I hope everyone had a relaxing and refreshing Christmas break. I enjoyed the time with my family and friends, but was happy to see the smiling faces of my students the last two weeks.
Here is what we have been up to and what we are working on this coming week....
First Grade
Project #4: Book Review
The first graders wrote, rehearsed and recorded book reviews of their favorite books the last two weeks. They worked on reading their reports loudly and clearly so that they would be heard in our class video. The students are excited to see the video next Wednesday. Here is the video if you would like to see it:
Online Practice: www.scootpad.com
When students finish their assignments, I continue to have them work on scootpad.com to practice their reading and math skills. This is a great website you are welcome to work on at home as well.
Second Grade
Project #6: Photostory about our class
The second graders have been working on taking pictures in their classroom in order to put together a Photostory about a day in the life of a second grader at St. Michael's. We read the story "I Went Walking" by Sue Williams (You can check out the story on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW1ZT1l-hM4). Our Photostory projects will follow the same pattern seen in this story. We have also been working on our typing skills. I am stressing to the students the importance of using the correct fingers while typing. This has been a bit of a challenge for some of the students. Please check out the Typing Practice tab for online resources your child can use to practice their typing at home as well.
Third and Fourth Grade
Project #3: Whose property is it?
The 3rd and 4th grade students are participating in a project on intellectual property. We are discussing what property is, how to ask permission to use it and proper citation. Students are learning the meaning of the word Plagiarism and respect. This is a very important concept for students to understand. They need to realize that just because something is on the Internet, it does not mean it is theirs or free to use. We will be equating the concept to the 8th commandment: Thou shall not steal. The last couple weeks we have been practicing citing material by looking up information on whales, and citing where we found the information. The citation I am asking for at this stage is simple: author's name and URL (web address). The students also took a short three question quiz on the topic. We have also been working on our typing skills. I am stressing to the students the importance of using the correct fingers while typing. This has been a bit of a challenge for some of the students. Please check out the Typing Practice tab for online resources your child can use to practice their typing at home as well.
Next week the fourth grade students will be working on a project of creating a class newspaper/newsletter about what is happening in fourth grade at St. Michael's.
Fifth Grade
Project #3: Christian Digital Citizens
The fifth graders are working on a project to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of websites. We are discussing that just because information is online, it doesn't make it factual or true. We are learning how to find out who the author is of a site and who sponsored the site. We are discussing how anyone can make a website, so it is important to use reliable resources when doing research for school. The last couple weeks, the students have been working through a project demonstrating their skills at finding authors, truncating URLs, and evaluating websites.
Next week we will be logging in to our Google Apps accounts and learning how to create and share documents. We will also begin to explore the concept of our Digital Footprint and how we need to be very careful and deliberate about what we put online.
If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Have a great week!
