Sixth and Seventh Weeks

Kindergarten has been working hard on sharpening their mouse skills and learning the names of the parts of a computer. We sing "Old MacDonald Had a Computer" and "The Mouse Song" each time they come for a lesson in the main lab. We're also learning to independently find the kindergarten blog and become familiar with some of the educational sites in the link lists.

First grade LOVES Discovery Education! We are using Discovery Education Science to learn about and explore weather this week for their upcoming unit in Science. Last week, first grade used Publisher to complete an informational brochure template for their writing performance assessment.

Sixth and Seventh Weeks

We've been busy in the computer lab learning Word 2007! Second through fifth grade students have used spell check, formatted text (center align, bold, font size, tab to indent), saved, and printed their work. Using Word helps us to edit and publish our writing pieces.

Fifth Week

Third through fifth grade will be working on two programs, Type to Learn and Calculating Crew! We are all enjoying the typing program and are almost ready to take a typing test again to check our progress! Also, we'll be practicing our math skills using Calculating Crew which is a math program available on all of the computers in the main lab.

Second grade will be applying their graphing skills from their latest math unit using Graph Club 2.0. We'll be matching graphs, creating our own, and printing some to take home with us!

First grade will be using Carnival Countdown and Zoo Zillions to apply their math skills and learn how to open and close a program.

Kindergarten will be reviewing KidPix (background, stamper, text) and creating a Thanksgiving decoration to take home with them.

Congratulations!

Wow! Most all of our classes were able to earn 4 points each time they visited the lab! If your class earned 16 points, then this week or next you'll have 15 minutes of free time on your choice of sites or programs we have worked with over the last 4 classes! Congratulations!

Fourth Week

Two words: Discovery Education!

First through fifth grade will be logging into DiscoveryEducation.com to view three of the many different resources available within discoveryeducation.com: ebooks, interactive glossary, and video segments. We will be using DE as a tool to locate information (NETS 3: research and information fluency).

Kindergarten will be exploring shapes with Carnival Countdown and Zoo Zillions. These two programs are available in the main lab on all 30 computers and provide practice and application of kindergarten through second grade math skills. (Teachers, Calculating Crew is another program available in the lab that provides skill practice for grades 3-6. If you'd like to know more, just email!)

http://discoveryeducation.com/

Third Week

Second grade will be exploring and creating with KidPix! We will learn how to add a background, stamps and insert a text box. We will also be saving our work and printing.

Third, fourth and fifth grade will apply the skills we learned last week using Word 2007 and complete the typing pretest and a lesson on Type2Learn.

All of the grade levels will be visiting their BRAND NEW grade level BLOGS! Below are a few to take a look at...
http://www.lfeprek.blogspot.com/
http://www.lfekindergarten.blogspot.com/
http://www.lfefirstgrade.blogspot.com/
http://www.lfesecondgrade.blogspot.com/

More are available on the Lake Forest site by clicking on "Classrooms." Under the BLOGS tab, you will see all the grade level blogs.

Third Week

Kindergarten and first grade will be working hard on their mouse skills. We'll be learning how to click, double click and click and drag.

“Tidy the classroom” http://www.learning.luton.gov.uk/l2g/custom/resources_ftp/netmedia_std/ks1/ict/mouse/start.htm

"Fireflies"
http://avenscorner.com/fireflies.aspx

"Make a Face"
http://www.abcya.com/make_a_face.htm

"Feed the Monster"
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/onlinegames.php?game=feed-the-monster

"Colors"
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/ngames/colors.htm  

"Build a House"
http://www.abcya.com/build_a_house.htm

Word Project

Second Week

Grades K-1:

How can I create with KidPix? We will try our best to use and control our mouse. Also, we will use KidPix to: choose/set background, choose/select stamps, type text, save and print.

Grades 2-5:

How can I use Word to open and format a document? We will be using Microsoft Word to format a document. We will practice the following: 

opening a file

selecting text

changing the font size and color

bolding, italicizing and underlining text

center-align text

inserting clip art

spelling check

saving

printing

How do you keyboard? We wil be visiting BBC Dance Mat Typing to practice our skills.

ITBS Week

Because of ITBS testing, I will only be seeing  a few classes in the lab this week. If you are in the following classes, LUCKY YOU!
Mr. Pratt
Ms. Story
Ms. Rancourt
Ms. Robinson
Ms. Thompson
Ms. Hamilton
Ms. Mullinax
Ms. Leclair
Ms. Johnson
Ms. Reisman

How do we use the Internet? We'll be finding out in this week's classes! We'll also be using http://www.ixl.com/math/practice/ to practice what we've been learning in Math in unit 1.

Our Computer Lab

First Week

How do the parts of a computer help us? Find out in this week's lessons. What is keyboarding? How do you keyboard? We'll begin to explore the proper way to keyboard.