Welcome to the Computer Lab
Every Kindergarten through 5th grade student attends computer class at least once a week. Classroom curriculum is integrated in all projects. Our goal is to develop technical skills that will help students be successful in middle school and beyond. We focus on word processing, desktop publishing, keyboarding, multimedia presentations, podcasts, video production, Lego robotics, Sphero robotics, MaKey MaKey inventions, Minecraft, Scratch, coding and more. All students have Google for Education accounts and learn to use the full suite of Google apps. Many of the online resources we use are on our Just for Kids page. Let the fun begin!
Click here to go to the online activities and resources we've collected over the years.
April 2018- how many ways can you do robotics?April has been all about robotics for the 2nd-5th grade classes. Two of the 2nd grade classes are working with the Sphero Sprk+ robots. They are super fun! The students are attempting to get the robot to trace the shape of a rectangle using block programming. The other 2nd grade class is using the WeDo kits. The kids are working on the Frog Metamorphosis project. They are building and programming a changing model of the life cycle stages of a frog. All 3rd-5th grade classes are working with the EV3 Lego robots. All teams have been given the same set of challenges and will compete in a class tournament at the end of the unit.
|
|
|
|
March 2018There's a lot going on in technology this month. The Kindergarten classes have been continuing their work in Google slides. They've learned new skills, including the text tool. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to make a capital letter! They've most recently been illustrating their own Knuffle Bunny style stories using black and white photos from locations around Hayhurst. The 1st grade classes are working on their penguin research slideshows. The 2nd grade classes are wrapping up their Minecraft unit. The kids never want to stop this unit- they love to build! Each class visited other class communities and evaluated them. All 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes began the month doing virtual robotics. We just began our Lego robotics unit. We all love working with the working with the EV3 robots. What a fun month!
|
January/February 2018We have been busy in January and February! All of the classes began new units. The Kinders are learning how to use the drawing tools in Google slides. The 1st grade kids began their "All About Me" slideshow. The 2nd grade students have designed communities and are creating them in Minecraft, complete with homes and businesses. The 3rd grade students have been designing MaKey MaKey inventions. The 4th grade classes have been shooting TV commercials using a green screen background. The 5th have been designing and creating US Native American communities in Minecraft. We are having fun!
|
|
No(School)vember/December 2017
|
|
We really missed having classes in November! We did our best to forge ahead, focusing on Type to Learn, IXL, finishing up the Garage Band projects and expanding the 1st grade knowledge of the Google Drawing tools. Both 5th grade classes and Mrs. Aalto's 3rd grade class did projects in Scratch (a free online programming site).
We devote all of December to coding in all K-5th grade classes. The Kinders are using Kodable, Codespark The Foos and Switch and Glitch. All of our 1st-5th grade students have Code Studio accounts. These accounts include self paced tutorials and skill building courses. The activities include coding Angry Birds challenges, writing stories using code, drawing geometric shapes, working with angles and much more. All 2nd-5th grade students participate in Hour of Code activities. The kids are doing all kinds of integrated math without realizing it and they love it! So do their teachers. |
September/October 2017
|
We hit the ground running! The Kinders began with Starfall- a great early reading site that keeps kids engaged while they figure out how to use a mouse. You'd be surprise at how difficult it is to use a mouse when you are used to using your finger! They also did activities at ABCYa. The 1st grade students practiced logging into the Chromebooks and navigating Google Classroom. Google Classroom is a great tool for teachers to push assignments out to students. They began with online activities about insects and then moved into learning how to draw insects using the Google Drawing tools. Later we introduced IXL, an online math tool (Hayhurst has purchased accounts for all students). We even snuck in a little coding with the Kinders.
All 2nd-5th grade students began the year with Cyber Safety activities. The kids appreciated learning about how to safely use the internet, etc. Next, the 2nd Grade students began their Google Slideshow based on their "I Am" poems. They learned how to change fonts, add borders and fill, how to insert images and how to apply transitions and animations. The 3rd grade classes did slideshows about Volcanoes and the 5th did "All About Me" slideshows. The 4th grade students wrote scary stories, recorded them in Garage Band and then added sound effects and music to bring their stories to life. |
|
