Technology Words

Each week throughout the year kindergarten, first, and second grades have a computer word of the week. It is the students' job to remember that word and what it means. At the end of the week, the words go up on the computer lab Word Wall.

Sheppard Software

This week first and second grade students are doing activities on a web site called Sheppard Software. First grade students are creating animal habitats on the Create! page. Second grade students are practicing parts of speech, punctuation, and capitalization on the Grammar page. These pages and much of the Sheppard web site are great for using with the SMARTboard and classroom laptops, not to mention at home.

Computer Disaster

This week first grade students are listening and responding to the book Arthur's Computer Disaster by Marc Brown. In Microsoft Word they are writing about what they think Arthur should have done in the story. They get to change the size and font and add a clip art to the document before printing.

Goodnight First Grade

Students in first grade just listened to the story Goodnight Moon in computer class. They each created a PowerPoint slide saying goodnight to something in their room at home. The slides were then put together to make a complete presentation. Click here to see the shows.

Teach Your Parents

Thursday is Teach Your Parents Computers night for first and second grades. Students can bring in their parents or other adults to teach them how to do different things on the computer. First grade students will be teaching their guests how to type on the home row. Second grade students will be helping their guests make a slide show in Microsoft PowerPoint. The lab will be open from 5:30 to 7:00 pm for people to stop by.

Hats Off to the Months

This week first grade students reviewed the months of the year. We read the book 12 Hats for Lena and each student drew a hat based on their birthday month. Students decorated the hat using the fill bucket and the different groups of stamps.

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.

Keep Safe, Keep Away, Keep Telling

In third and fourth grade students are allowed to browse school appropriate web sites on the Internet after turning in a signed Acceptable Use Policy. This doesn't mean that students don't go on the Internet until then. Instead of browsing, they get to go on sites chosen by teachers.

This week first and second grade went on the Internet. First grade used the educational sites found on K2 Links. Second grade students browsed the Charlevoix Public Schools web site. Both grades discussed safety on the Internet and to remember Keep Safe, Keep Away, and Keep Telling. Students should keep safe by not typing their name or any other information on the Internet. They should keep away from strangers on the Internet and never meet them anywhere. Finally, they should keep telling parents and teachers about anything strange on the Internet.

First Grade Keyboarding

First grade computer students are now using the program Type to Learn, Jr. to practice typing! Each week we will spend 10 minutes practicing using both hands to type, not just one. The left hand will type the pink letters in the program, and the right one types the purple letters. In January we will begin learning to type with fingers on the home row!

C is for Camera, Computers, and Charlevoix!

This week in first grade computer classes I am reading the book Crictor by Tomi Ungerer. Students then work together to make different letters of the alphabet like the snake did in the book. I use a digital camera to take a picture of each letter, which later become the alphabet for my Word Wall. Years ago when I first started doing this lesson most of the students had never seen a digital camera. They were amazed that they could see the picture right away on the camera and computer, and even more in awe that they got to take a copy of it home that day. Now students are no longer surprised by digital cameras. I use the lesson to explain how far technology has come and that before digital cameras, you had to wait hours or even days to finally see your picture.