Friday, May 23, 2014

Week of May 19

Sixth Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • Learning about Japanese Food and Dinning/Eating Customs. Mostly web searched and discussed differences in food and eating customs.
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Students often mistake sushi for meaning 'raw fish'. 
What students can do at home:

  • learn to make sushi or use chopsticks with a meal.

Fifth Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • We are doing a mini unit 2 weeks on typing skills. Even though at the beginning of the year we went through the Type To Learn 4 program, we found it important to 'refresh' their typing skills at year's end.
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Students jumped right in but I did have to make a few reminders to use home row.
What students can do at home:

  • Practice keyboarding skills at home.

Fourth Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • We are doing a mini unit 2 weeks on typing skills. Even though at the beginning of the year we went through the Type To Learn 3 program, we found it important to 'refresh' their typing skills at year's end. Also introduced students to the 4th grade resources on my web page
What I observed / inferred / connected:

  • WPM (words per minute) increases to 12 and I found many students don't have the typing speed yet to pass this level. I had to manually adjust students WPM goals.

What students can do at home:

Third Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • We are doing a mini unit 2 weeks on typing skills. Even though at the beginning of the year we went through the Type To Learn 3 program, we found it important to 'refresh' their typing skills at year's end. Also introduced students to the 3rd grade resources on my web page
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • WPM (words per minute) increases to 12 and I found many students don't have the typing speed yet to pass this level. I had to manually adjust students WPM goals.


What students can do at home:

Second Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • I periodically give students a choice in anything we did during the year to see what interests them the most. 
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Pivot Stick Figure is very popular with this age group as well as Scratch and KidPix.
What students can do at home:

  • Pivot Stick Figure and Scratch are free programs you can find a Pivot program that is compatible with your computer by searching in Google. Scratch can be used on line or download the Scratch editor for free.

First Grade
What we learned / did / explored together:

  • We learned Type to Learn Jr. and typed by keeping both hands on the keyboard
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Student tend to type with 1 hand at this age. Some students need constant reminders to use two hands when practicing typing.
What students can do at home:


Kindergarten
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • I periodically give students a choice in anything we did during the year to see what interests them the most. 
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Students enjoyed going to KidPix and free playing with all the art tools
What students can do at home:


PreSchool
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • Lego Duplo Construction set. I asked the students what they wanted to make today and it was unanimous. They all wanted to build 'scoop' and digging machines. I gave them pictures to follow and all were able to follow some parts of the picture and also to modify the directions slightly.
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Students love to make up stories and play with their creations.
What students can do at home:

  • Lego and Duplos are excellent hands on toys for kids to explore/create and imagine with.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Week of May 12

Kindergarten
What we learned / did / explored together:
  • Learned Keyboarding skills and practiced typing in Type to Learn Jr. It's important for students to practice their typing with two hands on the keyboard at all times.
What I observed / inferred / connected:
  • Students are eager to learn and initially rely on 1 hand to type. Students needed constant reminders to keep two hands on the keyboard but by the end of 40 minutes were more used to using two hands.

What students can do at home: