Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Gingerbread Houses with Microsoft Excel

Before the data manipulation begins, students in second grade learn the basics of spreadsheets: columns, rows, cell addresses, and highlighting cells. Each student makes a gingerbread house by highlighting a single cell or a group of cells and filling them in. A little clip art was added to give their houses some personality.

Fourth Grade Animates with Picasion

Some more fun with Picasion.



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Third Grade Animates

We're learning about frame animation, jpgs and gif files. Look at some of our animations we made using Picasion and PowerPoint slides.




Thursday, October 25, 2012

October Excitement

First Grade is working on Kidspiration (sorting letter sounds).


Second Grade is making their own Halloween iSpy pictures. Check back on Halloween to see the finished products!

Third Grade learned how to use their drawing tools in PowerPoint and created some fun pumpkins! They've also been learning about Microsoft Word. They can copy/paste, edit text, format font, and manipulate between multiple applications. Students are also using Kerpoof to create pictures and export them as .jpgs to use on their poems or stories.





Fourth Grade is using Microsoft Excel to recreate graphs from their Science class. They've learned all about columns, rows, cells, etc. They've made three graphs so far, and they all have a lot of personality.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Learning Lounge

Everyone is having fun in the Learning Lounge!


In the Beginning in the Digital Den

Kindergarten is off to a roaring start! They are working on their mouse skills, double-clicks, and drag/drop. They've explored Bees & Honey, Daniel Cook, and Sammy's Science House.


First grade learned about avatars and had fun making them. Some students made self portraits using KidPix and other used an online avatar program.




They are also working on their basic skills: text box, drag and drop, and object manipulation. To encourage these concepts, they created an acrostic. They even added clip art.

When they finish a project, they've been building with legos online.















Second grade also made avatars and then they saved them as .jpgs and inserted them onto their graphic organizer. When they were finished, they had to record their voices. They LOVE using the microphones.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Welcome Back!

Are you ready for the Digital Den?


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Summer is Finally Here!

Don't forget to work on your keyboarding skills using Dance Mat Typing and take your time. It's more important to keep your fingers on the homerow keys than to rush through it with incorrect hand positioning.

Do some brain work with Launch Pad!

Try some animation with Aniboom and ABCya.

Make sure you go outside and have fun, too!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

May Flowers are Almost Here

Kindergarten is working on their drag and drop skills to learn about recycling and our Earth. They are making objects bigger and smaller by using resizing handles, searching for clip art, and moving objects.

First graders are editing spring poems by changing fonts, text sizes, and inserting an image they created with KidPix.



Second graders have used several sites to research bugs, create bug trading cards, and even make a bug wanted poster.


Create Bugs:


Third graders are using Storybird to write a short story moment they worked on in Humanities.
Defeat of the Master... on Storybird My Rainbow Wave on StorybirdFourth graders are busy filming movies and creating a website using Weebly for Education.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

April Actions

Kindergarten is learning about the different tools in KidPix Studio (fill bucket, shapes, paint brush, etc.).

First grade is working on a top secret project, but it includes photographs, object manipulation, and font manipulation. We've also been working on Spring pictures in KidPix and will later insert them into a Word Document and print them.

Second grade is busy creating spanish videos using Zimmertwins. They are learning about food vocabulary in Spanish class and have to use many spanish words in their videos.

Third grade is exploring switch zoo, neighborhood map machine software (exploring grids, coordinates, location, and direction), and videos about computer safety:



Fourth grade is also exploring computer safety videos and finishing their Storybird stories.

Purple Bat on Storybird

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The countdown has begun. Only 42 days of school until summer!

Kindergarten is continuing to learn where all the keys on the keyboard are using different keyboarding games. They are also working on Math Skills (100 charts), Numbers Recovered (100's and 10's and 1's), and Lego Builder.

Numbers Recovered by Sunburst
Lego Builder


First Grade is working on keyboarding skills using Alpha Munchers to locate their keys with speed. They are also learning where the punctuation is located on the keyboard by typing short sentences using Microsoft Word.

Second Grade just finished their Monster Exchange project. Each student had to draw a monster using KidPix and then use a graphic organizer to describe their monster. They next swapped graphic organizers and tried to draw that monster based on the description. We have some very great matches.

Third Grade is exporting their first Movie Maker Movies, strengthening keyboarding skills with Dance Mat Typing, and working with Zimmer Twins.

Fourth Grade is using Storybird to write online stories and share them with our Hillcrest friends.

Lucy Manners and Grandmother Tea by lucyhenard on Storybird

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

March Into Computer Fun!

Kindergarten used an Excel spreadsheet to make a leprechaun. They learned how to use the fill bucket to fill a "cell". They also played a keyboarding game to help them find the letters on the keyboard.



 First Grade is using different websites to practice their money skills.


Second Grade finished their monster projects. Check back soon for some fun examples!

Third Grade made some AWESOME rocket covers. Look for them at the launch this Friday.

Fourth Grade is learning about Internet Safety. They had to watch several videos and create a video, poster, or comic strip to teach a concept about being safe on the computer.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

"Leap" With Us...

Kindergarten is exploring multiple applications to strengthen their skills in math, language arts, and computer skills.


First Grade is creating a rebus poem and adding animations and sounds! They also learned about the copy/paste functions. Do you recognize any of these faces?





Second Grade is doing a Monster Switch project. Each student had to draw a monster, create a graphic organizer describing their monster, and then switch with another student in a class. Check back soon to see our comparisons. It's tricky to write descriptive paragraphs!

Third Grade is preparing for their rocket launches on March 9th by creating their rocket covers on the computer. Each team is carefully planning their designs and creations!





Fourth Grade is working on their keyboarding skills and Invention Convention signs. We are getting ready for Storybird.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Fun With Fairy Tales

First grade had fun this week creating "WANTED" posters for a character in a fairy tale. First, they had to draw their character using Kerpoof or KidPix. Second, they had to create their poster using a template.



Friday, January 27, 2012

Drag/Drop, Movies, and Dinosaurs

Kindergarten and first grade worked on their dragging and dropping technique. They learned the difference between a text box and an object and how they both move differently. These techniques were reinforced using lessons about sounds. We also talked about the scroll bar on our mouse and on the screen.

Second grade students worked on their keyboarding skills using Dance Mat Typing.

Third graders  are busy learning how to use Movie Maker to create a movie. This week we learned how to create a movie with photographs. We even included transitions, special effects, and titles. We will be posting some of these when they are done.

Fourth grade is working continuously to research their dinosaurs. We are creating Inspiration graphic organizers and word clouds. In addition, students are getting to select what media they want to use to give their presentations (powerpoint, movies, prezi, etc.). It's so much fun!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Snowmen Edit Photos and Make Graphs

Based on the book, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, first grade students used KidPix to review their drawing skills, type a sentence, and print a picture about what they thought Snowmen did at night.
My snowman trains sword fighting at night because he is in the army. Ryan

My snowgirl gets her hair done at night. Riley

My snowman plays hockey at night. Paige

My snowman plays baseball at night. Joe

Third Grade students are learning about online editing using Picnik. We learned that we don't need expensive software to have fun with our photos!


Fourth Grade is using Microsoft Excel to graph results from their polling questions. They learned about cells, columns, rows, and cell addresses. They also learned how to create a basic bar graph using Excel.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tech Cheer for the New Year!

Kindergarten has been working on their math skills (Numbers Undercover) and Science Skills (Thinkin' Science).

First Grade is learning about Penguins: watching short movies, doing penguin math, and trying to keep the Emperor Penguin eggs safe with our keen mouse skills.

Second Grade is learning about their homerow keys (ASDFJKL;). Check out our homerow posture below.

Third Grade is working on cover pages for a secret project, our keyboarding skills, and learning about cropping images.
Fourth Grade is typing short stories and learning about online editing of photos. We can't believe how easy it is to manipulate photos.