Posts Tagged ‘3rd grade’

Keyboarding Camp 2013

I know there are differing opinions on whether or not to teach keyboarding. Frankly, I just don’t have a lot of time to spend on it which is the main reason I wanted an online program – so students could practice at home. However, the teachers want students to know where the keys are located so that they don’t take so long typing. Hence, the idea for Keyboarding Camp. A solution to satisfy everyone!

To jump start the year, I had a mini keyboarding camp for 2nd and 3rd graders. The students met with me for 15 minutes for 4 days. We discussed proper technique, home row keys, and finger stretches for tired hands. I talked about the importance of practice – but only a few minutes per day so as not to tire themselves.

I started both grades in Typing Pal but quickly learned that the 2nd graders were becoming frustrated quite easily! The problem was that they were having trouble logging in – not necessarily due to the program (although it was rather slow) but more due to the fact that they they didn’t always type in their password correctly. So, I moved them to Dance Mat Typing and they had a FUN time! This is a perfect program from BBC Schools for keyboarding for younger students. I’ve encouraged the students to use this to help with keyboarding for the first semester. Later in the year, we’ll revisit Typing Pal.

The 3rd graders were eager to get going in Typing Pal because of our “Nimble Fingers” Club. When the students finish the program and can show me that they can type using proper form, they become members. It’s a huge deal to have their name read on the morning announcement when they have accomplished this!

We do discuss the fact that practicing just a few days will not make an accurate nor a speedy typist. On the last day I told the students that this was just the beginning – just like anything else, practice is critical. I’ll be sending a email to parents to share the importance of keyboarding at home.

Enjoy a glimpse of Keyboarding Camp 2013!

If this doesn’t make a teacher feel good . . .

To wind up the year and to help in planning for the following year, I like to ask my students what they liked and didn’t like of all that we did in the computer lab. I teasingly requested that if there was something they didn’t like, that they be nice in letting me know!

This year, instead of just chatting about it, I asked the third graders to go to their class blog to write a new post.

The students were so sweet in what they wrote – a definite “pick-me-up” in the hustle and bustle of the end of the year!

Here are a few of the responses. (And yes, I included too many but they made me feel GOOD!)

Alex

 Charlie

Lia

Sasha

I love the one that says I can be “a little strict” – When I asked Sasha about it, she was a bit embarrassed but told me it was a “good thing” and that it helped everyone stay on task.

I love what I do and my goal is always to make learning fun for students. Sometimes it’s hard to reach everyone but their responses reinforced to me how important this is. It does make a teacher feel GREAT!

Crazy Hat Day: Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Crazy Hat Day – It is so much fun to see the interesting hats worn by the students (and teachers) during Dr. Seuss week! To celebrate today’s theme, the third graders used Microsoft Paint to illustrate their hats.

Since I’ll be making a collage of the illustrations, the teachers joined in and drew what they had worn. That was the funniest part of the session! The children LOVE having their teachers be students and they are thrilled when their assistance is required. One teacher was easily frustrated because the tools didn’t do what she wanted (Yes, it is very difficult to draw on the computer and the students have much more experience than their teachers!). We would hear, “Oh, no!” “Why didn’t that work?” “I can’t do this!” She had lots of help from her students! Another teacher was concentrating so hard that she had no idea what was going on around her.

Here’s the animoto of the third graders’ crazy hats.

 

Spreadsheets with Lower School

Our second and third graders have been taking surveys and using the data to practice working in an Excel spreadsheet. The students took two surveys: one on favorite fruits and the other on favorite pizza toppings. I used Survey Monkey for the polling.

Both grades started with a template to create a bar graph using data collected from the “Favorite Fruits” survey. The students learned about cells and how to enter data. The students were fascinated to learn abut auto sum! Before showing auto sum, I asked the students to estimate what they thought the answer would be. Many were thrilled to discover that their estimation was fairly close. A favorite part of the lesson was learning how to change the color of the bars!

The following week, we discussed pie charts as well as bar graphs using the “Favorite Pizza Toppings” survey. Although we again had a template, I left out some information.

As soon as the students opened the spreadsheet, I heard comments such as: “You left off some of the toppings. We’ll have to write them.”

Hooray! I love it when they are observant!

Again, I had the students use the auto sum function and was pleased to discover that they remembered how to do it. The third graders even learned how to select the data and create a pie chart.

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As an added piece to the lesson, some of the third graders had time to blog about what they learned about spreadsheets.

Although we learned some basics, the students were thrilled to discover that they could use a program just like their parents (Well, not quite, but they were excited!). It’s a start . . .

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Te Quiero – Valentines in Spanish

Our 3rd and 4th grade Spanish teacher, Sra. Nedrelow, developed a wonderful lesson for Valentine’s Day in which the students made valentines and created an ePub book using the app, Book Creator.

The Book Creator app provides a simple way to create an ebook for the iPad. Images, text, hyperlinks, and recorded narration can be added to the pages to create an interactive reading experience.

Sra. Nedrelow photographed each student holding their valentine. The students then took turns recording themselves reading what they had written.

What a fabulous way for parents to listen to their child speak Spanish!

Links to the class books: To read the ePub book, you must click on the book links below while on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch). The books will not open on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book links. We hope you enjoy the students’ work!

3rd Grade “Te Quiero” Books:

Mrs. Gramentine’s Class Book

Mrs. Prescott’s Class Book

Mrs. Weth’s Class Book

4th Grade “Te Quiero” Books:

Mr. d’Auteuil’s Class Book

Mrs. Malone’s Class Book

Mrs. Wright’s Class Book

Directions to download to your iOS device:
    • You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
    • Click on the book link above.
    • Tap on the download button.
    • Choose Open in . . . and then choose Open in iBooks
    • The book is now in iBooks.

A Snow Person Glyph and iPads

As a fun winter activity, I sometimes have the students make a snow person glyph. It’s a good way to share information about themselves by answering questions and drawing features according to their responses. Plus, this is about as close to snow as we get in Texas!

In the past, I’ve provided a template to use in Microsoft Paint but this year I had another motive. I wanted to get iPads in the students’ hands and I wanted the teachers to see how the students would respond to them.

The assignment was:

Since we had different drawing apps I didn’t spend time explaining each one. I thought the best way was to let students explore. And it didn’t take them long to learn!

The hardest part was determining the best way to email the drawing. Each app was different enough to be just a bit confusing. Some allowed emailing from within the app; others required saving the image to the photo roll and emailing from there. The best part was that once a child learned how to do that, the knowledge was eagerly shared with others.

As much as I enjoy working with students, I have to say that the very best part of this activity was watching the teachers! A couple of them really got into this. The students LOVED watching their teachers exploring and learning alongside them! They especially enjoyed it when they were asked how to do something or how a tool worked. And it was fun watching the eagerness to come to their teacher’s rescue when they heard, “Oh, no!” or “Oops!” or “What just happened?”

When one of the teachers raised her hand because she couldn’t figure out how to email to the picture to me, several students immediately appeared at her side to guide her through the process.

It was amazing to watch the interaction between the teachers and students. The children were absolutely thrilled to see their teacher being a learner!

Was there a lot of higher-level learning going on with this particular activity? Not so much. But the valuable aspect was that the students were exploring, problem-solving, and teaching.

Enjoy the animoto video of the Snow Person Glyph!

Comments Wanted!!

image from Haiku Deck

Mrs. Weth’s third graders have been busy writing in their journals! All kinds of writing!

  • Non-fiction: What animals need to survive
  • The Most Embarrassing Moment!
  • A Bucket List: Things that want to do before reaching age 100! (What a great 100th day of school activity!)
  • and much more!

Before the students came for their regular computer lab time, Mrs. Weth and I were discussing how to share the students’ writing. They write in their journals and share with each other but that’s as far as it’s gone.

The students need a bigger audience! We brainstormed a few ideas such as using some of the storytelling apps (Book Creator, Puppet Pals, Toontastic, etc). However since the students had just written their “bucket list” for the 100th day of school, we decided to do something that would immediately put their work out for everyone to see.

We decided on blogging. The students brought their journals to the lab, logged in to their class blog, and off they went! Most chose to write about what they want to accomplish by the time they are 100 years old but a couple chose something else from their journals.


As you can see below, they are eager for responses and would love to hear from you. They are hoping that they will get questions about what they write so that they can respond.

Thanks so much for taking a look at their writing!

Mrs. Weth’s Class Blog

Popplet and the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States

Our third graders study the regions of the United States. After learning about Popplet, Mrs. Gramentine asked if she could borrow the iPads for a brainstorming activity for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

The students had read the information from the textbook the previous day. The main points had been discussed so it was time for the children to look for details. In groups of two, the students opened the Popplet Lite app on their iPads so that they could record their findings. Popplet is an excellent visual brainstorming tool – easy to use; with the ability to print or email the popplet. Images can also be added.

Mrs. Gramentine reported that the students enjoyed this alternate way of gathering information. She said every single student was actively engaged in creating the mind map! All quickly figured out how to add “spokes” to the main idea. Plus, they were able to share more details about the Mid-Atlantic region!

A Student Blogger: On International Dot Day

We’ve spent the past couple of weeks discussing quality posts and comments on our class blog. After listening to a wonderful video, How to Compose a Quality Comment, created by Mrs. Yollis’ 2nd and 3rd graders, our third graders started a post with directions to write about something that others might not know about them. For example – hobbies, a place they’ve visited, etc.

This week I wanted to show the students how to upload an image. Since they had drawn dot pictures for International Dot Day a few weeks ago, we decided to write a post about that. The class quickly learned how easy it is to add images to a post. Then they moved on to the writing. I asked them to consider the following questions as they wrote:

  1. When you first drew your dot in MS Paint, did you have any idea what you would do with it?
  2. Did an idea come to you right away or did it take awhile to figure out what your dot could become?
  3. Describe what you drew and how you decided on that.
  4. Could you relate to Vashti, not able to think of something to draw? How did you feel about that?

I wanted to share a couple of posts from Mrs. Weth’s class blog. The first is from Rachel and the second post is from Kelly.

My Dot:

My dot is an alligator’s eye. I couldn’t think of an idea at first, but then I thought of an eye.  I thought of doing a normal eye, but then, anybody could do an eye. I thought and thought and then it came to me, Whose going to do an alligators eye. So I did an alligators eye. I did some changes to it and then I was proud of it. I was done.

Dot Day Crazy:

So you think Dot Day is boring. Not when you’re an eight-year old girl who goes to TVS. In computer class the Thursday before Dot Day we made pictures made out of dots on the computer. At first I didn’t think I was going to come up with any ideas and by the end of computer class, I didn’t have anything on my computer it was blank as a whiteboard……….Just like Vashti. But Mrs. Arrington, my teacher, said we could continue working on our dot pictures the next Thursday in computer class. I tried and tried but I couldn’t think of anything and when I did, I would like it but then decided against it. Coco said a quote from the book to me. “Just start with a dot and see where it takes you.” I still couldn’t think of anything to make…But then I thought about the quote. Just start with a dot and see where it takes you. I made a dot that I liked and erased part of it. Than I made a ring around it. It kind of looked like a planet. And so forth I made a sun and a moon and a black background with stars and it was space. And my quote for you is just start with a dot and see where it takes you.

I just love these descriptions! Can you tell these girls like to write? Be sure to visit Mrs. Weth’s blog. The students would love to get comments about their dots!

Third Grade Dot Celebration

In the lab, the third graders learned the Windows 7 version of Paint as they created dot pictures for International Dot Day 2012. Two weeks ago, the computers in our lab were upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. Of course, that meant a new Paint program but the students decided that, although it didn’t look quite the same and it took some getting used to, they preferred the new program to the older, familiar one!

After reading, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, and brainstorming what a dot could be, the instructions were to “make something from a dot.” There were questions of, “Can I draw . . .” but my answer was, “You are the artist, so you make that decision.” We had dot designs, happy faces, peace signs, pigs, dogs, caterpillars, and more. Rachel used her dot as an eye for an alligator.

Lauren and Sasha drew a huge circle and then illustrated their picture inside that dot!

Now, to showcase ALL the third grade work!

 

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