I'm a little behind in my posts, but considering I've almost posted as much in a couple of weeks as I have for the life-time of the blog, I'm not that behind!
Last week for most of my classes was a continuation of the pirate theme.
Kindergarten - I introduced using a mouse. It is kind of funny how mouse skills are something that our incoming students don't have. It used to be rare for me to have a student that didn't know how to use a mouse. Now with all of the touch screens, I find most of the incoming kindergartners don't know how to use a mouse. This is something that I teach in our prekindergarten program, so those students are usually ready to go. We used the Mouse and Pointer exercises from ABCmouse.com. I showed the students how to hold a mouse and we previewed just the beginning of the game on the projector in the library side of my space. I had the computers ready to go to the point that they only needed to chose if they were left or right handed (I did review for the students those that were left handed). When they finished the tutorial, they could play other games on ABCmouse. While they were working (and in between reopening closed browsers and showing them how to maximize their windows) I checked in the library books. I had students that were able to check out a book (they had returned their previous book) check out and then go back to the computers until our time was up.
1st Grade - Last week some students were sad that they didn't have time to go to all of the centers they wanted. To give more time for pirate fun, I did a short pirate themed read aloud and had the same centers out as last week.
2nd Grade - We started a project using Word 2013. We started with a discussion on how computers can't do anything unless someone has programmed the computer. We call these programs, software or apps. Then I go old school on them and explain if I wanted to have a nice polished looking report when I was their age, I had to use a typewriter with only 2 fonts, no colors or different sizes. Now they can use a word processor and have fun fonts, colors, and pictures! I have a list of sentences for the students to fill in about things that they like or didn't like. I walked them through opening Word, starting their writing and saving their work.
3rd Grade - They were to work on their pirate stories. Once they had a paragraph they could change the font.
4th Grade - They continued their Pirate Amazing Race activity. Winning teams were given an eraser with a map of the world on it (an Oriental Trading Company product). I don't usually give many prizes to avoid the "what do we get" mentality. I did have one student ask what the other students would win. My favorite response is, "Did you enjoy the activity? Did you practice using library resources? Would you have rather done a worksheet? Wonderful, you all won not having to do a worksheet and I won because I don't have to grade anything!"
5th Grade - You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned what I have been doing with the fifth graders. I am experimenting with them by following a genius hour type of arrangement. I have a lot to share on that topic and will be writing a blog post soon about how the process has been going so far.
Pre-K - I also haven't been posting what I have been doing with them. Maybe soon. I'm just impressed that I've kept up this much!
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