: Hardware and Software. Hardware are the parts of the computer you can touch, such as the mouse or monitor. Software is what makes the computer run, and it also helps the hardware communicate with each other. Examples are operating systems like Windows and applications like Kid Pix. To assess understanding, students painted H's and S's in Kid Pix. When the teacher said and example of hardware, they pointed at H. Students pointed to S for software.

SMART Interactive Pull Tabs

At the SMART training last month I learned about the SMART Recorder. It records what happens on the screen along with your voice through the computer's microphone. I thought I would test it out with a video reviewing what Mrs. Keegan showed the teachers at the last staff meeting: Interactive Pull Tabs.