March Madness!

Kindergarten classes enjoyed using our Big Thinkers Kindergarten program this month. They continued to use this fun and educational program to add birds, do a maze, put alphabet letters in correct order and work on telling time to the hour. Each Kindergarten class created a ZooPhonics "slide" in our Kid Pix program. Each student finished a slide template with their assigned ZooPhonics letter. They added "stickers" that have the same beginning letter. When students finish recording their voices into their slides, I'll put all the slides together into one slideshow.


1st grade classes continued the study of the animal groups in their classrooms. As each class studied an animal group, we did an activity in computer technology class using Kid Pix to process what they have learned about that animal. These activities are done using a template which is different for each animal group. Between animals, some classes finished learning about Internet safety within our i-safe plan. Additionally, some classes worked on their addition and subtraction skills in our Math Workshop program.

2nd grade continued with our i-safe Internet safety lessons. We had discussed personal safety last month. We continued this safety topic in March. Students saw a video from http://www.netsmartz.org/ entitled "Know the Rules" which discusses 4 basic rules for Internet safety. Then, students did an activity in Kid Pix using a template in which they typed these 4 safety rules, added a picture of a computer, and colored Clicky the robot (optional). 2nd grade classes finished i-safe with computer security and an activity that answers the question - Why is the World Wide Web called a web? I show them a picture of a spider web, with a picture of computers with lines drawn from each to the others, looking like a web. They get the idea. Then they color in continents on a globe in Kid Pix and draw lines from place to place, showing how email and Internet connections are like a web connecting the world.
This month students also did some Internet research on a dinosaur for a classroom report. They used a website http://www.enchantedlearning.com.

Our 3rd grade classes have begun a power point presentation about a famous person (biography). They have done a report for their classroom. They will use the information about their person as the facts for their power point. In March, they have done the initial set up for the slide show. They have inserted 5 slides, done backgrounds on each slide, and added titles for the slides. Mrs. Conroy's class did power points earlier in the school year. We learned more about power point using the one previously done. Then students created a title slide for their biography in power point. We will later save that title as a jpeg. to be used as a title picture for a photostory digital story. The digital story about their famous person will be converted to a quicktime movie. We've been in the beginning process this month.

Our 4th grade classes made an invitation card using Microsoft Publisher. Mrs. Boersma's and Mrs. Kaminski's classes created invitations to the upcoming Grand Friend Day in May. Mrs. Duffy's, Miss Burn's, and Mrs. Johnson's classes created invitations to their Special Person Day also in May. Classes also began a power point. All 4th grade classes will be doing the power point on the same topic - Michigan. 4th grade classes have been studying about Michigan this year. The power point will continue over a number of weeks. Students will learn more technology skills of using the Internet to locate information, then to put that information into the power point. They will also cite each source on the Bibliography slide, which reinforces the concept of intellectual property.