2010 Wrap-up

Some classes learned about Microsoft Excel before Thanksgiving vacation. They learned about columns, rows, and cells. They created a turkey using a worksheet and learned about Excel terminology. They had a lot of fun!

Third graders have also been working on their holiday stories using Microsoft Word to type them. To help with their typing skills they have been learning about keyboarding using Dance Mat Typing. They have been working extra hard and giving their fingers a pre-holiday workout! Many students created a cover page for their holiday story books using PowerPoint and the drawing tools and clip art. They also typed one of their stories using Microsoft Word.

Wrap-up

4th Grade is wrapping up their movies about their daily life in the fourth grade. They used Window Movie Maker, did lots of voice recordings, and exported their movies.

We've also been working on our keyboarding and word processing skills. I hope we don't develop bad habits over the holiday break!

Native Americans

Third graders are learning about Native Americans in their classrooms and continuing their knowledge in the computer classroom. Students have used Community Construction Kit to create 3D tipis and have used PowerPoint to create slides with their Indian names and meanings. Here are a few examples:

Pumpkins with Attitude

Here are a few of our pumpkins with attitude. We've worked really hard in third grade to learn about drawing tools, grouping, and multiple text tools. We did these pumpkins in PowerPoint. PowerPoint is a great place to make pictures becuase you can also export your slides as jpgs!

Showcase Our School

The fourth grade is teaming up with other schools across the United States to showcase our school. This project will expose our students to digital photography, voice recordings, and basic photo/movie editing techniques. Each class will put together one voicethread about our school, and each student will put together their own video about the life of a fourth grade student using Windows Movie Maker.

To begin, each student was paired with a partner and given a specific area of the school to take pictures of using the digital cameras. We learned how to upload pictures and how to move folders. Next, we created avatars for our voicethread profiles. Currently, we are working on our scripts. Our scripts will help us when we do our voice recordings. Lastly, we will be using Movie Maker to make our videos. This is going to take us several weeks, but it's going to be a lot of fun!

Check back soon to watch some of our videos.

PowerPoint - More Than Just a Slide Show





It's very important to understand that anytime we learn a new program, such as PowerPoint, we learn it in pieces. It's similiar to when you visit a new mall or theme park; you have to look at your surroundings and study them.

We use PowerPoint, at the beginning of the year, as a drawing template for learning how to use our drawing tools. We are learning how to use our shapes, fill shapes, change line color, and move an object. We know how to duplicate an object, undo our mistakes, and group an object with multiple parts.

These steps are important in learning how to use some basic functions of PowerPoint and to prepare us for our Halloween project called "Pumpkins with Attitude."

Shiloh Venn Diagrams

Some of our students have started to blog about their Venn diagrams that they created using Inspiration. Check out what they learned about urban and rural environments and their new computer skills.

http://kidblog.org/FourthGrade6/

Shiloh Inspiration Project

Our fourth grade students had to read Shiloh this summer. When discussing the book in their classroom, they discovered that it would be fun to compare rural environments to urban environments. The classes used Inspiration to compare and contrast the different environments. We are working on exporting our venn diagrams as jpgs and posting them to our blogs. Check back soon to read some of our blogs and what we learned. Here's an example of what we are working on.

Scholastic also has a fun character scrapbook! Make sure you check it out: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/scrapbook/

Kidspiration Projects

Some of the third grade students have finished their Kidspiration flowcharts about themselves. We had a fun time with this project. We learned about our shared folders, web diagrams, and different saving techniques. We also talked about how our projects ended up on the third grade blog.

Learn a little bit about our friends in third grade:

Taylor's Class

Makins' Class

Tibbits' Class

Aderhold's Class

About Me Project

Kidspiration is a visual learning software program. We can use bubbles and pictures to express our ideas and thoughts.

To help me get to know you, using Kidspiration, tell me 10 things I don't know about you.

Here's an example of what we're going to do:

What's a Blog?

Do you have an idea to share? Do you have a project to share that you've worked on in computer class? Do you enjoy reading and writing? Then you can blog!

A blog is an on-line journal that allows for us to type about hobbies, interests, and opinions.

In our classroom, your blogs will show the work you've done in class. You can write about the skills you used and what you liked or didn't like about the project.

Some of my favorite kid blogs:
http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/dogeared/
http://blog.scholastic.com/ink_splot_26/


Project: You are going to create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast rural/urban environments. You will export your Venn diagram and post it into a blog entry. Make sure to write about your project and what you learned.

Summer Events

Using Wallwisher (an online message board maker), tell me what you did this summer. Type no more than three sentences. Read about what your friends did, too.

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/UE-Computer