Happy March!
The Short Story:
Everyone gets a short introduction to Doodle4Google. Entries are to be submitted no later than the end of school Friday, March 26. I'm telling the kids this year to doodle as much as they would like to, but please to only submit final versions they really really think can win the competition. See the winners from last year's Doodle4Google competition!
3rd Graders work in Keyboarding4Kids.
4th Graders may work on Scratch projects or on updating their blogs after visiting last week's posts about Scratch and editing/revising to make them more polished.
Kindergarteners visit the BBC's "Little Critters Activities Centre" for math and reading practice.
1st graders go to the Literacy Section of the BBC Bitesize learning website for all manner of practice with their interactivities.
2nd graders pair up to examine BBC Bitesize Science activities then demo them for the class at the projector.
The Long Story:
Everyone gets a short introduction to Doodle4Google. This huge annual competition nets the winning drawing $15,000 for their efforts, plus $25,000 more in grant funding for a computer lab at their school. LOTS more can be found at the official website. Entries are to be submitted no later than the end of school Friday, March 26.
This year, as in past years, our K12 school may submit only 6 entries to the state competition, and I'll put together a panel of volunteer teachers to do the judging for our school. I love the theme this year: "If I could do anything, I would..." Reminder: This is an ENTIRELY optional competition. I tell the children that if they want to do a drawing they certainly may, but they should not submit it (to the basket on my desk) unless they really really feel it could win the national competition. At USN, we're not so much about the concept of competition, but if we look at this as analogous to a sports competition with a nice award for the winner, we're in a healthy mindset to compete on an artistic level.
3rd Graders work in Keyboarding4Kids. Remember that this too is optional (at least for homework). The kids know their login process, "usntigers," "usntigers, "their password" parents check your email for individual password help), and that they are to accomplish three good scores (20 wpm or better, 3 errors or fewer, and then move on to the next line or the next lesson. HOME ROW KEY is the only way to successfully do this work. If you notice your child typing out of that standard touch-typing position, please correct them immediately and monitor that they always work that way--I would rather them not do the program at all than to be doing it incorrectly!
4th Graders may work on Scratch projects or on updating their blogs after visiting last week's posts about Scratch and editing/revising to make them more polished. This gives them a chance to see how easy it is to revise a previously posted blog, and to read the approved comments I've shuttled through the approval process since they made their posts last week. We also discovered today that a digital template of the Google doodle outline can be imported to the Scratch painting platform and that can be used for its design. Fun!
Kindergarteners visit the BBC's "Little Critters Activities Centre" for math and reading practice. Little Critters does a good job of engaging the younger set in very simple "fill in the number sentence" practice with Count Hoot, and the three stories that can be read and clicked through are fun and attention-keeping. The mix of audio narration with the screen-displayed words and actions is hard to beat for immersing young ones in the world of reading and writing.
1st graders go to the Literacy Section of the BBC Bitesize learning website for all manner of practice with their interactivities.
There are 9 wonderful activities at the site, and I can attest that they are engaging by the number of chuckles I hear coming from the headphone-outfitted 1st graders!
2nd graders pair up to examine BBC Bitesize Science activities then demo them for the class at the projector. I assign partners by proximity-paired seating and charge them to know the game well enough to explain to the class how it works. I also challenge them to use an outside voice when they explain, and it might take instructions for them to "get mad at me" before many 2nd graders' voices are loud enough to fill the room. By using this "jigsaw" process, all the games get to be explained and we will hopefully build some interest in revisiting BBC Bitesize Science!
Everyone gets a short introduction to Doodle4Google. Entries are to be submitted no later than the end of school Friday, March 26. I'm telling the kids this year to doodle as much as they would like to, but please to only submit final versions they really really think can win the competition. See the winners from last year's Doodle4Google competition!
3rd Graders work in Keyboarding4Kids.
4th Graders may work on Scratch projects or on updating their blogs after visiting last week's posts about Scratch and editing/revising to make them more polished.
Kindergarteners visit the BBC's "Little Critters Activities Centre" for math and reading practice.
1st graders go to the Literacy Section of the BBC Bitesize learning website for all manner of practice with their interactivities.
2nd graders pair up to examine BBC Bitesize Science activities then demo them for the class at the projector.
The Long Story:
Everyone gets a short introduction to Doodle4Google. This huge annual competition nets the winning drawing $15,000 for their efforts, plus $25,000 more in grant funding for a computer lab at their school. LOTS more can be found at the official website. Entries are to be submitted no later than the end of school Friday, March 26.
This year, as in past years, our K12 school may submit only 6 entries to the state competition, and I'll put together a panel of volunteer teachers to do the judging for our school. I love the theme this year: "If I could do anything, I would..." Reminder: This is an ENTIRELY optional competition. I tell the children that if they want to do a drawing they certainly may, but they should not submit it (to the basket on my desk) unless they really really feel it could win the national competition. At USN, we're not so much about the concept of competition, but if we look at this as analogous to a sports competition with a nice award for the winner, we're in a healthy mindset to compete on an artistic level.3rd Graders work in Keyboarding4Kids. Remember that this too is optional (at least for homework). The kids know their login process, "usntigers," "usntigers, "their password" parents check your email for individual password help), and that they are to accomplish three good scores (20 wpm or better, 3 errors or fewer, and then move on to the next line or the next lesson. HOME ROW KEY is the only way to successfully do this work. If you notice your child typing out of that standard touch-typing position, please correct them immediately and monitor that they always work that way--I would rather them not do the program at all than to be doing it incorrectly!
4th Graders may work on Scratch projects or on updating their blogs after visiting last week's posts about Scratch and editing/revising to make them more polished. This gives them a chance to see how easy it is to revise a previously posted blog, and to read the approved comments I've shuttled through the approval process since they made their posts last week. We also discovered today that a digital template of the Google doodle outline can be imported to the Scratch painting platform and that can be used for its design. Fun!
Kindergarteners visit the BBC's "Little Critters Activities Centre" for math and reading practice. Little Critters does a good job of engaging the younger set in very simple "fill in the number sentence" practice with Count Hoot, and the three stories that can be read and clicked through are fun and attention-keeping. The mix of audio narration with the screen-displayed words and actions is hard to beat for immersing young ones in the world of reading and writing.
1st graders go to the Literacy Section of the BBC Bitesize learning website for all manner of practice with their interactivities.
There are 9 wonderful activities at the site, and I can attest that they are engaging by the number of chuckles I hear coming from the headphone-outfitted 1st graders!2nd graders pair up to examine BBC Bitesize Science activities then demo them for the class at the projector. I assign partners by proximity-paired seating and charge them to know the game well enough to explain to the class how it works. I also challenge them to use an outside voice when they explain, and it might take instructions for them to "get mad at me" before many 2nd graders' voices are loud enough to fill the room. By using this "jigsaw" process, all the games get to be explained and we will hopefully build some interest in revisiting BBC Bitesize Science!
Labels: elementary education, elementary technology, learning, teaching
posted by Scott Merrick at
6:54 AM
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