Posted on March 4, 2011 by
patreed
Spring is in the air! … and the computer lab is very busy these days.
Kindergarten: We are so impressed at the way our kindergarteners are coming along with their mastery of technology and the Internet. In the coming month, we will be exploring some creative software such as “Thinking Things” which is designed to strengthen auditory and visual discrimination, develop special awareness and foster visual and musical creativity (not to mention that it’s lots of fun!) We’ve also added some new educational activities on the SJF Kindergarten web page such as ABCYa and Sheppard Software, both of which help develop kindergarten skills in areas such as shapes, colors, alphabet and numbers. The children will also use the Reading is Fundamental and the Mighty Book Websites to encourage them to develop a love for leisure reading.
First Grade: We will be exploring a number of different websites so students can practice their addition and subtraction math facts, counting money and telling time. These websites are found on our St. John Fisher website under First Grade and can be accessed from home. Some of these websites are Mr. Anker Tests, Sheppard’s Math and Dog Bone. Also, with St. Patrick’s Day upon us, we will type a St. Patrick’s Day poem using the typing feature in Kid Pix and draw a picture relating to their poem.
Second Grade: In honor of St. Patrick’s day the students will copy a poem to Microsoft Word. They will learn how to change the font color and size, center the poem, add clip art, and a border. They will also continue on using the Math Journey software (up to level 5) that we began last week, and do a scavenger hunt about Dr. Seuss.
Third Grade: The third graders will be going on several interactive web sites learning about the water cycle. They will be able to watch an interactive water cycle, play a question and answer game, and a word scramble game. The will be able to read and learn all about St. Patrick and play a counting money game called POT OF GOLD. For Spring the third graders will be designing a Spring document in Microsoft Word. They will be sharpening their skills in adding borders, fonts, and graphics onto a document. And of course, they will be continuing their work on speed and accuracy in keyboarding.
Fourth Grade: We will introduce Storybird to our students this month. Storybirds are short, art inspired stories you can design to share, read and print. We will assign a topic for students to write about and see how creative our 4th graders can be! We will be sure to make our stories available so you can view from home.
Fifth Grade: At the start of the month, students will wrap up their presentations on the Invention of their choice. Later, we will do some activities on the State of Illinois related to the students’ upcoming trip to Springfield.
Sixth Grade: Students will be introduced to Glogster. Glogster is a multimedia-enriched digital poster board. The students have been assigned a Greek god to research, and will present a “Wanted Poster.” They seem to be very excited about this project. They have visited the website and were able to view a number of poster creations to model. On this particular project, little instruction will be provided on how to use the application. Instead, students are being encouraged to “figure things out” on their own. This will be an important skill for this generation with the rapid pace of new technologies.
Junior High: Students are now “fully invested” in the Stock Market Game, even with the volatility the market has seen over the past several weeks. One of our teams is in third place in the region! Students understand that a share of stock is ownership in a company, and that individuals can earn money when the prices of their shares go up. They have learned that world events (such as the situation in Libya) can dramatically affect the performance of the market as a whole. The students are also very interested in individual companies, particularly those teen friendly companies such as Apple and Buffalo Wild Wings, and know that diversification lessens the risk of investing. Please ask them about their new-found knowledge!
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