November - Thanks to Technology

Thanks to technology at Knapp Forest, our students learn skills that allow them to more efficiently use computers in our world.

This month Kindergarten students began by using our Big Thinkers Kindergarten program to practice additional skills in identifying patterns, working in 3 levels depending on skill. Students worked on additional math skills using stamps in our Kid Pix program. They stamped a number, drew a dice with the correct number of dots, then added the correct number of picture stamps. This month students also drew a turkey in our Kid Pix program.

1st grade students have begun using a program, Big Thinkers First Grade to do a type of puzzle using a grid to help them place shapes to form a picture. This provides additional work with spacial relationships which can be quite challenging. Students also drew a turkey as an illustration for a poem using our Kid Pix program. Students began to work on addition in our Math Workshop program in the "bowling alley" gaining a bowling pin for each correctly answered addition problem. When 10 pins are earned, the gorilla bowls. Students love this fun way of doing math.

2nd grade classes have been busy doing Internet research about Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims. They have been preparing to begin working on a power point slide in December. Classes study the Wampanoag Indians this month in their classrooms. In tech class, students visited a wonderful Scholastic website. Students can go through phases of life comparing the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims daily life. There's great pictures as well as audio on the website that reads the text to the students. The website address is http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/daily_life/
Another website with good information is from Plimoth Plantation. The website address for this is http://www.plimoth.org/education/olc/index_js2.html. There's audio on this website as well as learning activities.

3rd and 4th grades are continuing to work on keyboarding using our UltraKey program. They are learning the fundamentals. 3rd grade students will concentrate on building accuracy this year. They must achieve 95% accuracy to pass a "skill check" in the program. The speed is only 5 words per minute. Speed comes with accuracy. 4th grade students must achieve 95% accuracy with 10 words per minute in order to pass a level. They can't move on until they pass each level. We will be concentrating on keyboarding now until Holiday Break in Dec.

Mrs. Kaminski's class has not begun working on keyboarding yet. They have been doing Internet research during tech class. The class has just begun working on a spreadsheet, which will continue during December.