A Beautiful Week!

It's been a beautiful week so far at Community.  Such a lovely view outside of the Technology Lab!  :-)

This week, in addition to typing practice...

In 1st grade we played math games in the 1st Grade area of abcya.com.  There are a number of great, FREE, educational games on this site, but many address subject matter that has not yet been covered in the 1st grade classrooms.  This week we tried "100 Number Chart", "Number Grid Fireworks", and several different levels of "Connect the Dots".

2nd and 3rd graders played the spelling and vocabulary games that are a part of the Treasures (Language Arts) online curriculum. They started with activities using words from stories they are reading this week, and then went back to play games using words from stories from previous weeks.

4th and 5th graders discussed responsible email use, school (not private) vs. home (private) email accounts, and cyberbullying.  We also watched BrainPOP's "Cyberbullying" video to reinforce the main ideas.  These guys are at the age where we need to start talking about this stuff.

The Acceptable Use Policy went home in backpacks this week.  Please read and sign it with your child, and return it to school as soon as possible.  The intent of LAUSD's AUP is "to prevent unauthorized access or other unlawful activities by users online, to prevent unauthorized disclosure of or access to sensitive information, and to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act."

New Headphones And Other Stuff

I'm very excited about our new headphones in the Technology Lab!  They are much more durable than the old plastic ones, and will also be easier to clean.

This week, in addition to typing practice, 2nd-5th graders continued to discuss internet safety.  We wrapped it all up by watching the BrainPOP video, "Online Safety".  It's a great one to watch and review with your kids at home.

In 1st grade, we've been practicing typing as well, but have also been making use of the online components to the Treasures (Language Arts) and Everyday Math curricula.  Everyday Math has some really fun two-player math games!

The kindergarten teachers have been interested in having students work on "beginning sounds" and "end sounds", so this week students have explored the Letter Muncher, Word Magic and Reading Raven apps. Word Magic is especially useful with regards to the skills that the K teachers wanted to target, because you can go into the settings and tell it to focus on "beginning sounds", "middle sounds" or "end sounds".  I anticipate using all three apps throughout the year to help the students practice their reading skills.