Hello, April!

Be sure to see the previous post (below) for news about Doodle4Google!

The Short Story:
3rd graders--continue progress in Keyboarding for Kids
4th graders--continue progress in the Mesa Verde Mission in Quest Atlantis
Kindergarten and 1st graders--create colorful "Spring" drawings with Drawing for Children
2nd graders--analyze and review "Money" games at Internet4Classrooms

The Long Story:

3rd graders--are setting themselves up for success by diligently working each week in Keyboarding for Kids, and if they show an interest in doing so at home (which many are reporting in lab class) please allow them to practice as often as they can and will. Please also make sure that they are using only home row key position!

4th graders--continue progress in the Mesa Verde Mission in Quest Atlantis, helping Lorisa understand the value of her ancestry and exploring in great detail the rich culture of the Puebloan people. At the end of April, our school will stage an International Fair, an annual celebration of cultural diversity, and Caroline, a 4th grader, has volunteered to organize a group of her classmates to cook and share food from Hopi history. I plan to be there with a poster display and Quest Atlantis running on my laptop connected to a large flat panel monitor, taking advantage of the opportunity to share this amazing, challenging, and fun way to learn. In more Quest Atlantis news, Middle School Technology Coordinator Jake Wilson has decided that QA will benefit his 5th graders. He's signed up for the mandatory 8 hours of online teacher training in April and I'll be going into his classes in a couple of weeks to re-introduce former Questers to Quest Atlantis and to show the new 5th graders how it all works. Amazing!

Kindergarteners and 1st graders--are using Drawing for Children to create fun, fun, fun, little drawings celebrating Spring! I'll pop in an example I shared with them right here, but check back for a long and entertaining slideshow right here next week!

2nd graders--examine the 26 learning games about "Money" at Internet4Classrooms (each spends 10 minutes with the game whose number matches their own computer number, then chooses any of the games with numbers higher than 18 to "test drive") and reassemble to demonstrate the best ones for their classmates. Via this exercise, I'll choose a particular set of games we'll all do on this topic next chance we get. Next week, we'll begin making business cards for their own imaginary businesses in the Business Unit! More on that later...