Technology from SCS Elementary

Second Grade Ocean Reefs

September 28, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

The second grade classes are off to a great start in technology class this year. We watched this video from PBS to learn a little bit about the beautiful coral reefs that God has created:

What are Corals?

Then we used KidPix to design our own ocean reefs. In this lesson we reviewed a variety of skills including using drawing tools, paint bucket fill tools, adding/editing graphics, and writing in a text box. We also learned to undo mistakes and save and open our files.

Here are the videos showing the ocean reefs that the students designed:

Mrs. Nesbitt’s Class

Mrs. Bennefield’s Class

Category: KidPix, Second Grade, Videos /

PreSchool iPad Puzzlers!

September 22, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Thursday was the first day that Miss Bosch brought the iPads into the preschool. Before using the iPads, the students met Paddy the iPad frog and watched this video where Paddy talked about how to take care of the iPads.

Our first iPad activity was doing some puzzle apps. Students worked through simple to more complex puzzles and moved from large to smaller pieces. This was a great way to help students strengthen fine motor skills along with learning to use forward and home keys within an app!

Category: iPad, PreK /

Can You Draw? First Grade Mouse Practice

September 17, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Using a mouse is a challenging skill to learn! Because many families use tablets with young students these days, many students have never used a mouse before coming to the computer lab. We do a variety of “games” to practice using the mouse to improve their fine motor control and to learn to click between buttons on the screen. On Friday the first grade students played the “Can You Draw?” game. (We use KidPix software for many of lessons for early learners.)

Can you draw a red dog with a blue hat?

Can you draw a green cat with a purple umbrella?

Can you draw a yellow car with blue wheels?

Category: First Grade, KidPix, Uncategorized /

Comic Life Goals – Fifth Grade

September 16, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Our fifth graders always enjoy using the webcam to take photos! They dropped the pictures into Comic Life and added cool filters to their faces. Finally, they added speech bubbles sharing some of their goals and hopes for the new school year. Skills covered in this lesson included opening and saving files, using the undo command, working between two windows/applications, adding and editing text, and creative use of filters. Here are a few examples of their work!

FullSizeRender

FullSizeRender 2

Category: Fifth Grade, Lessons, Photos /

Kindergarten iPads Fall 2016

September 15, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

We’ve been having fun in kindergarten class on Fridays using the iPads. We’ve been using a variety of apps that let us practice tapping, dragging, and swiping and help us strengthen our fine motor skills. We are also learning how to open and close apps and follow directions. Everyone is being very careful to keep our iPads from breaking!

Save

Category: iPad, Kindergarten /

Kahoot Tech Review for Second and Third Grade

August 27, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Students, use this link and follow teacher directions to login to the Kahoot game:

Kahoot

Category: Lessons, Second Grade, Third Grade /

Back to School Tech Review with Quizizz and Recap

August 22, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Welcome back to tech class! This week we used 2 new fun activities with 4th and 5th grade to review our technology policy with students.

We began class with an exciting review game using Quizizz. Quizizz is similar to Kahoot. You can build multiple choice review games for student use. Students enjoyed the self paced game and the funny animal memes in between questions that told them if they were right or wrong.

Quizizz is a free platform for educational use. It can be used on a computer or any mobile device – you do not need to download an app, just connect to the Quizizz login webpage and type in a game code supplied by the teacher. I liked that the answer choices to each question are written on the choice buttons (different than Kahoot) and the ability to set up memes in between questions. Scores for the games are recorded for the teacher. Since the game was self paced, we were not able to discuss each question individually, but at the end of the game we looked at the questions where there were a number of errors and discussed the answers. There may be a way to run the game one question at a time (similar to Kahoot), but I did not find that option.

When we finished our Quizizz game, we tried out another new app called Recap to use for setting a technology goal for the school year. Recap is a free app on the iPad. Teachers can set up a free account and use their computer to record a text/video prompt for students’ responses. Students use the app (or online login) by adding a pin code, tapping on their name, listening to the prompt, and then recording a short video response. Students also can use a thumbs up system at the end of the video as an exit ticket for the teacher to show if they “get it!”

I was very impressed with how easy this app was to set up and use. I did have to enter each student name for each class into my account, but I was able to do that quickly. I found that the Chrome browser worked best on the Mac for recording the teacher video, but that may just be due to some settings on my laptop. It only took about 10 minutes to get the entire class logged into Recap on their iPads and record the videos. I am able to view their videos on my laptop in my account. I can see this app being very effective for reflection questions, prediction, retelling, and exit tickets.

Thanks fourth and fifth graders for a great start to Tech Class!

Save

Category: Fifth Grade, First Grade, iPad, Lessons /

Unboxing the Dremel 3D Idea Builder Printer

July 21, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Over the summer, I received the exciting news that I had been named one of 10 Dremel 3D Idea Builder Ambassadors for the upcoming school year. Our school will have use of a Dremel Idea Builder 3D40 printer along with 10 spools of filament as a part of this program. Over the past year or so, I have been following how Steve Dickie, Steve Clark, and Anthony Johnson have been using 3D printers with their students and have been inspired by the creative learning experiences they have shared. I have never used a 3D printer, so I can’t wait to start exploring and learning along side of our students.

Our printer arrived yesterday, and I was excited to take a look at it! Here are some unboxing photos!

Our students are going to love having different colors of filament to use in their designs!

One of the things that I am planning to do is to explore ways to merge collaborative writing with 3D printing. Think Flat Stanley goes 3D Digital! Here is my application video which will let you see a few of my ideas on how I hope to use the printer:

My students and I are so blessed to have this opportunity to learn new things and share with others! Stay tuned to follow our 3D learning journey!

Category: 3D Printing /

Fifth Grade Technology Reflection

May 26, 2016 / Karen Bosch / 44 comments

Think back over all things you have done with computers or iPads during the time you have been at SCS Elementary School. Please leave a comment of at least 3 sentences reflecting on the following questions:

What was your favorite project or activity in technology class?

What was the most valuable/helpful thing that you learned in technology class?

What is one thing you would like to learn to do using technology in the future?

When you are done with your commnet, you may have your choice of these activities:

Work on your wiki (not required)
Garageband
Learning Links – only do games that are specifically named
Kidpix or Print Shop (print one thing)

Category: Fifth Grade, Lessons /

Poetry 2016 from Mrs. Garner’s First Graders

May 18, 2016 / Karen Bosch / No comments

I’m delighted to share that a collection of poetry, created by the first grade students in Mrs. Garner’s class, has been published and is now available for free download on 51 iTunes stores all over the world! The students wrote, illustrated, and narrated the poems using the Book Creator app. Mrs. Garner worked with her students to write and illustrate the poetry and to put the book together, assisted by Miss Bosch with the publication process. You will enjoy seeing and listening to all their cute and clever poems.

For iPhone, iPod, or Mac Computer: To download the files you will need to use an iPhone, iPod, or iPad with the free iBooks app installed on it (or into iBooks software on a Mac computer). Here is the link to download the book:

Poems 2016 by Mrs. Garner’s First Graders

For other devices: If you do not have an iPhone, iPod, iPad, or an Apple Computer, here are some other ways you can possibly open the books by using the links below. On a PC computer, try using the Chrome browser with the Readium app to download/view the file. If you have an Android phone, you might be able to use the ePub Reader app, or another app for ePub files. (I have not tested this on an Android, so I cannot verify that this will work.) Here is the link to the epub file:

First Grade Poems ePub file

Book Creator is currently available for $4.99 US for iOS. There is a lite version which will let you try out the app and create one book. It also is available for Android and Windows.

We have been excited to share our books with family and friends, but we are hoping that we can connect with even a wider “Authentic Audience” around the world. We would love for other students and classes to download our book. If you do, could you please leave us a comment so we can know who has been reading our books!

Category: Books, iPad /

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