Enrichment at Condit

Sorry about taking so long to write a post. Every time I thought about posting anything, I became sidetracked with the very LARGE list of tasks that needed to be completed immediately. It is amazing how many tasks require immediate attention at the beginning of a school year.  I shouldn’t make excuses, so in the future I will try to make regular posts no matter how small.

Even though the beginning of the year is busy, I am always excited to get started and meet all of my students.

During the first week of school, all 2nd-5th grade students completed their profile for Renzulli Learning. Each student in grades 1st-5th has a student account with Renzulli Learning and Kindergarten students will receive their account information in January of 2011.

Art Students working and finishing art for Art Fair coming up on May 5th from 5-7pm in the lunch room. Here are some examples of drawings and paintings for the show.

Over the past few ancillary sessions, the 4th and 5th graders worked on creating a survey, polling their classmates, and recording a podcast describing their survey results. If you would like to listen to some of the podcasts, please click on Graphing in the computer lab to view our graphing glog.

Steps completed in the project:

• poll their classmates on surveys they created in Microsoft Word
• enter their survey data into Create A Graph
• download graph as an image (jpg format), name and save their file
• import graph image into KidPix Studio Deluxe
• record themselves describing their graph results
• attach their recording to their graph file and save
• export their file in ipod format

There are many tasks that the first grade students had to complete and several got the giggles while recording their voice. Enjoy!
Student tasks:
* Locate and open their assignment
* Click the stickers tool to select, drag and drop the stickers (toys and animals) into the correct box.
* Select the text tool, set the font size to 20 point and choose a font
* Sound out and type each word to label the objects
* Resize the text box and arrange under each picture
* Select the sound tool, record their voice and save recording
Please take a moment to click on a few or all of the computers on our “Grouping and Labeling” glog. Each computer image is a video of a different student describing his/her work.

We recently purchased a subscription to Typing Ace for our 2nd and 3rd graders.  Each 2nd and 3rd grader has their own account and can log in from home or at school to practice.  We are encouraging students to spend a few minutes each day working on their keyboarding! 

The first graders shared their favorite spring break activity using Wall Wisher.  Wall Wisher is an online wall where you can post sticky notes. I set the page permissions to allow messages only after they have been approved by me.

The students were instructed to…

• click on the link I provided for our wall
• double-click on the wall to get a sticky note
• in the “says” box, type their first name
• In the message box complete the story starter, My favorite activity during spring break was when…
• click OK to save their message

In the computer lab, the first graders had several tasks to complete.
First, choose  a letter from the alphabet.
Second, Think of at least three items that begin with their letter.
Third,  illustrate and label each of their items using the program Kidpix.
Fourth, Record their voice reading their words and attach their recording to their illustration.
Finally, name and save their recording and their illustration.

Click on the links to hear a few of our students and view their work.
adeline letter A
alex letter G
aidan letter R
emilee letter Q

Oooh! Ahhh! What beautiful patterns! In the computer lab last week, the kindergartners created patterns in Kidpix using stamps.