The second graders had their second digital citizenship lesson of the year. This lesson focused on creating passwords. After learning what a good requirements for creating a "powerful password," the students were given time to practice creating their own. Click here for more information from Common Sense Education on how to keep everyone safe online, Over the last two weeks, the second graders have been learning about Helen Keller in Reading and Language Arts. Last week, the students learned how to use the app Book Creator to share what they had learned. This week, the students learned how to record their voices and upload their book to Seesaw. Keep an eye out for these great books in their Seesaw journals.
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Mrs. Burns's had been learning about maps in their social studies classes. They used PicCollageEDU to show what they knew about maps. Their collages were later shared with the teacher though Seesaw.
Later in the month, the students worked on a project where they interviewed a classmate to find out more information about them. The students took pictures of their partners and then they learned how to screen record so that they could add audio to the their photo.
Finally, to celebrate the 100th day of school, the students took selfies and then used the app, Aging Booth, to make themselves look old. We then took their picture and uploaded it to another app called ChatterPix Kids to make their pictures talk. They were pretty funny projects and were uploaded to Seesaw for the parents and teachers to find.
Common Sense Education, where our digital citizenship curriculum comes comes from posted an article on how to downsize, not eliminate the use of technology during the holidays. You can find the article here. Many schools use December to celebrate Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code Week. As many of you know, we do not celebrate for a week. We celebrate for the entire month! We started off by opening a new level and learning about loops in Code Spark. The students learned that a loop can repeat a series of codes as many times as needed. The second week, the students got to explore the app Blockly that is used to code our robots, Dash. They roll a die that told them which blocks to pick in the app and then had to tell us what Dash or Dot did. The students enjoyed every moment of this. They will get to use Dash throughout the school year. After the students had some time to explore Blockly the previous week, it was time to work through some challenges. They were able to code Dash around and object, try to use the repeat command to do code in around in less blocks, and have Dash following the path but going backwards. They student really enjoyed these activities and will continue to use Dash throughout the year.
I can't believe that we are just about ready for Thanksgiving break. Time flies when you are having fun.
The second graders were introduced to XtraMath, an adaptive fact-fluency program where the students can practice their math facts on their own. The students are taking pre-tests that helps them understand what facts they have memorized and what facts they need to work on. XtraMath will then help them memorize the facts they needs some more practice on and continue to introduce them to new ones. All students start on addition facts but can then move on to subtraction, multiplication, and even division. Parents will receive letters that will allow them to log in see how their child is doing during Parent Teacher Conferences if they have not already. The students were also introduced to Epic! Books. Epic! is an online children's subscription book service offering immediate, on-demand access to over 35,000 high-quality illustrated books and chapter books for children ages 12 and under. The students earn credit for the time they read which then allows them to modify their avatar. Epic! is free to schools. In order for it to remain free, Epic! has a subscription fee for families that want to use it at home. Information will be sent home during conferences. We also reviewed how to log into Freckle. Once the students have completed their pre-tests, Freckle has them work on Math, English/Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science at levels that are perfect for their individual level of learning. That way, they are always engaged and challenged, never facing material that is too difficult or easy for them. Students will have log-in information at parent teacher conferences so that they can practice both at school and at home. Please do not help them work on these problems, they need to figure them out on their own so that the program adapts to their needs. The last two weeks, the students have been using PicCollage EDU. They created acrostic poems about what they were Thankful for as well as a new way to show their understanding of their vocabulary words. Both projects were then app smashed into Seesaw to share with their families and teachers. Since this week is Digital Citizenship Week, students had their fist of three lesson of the year. The second graders learned about communities and how there are even communities online. Students learned that all communities have a goal and to help people reach their goals, norms are created. The students then created norms for how they should share, work, respond, and play online. These norms were then turned into a poster that the class signed and hung in their classrooms. I have attached some tips to help kids make friends and interact safely online.
Over the summer, Seesaw made a few updates that the students seem to be loving. The drawing tools have changed a little bit, giving them even more options. Two other new features are the new collage tool where students can take multiple pictures and add them to one page as well as a multipage feature so students are not limited to one page responses.
If parents are not connected to their child's journal, information on how to connect will be sent home. Last week, the students practiced logging into their online accounts for math and reading. On my helpful links page, you will find videos on the features of those websites. An email will be going home later this week that contains information for how to access the sites at home as well.
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AuthorMs. Sowa is the technology coach for Pre-School through Third Grade Archives
February 2020
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