Tenth Week

Third, fourth, and fifth grade students are continuing to build their keyboarding skills with Type2Learn. Students are encouraged to practice their keyboarding skills outside of their computer lab time with BBC Dance Mat Typing. There's a link on the right side of screen under "lesson links."

Fifth grade is working on a persuasive performance assessment. Each class is researching a national park, then using that information to persuade others to visit that park. They've each chosen to use one of the following tools to present their persuasive piece: Publisher, PowerPoint, Voki, or Word. Some students are writing scripts for commercials they will create using green screen technology. We'll be posting all of the projects on the fifth grade blog, so check them out in a couple of weeks.

Fourth grade is exploring Publisher and the different templates available within the program. We're creating personalized greeting cards for friends and family this week.

Third grade is continuing to explore and learn about Excel. This week we discussed how to select a graph to best display the data. Once we selected a graph, we explored all of the cool features to customize our graphs!

Second grade is previewing simple machines for their unpcoming Forces of Motion unit in Science. First, we discussed pushes and pulls and explained how clip art images illustrated a push, pull, or both. After that, they were introduced to four types of simple machinces and we discussed how they make work easier for us. Finally, they chose a partner and began to edit a PowerPoint template by adding text and clip art images to the slides. After previewing in presentation mode, we saved our PowerPoints. The second grade teachers will then allow the students who completed their presentations to present them to the class or another class during this unit.

First grade has mastered how to locate and interact with the first grade blog from the school's website. This week we are practicing our basic addition and subtraction facts with AAAMath.com! We know that in second grade we are expected to answer 100 basic addition and subtraction facts in 5 minutes or less. This website is a fun way to practice those basic facts! We're also learning about contractions with BrainPOPjr.com and Sadlier-Oxford.com.

Kindergarten has mastered how to locate and interact with the kindergarten blog from the school's website. This week we are practicing our combinations using illuminations.nctm.org.