This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the interest of improving my craft.

Week ending 03/02/12

Kindergarten – no new lesson this week!

Note:  due to my involvement in rehearsals for and production of this year’s Second Grade Play (photos here and here), I was unable to teach new lessons this week  (we missed a total of three classes). As a result, next week’s update will contain information about the new lesson material we cover. Thanks for understanding!

First Grade

What we covered / did / explored:

• Most of our first grade classes had a fun leap year project thanks to an idea Mrs. Edelmann came across on the Internet. First we brainstormed a list of animals that leap. Then, using a special PowerPoint template I created, students had to locate, insert and resize an image of the leaping animal and write a sentence. (Mrs. Edelmann’s version included space on the bottom where students would write their sentences by hand).

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• Students’ creativity and imagination were on full display! (I haven’t seen any frogs in my back yard but you never know!)
• First graders’ familiarity with PowerPoint made the project a snap.
• I’d like to thank Mrs. Edelmann for the idea, and Mrs. Best for extensions & modifications.

What students can do at home:

• Ask your child to create their own Leapin’ Animal Book using images from the Internet (or magazines), or possibly illustrate & write them using Tux Paint.
• Play ArcademicSkillBuilders.com, just remember to select the appropriate grade level first.
• Practice keyboarding with ABCYA’s Keyboard Zoo.

Second Grade – no new lesson this week!

Note:  due to my involvement in rehearsals for and production of this year’s Second Grade Play (photos here and here), I was unable to teach my new lessons for this week  (we missed a total of three classes). As a result, next week’s update will contain information about the new lesson material we cover. Thanks for understanding!

Third Grade

What we covered / did / explored:

• We warmed up with Typing Pal, recognizing members of the “Zero to Hero Club” for getting no mistakes on their practice lessons.
• Working in teams, students collaborated on a basic spreadsheet and graph based on Steve Ignacio’s super-simple lesson plan. Students watched Steve’s video, then followed printed instructions to complete their charts.

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• Students’ use of Learning.com EasyTech for the past couple of Computer Lab lessons really helped give them a foundation to complete this activity on their own (in teams). I literally did not answer a SINGLE question. They were totally self-taught (the printed instructions, along with the video, allowed students to learn and explore at their own pace, and the teamwork aspect was a great success.)
• Excel has a wonderfully gentle learning curve and kids seem to grasp the basics very quickly.

What students can do at home:

• If you have Excel at home, challenge your student to create a spreadsheet with information about something they care about – perhaps a collection of toys, a list of friends and birthdays, anything at all.
• EasyTech is available for students to use  at home – I’ve provided instructions a couple of times via my School Fusion site – but glady will again upon request. Email me!
• The free Excel tutorials here: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel2010 are excellent and worth reviewing.
• Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Celebrate with them when they achieve “0 errors” because accuracy is more important than speed. Speed comes as their finger muscles mature!

Fourth Grade

What we covered / did / explored:

• We warmed up with Typing Pal, recognizing members of the “Zero to Hero Club” for getting no mistakes on their practice lessons.
• We talked about blogging and the difference between commenting and posting.
• We worked further on our blog posts, using examples and identifying proper grammar, usage and style elements in our writing.

What I learned / observed / inferred:

• I am continuing to review and approve posts, but you can see our work here: http://blogs.ncs-nj.org/computerlab/.

What students can do at home:

• Blog in response to this prompt! I will make sure every student has their username and password and knows how to access the site. Please remind them that  nothing appears on the blog unless I approve it first. We will talk about this more in class.
• Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Celebrate with them when they achieve “0 errors” because accuracy is more important than speed. Speed comes as their finger muscles mature!