TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome to the 2011-2012 School Year in Technology! The
technology program provides opportunities for students to develop
an understanding of technology tools that will help to enhance learning,
promote creativity, strengthen problem solving and heighten the ability to
access and communicate information. Classes meet one time per week.
Projects are often theme-based and reinforce taught concepts while
exposing students to real-world skills to be used in continued education and
relevant to the workplace.
Skills and Projects
In Kindergarten, students work on identifying letters and
numbers on a keyboard. They learn to open a multimedia program and
explore the toolbars. Kindergartners open an existing template and
create their own masterpieces. We explore the pencil and paint
bucket in our “What Plants Need” project. Kindergarteners have used the
thickness tool and loves changing colors! Students have viewed web pages with
the teacher to see examples of art using shades of one color. Students
practiced the “shades of blue” technique by painting our own blue shade
pictures of the sea. The class made shapes and even made caterpillars using
circles. Our next project include using stamps to accent templates and
illustrating and entering text in pages of our class book!
First graders have continued to explore toolbars and have viewed
web pages with the teacher on constellations. We looked at the Big Dipper
and Little Dipper. Students connected the stars in their constellation
pictures. Students visited a web site on pumpkins, selected their favorite
pumpkin and “carved” a jack-o-lantern, using their mouse skills. What
fantastic jack-o-lanterns we had! Future projects include applying their
knowledge of the five senses and opening an existing project and adding
graphics and text.
Second grade began the year with a project based on Eric Carle’s
The Very Lonely Firefly and develop their mastery of the toolbars by
making their Very Friendly Friend Fireflies. We have also created text on
ways to be a friendly friend. We hope you stop by to see the second grade
bulletin board outside of the Technology Room. Students then created a Very
Busy Spider and connected the two insect slides for a mini-show. Second
grade reviews the parts of a computer and more about the location of each of
the keys on the keyboard. Our next projects include entering text in Making
Friends and writing Tall Tales to further develop word processing skills.
In third grade, students have learned to move, place text, use
arrow keys in the ABC Order List. In our next theme project, we have
learned about jobs and explored qualities of a good worker using selected
web sites with the teacher. Students are developing their word processing
skills by entering sentences, using delete and backspace keys, learning
about spacing after punctuation, selecting and changing font size and color
in our Help Wanted poster project. Our next project includes using a
multimedia program to develop communication in technology skills.
Fourth grade have been working on many projects to cut, copy and
paste letters, words, phrases, and complete sentences in various projects.
Selecting, deleting and inserting text and clip art have also been practiced
while using the Internet to research facts to include in our projects.
Fourth and fifth grades use the Type to Learn Program to practice
keyboarding skills. Fifth graders have used ordered and unordered list
options, and learned how to use the thesaurus. Students are expected to use
spell check in all documents. Students have had a Web Scavenger Hunt
Project in which students needed to find information by following the
hyperlinks included with the questions page. Fourth and Fifth grade future
projects include developing PowerPoint and Excel skills.
Sixth grade have developed research and communication skills and
learned Internet and world wide web terminology. Students saw how location
codes can tell more about the sources of information. Sixth graders became
web critics to determine the validity of the information and that not all
information or sites are created equal. Students bookmarked web pages and
researched information following hyperlinks to obtain information in the
sixth grade web scavenger hunt. Students then found their favorite site
about healthy pets. Students organized this information into a web page
they created and put the link of the healthy pet site into their web page.
Future projects include further work in Excel, Word, and Powerpoint.
Seventh graders have been developing research skills and using the
information to infer the best time to see peak color at select locations.
Students use appropriate tools and technologies to find the changes of leaf
colors and the role climate and elevation play by researching data of leaf
color change and leaf drop rates through parts of the United States. After
tracking this data, students compiled information into a spreadsheet using
Excel and graphed the data. Seventh graders took this information and
applied it into a problem solving situation. Seventh grade also have been
practicing their web page skills and have created a Web Page information,
Penguin page and their favorite religious person page. All pages included
gif or jpeg graphic files and hyperlinks to other sites. Some pages had
ordered lists and marquees! Future projects include work in developing
Word, Excel and Powerpoint skills.
Eighth grade have become entrepreneurs in a simulation project in
which they run their own restaurant. Students compiled a survey and listed
those results using spreadsheet skills and focused on style, paste, header,
hide/unhide rows. Students took this data and transformed it into a graph
and imported this file into Word as part of a letter which explained the new
business to an investor. Students designed their own letterhead and set up
the letter using proper formatting. Eighth graders then used drawing tools
to draft a floor plan. Students used templates to design their own menus.
Our next part of the project will enable students to use Excel to calculate
their earnings. Our business ideas really have taken shape! Future
projects include work in developing Word, Excel and Powerpoint skills, in
addition to an animated movie. Students will be able to participate on our
class wiki.
