It's Typing Games Week!

1st-5th grades are playing typing games during technology this week.  Typing practice can often seem boring, but there are lots of great games that can make it more fun.

Here are some of the games we played:

• NitroType -- A typing race game, where students can race their friends, and earn "money" to buy new cars!
• Sense-Lang -- Click on the "games" tab. A favorite is Ninja Cat & Zombie Dinosaurs.
• ABCya!  -- Do a search for "typing".  Some favorites are: Cup Stacking, Keyboard Invasion, Ghost Typing, and Cluttergrams.

Kindergarten started working with an art program called Doozla.  It is free to download -- please see the link on the sidebar.

Word!

Last week, 2nd-5th grades have been learning how to save their work to the server, so that they can have access to it from any computer on campus.

In addition, we have been learning/reviewing how to format in MS Word.

1st graders are still working on their typing, focusing on using both hands and trying to use "home row" position.

We've also been playing math games on ABCya!

Trying New Things

We've got a bunch of new stuff going on in the Technology Lab this week.

We're getting close to settling on a comprehensive typing program for our school!  (And not a moment too soon -- the kids are going to be too good for Dance Mat Typing soon!)  During the month of November, two classrooms, six teachers, Carla, and I will be involved in a free trial of what looks to be the perfect typing program for us.  Stay tuned for more details.

The kindergarteners have been eying the laptops longingly all year, so I thought it was time to let them have a go.  :-)  Those who had "computer experience" were used to using a mouse, so it was fun for them to try using the track pad.  They visited the kindergarten area of abcya.com and played Alphabet BINGO.  This is a great game to help kids learn the letter sounds because you can select to either the "Letter Name" or "Letter Sound".  Most importantly, there is a "Repeat Letter" button.

2nd and 3rd graders started a two-week "formatting" activity in Microsoft Word.  This activity is great for becoming familiar with the features of Word, but also enables the kids to see that the computer does what THEY tell it to do.

4th and 5th graders continued to familiarize themselves with their LAUSD online student accounts.  Some of the teachers are more excited than the kids -- they can't wait to use Google Docs for collaborative projects!

It's the End of Ocober!

Where does the time go??  I guess time flies when you're as busy as we have been in the Technology Lab!

On Friday, Many parents met with Carla to discuss the Common Core.  On thing that became clear during her presentation was that, although there have been "technology standards" in the past, and we have known that having tech saavy kids will be imperative in this century, the Common Core model pushes teachers and parents to make it happen.

If you are interested in the specific ways in which technology skills are integrated into the Common Core, this document is helpful: http:// bit.ly/1aDHscs

One area in which parents can really help support their kids is in typing practice.  Once a week in the Technology Lab is not enough.  As I mentioned before, Dance Mat Typing is a great FREE online typing program.  We want our kids to feel comfortable writing on computers for many reasons, but the coming changes to standardized testing is a big one.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been attempting to get the 4th and 5th graders set up with their LAUSD email/cloud storage/GoogleDocs accounts.  Ideally, by the end of this week they will all be set!

2nd and 3rd grade have been working on typing practice in a different way by creating "word cloud poems" about themselves in abcya.com.

1st grade has continued to work on math skills, playing Money BINGO and Base Ten BINGO on abcya.com.

 

 And finally, in abcya.com, for advanced typers only...

Happy Halloween!

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."