It seems like spring is on its way and that is certainly fine by me. Having the January break (snow days) and the February break, March is going to seem like a long month. But there is a lot to look forward to in March for the Tritt students in the computer labs.
In February, the preschoolers worked on counting and recognizing numbers to 10 and sorting things by one attribute (color, type, size). We continue working on mouse skills, clicking and dragging. We work on this all the way through Kindergarten, too. In March, our preschool students will do more drawing using their expert mouse skills. These students love to print out what they draw and love to do it for them. They are so proud of their work, as they should be.
Last month, the Kindergarten students finished up our keyboarding lesson. We will probably have another keyboarding lesson before the end of the school year. Some classes even had an opportunity to make a valentine for a special person. Coming up, we will be creating pictures and adding some text to practice informational writing. We have begun to use the internet to collect information on Pebble Go. We have chosen to research mammals, with each student choosing their mammal to learn about.
First graders spent the last month inserting pictures and text into a document. The typing is a challenge, but it does get easier as they practice. We also spent some time counting coins, identifying fractions, practicing telling time on both digital and analog clocks and doing some animal research using Pebble Go. Over the next few weeks, we will be working on place value up to 100, although most students can identify and understand place value well over 100. We will also work on editing written work on a computer. They do it in class all of the time, so we will introduce editing on a computer. This way we can practice capitalization, punctuation and correct spacing on typewritten work.
In February, the second graders began keyboarding using Type to Learn. We will continue to work on keyboarding for the remainder of the school year. We also had an interactive Microsoft Word lesson on how to change fonts, font sizes, font colors, center text, format text with bold and underline and inserting a picture. All of the students did very well with this task. It required each student to stay quiet and listen for the instructions for each step. In the end, they were responsible for printing to the appropriate printer. We also practiced logging in using individual student IDs, saving work, retrieving work and logging off. This is very important as they begin to produce electronic documents. Second graders also stayed very busy doing research. Coming up, the research skills will pay off as most of the students will type (yes, type) a report about their research topic. This allows the students to put to use their keyboarding skills along with all of their other writing skills.
Third graders spend the last few weeks working on their research topics, which included Georgia Animals and Famous American Patriots. We also provided each third grader with a login sheet for the Georgia Department of Education CRCT Practice Site. Teachers will send those home as they see fit. Most classes have had a lesson on how to access, login and use the site. If you have any problems using the site, please contact me. March brings us to studying perimeter and area, multiplication and division, more CRCT practice and possibly some graphing if time allows.
Just like the third graders, fourth graders have been using their computer time to research various topics relating to the Revolutionary War. Each fourth grade student was provided with a login sheet for the CRCT Practice Site. Most classes have had a lesson on how to access, login and use the site. If you have any problems using the site, please contact me. We will continue to work on keyboarding and some classes will be publishing newspapers set in the Revolutionary War.
Fifth grade had a number of different projects in February. One class did a World War II Map, one class worked on an electricity activity and others worked on other typewritten or research projects. We will continue to practice our keyboarding skills throughout the school year. Each fifth grade student was provided with a login sheet for the CRCT Practice Site. Most classes have had a lesson on how to access, login and use the site. If you have any problems using the site, please contact me. We will find ways to work on fractions, decimals, percentages and graphing over the next few weeks as well as provide each student time to use the CRCT practice site in the computer lab.
Tritt has been selected as a pilot site for Skills Tutor. It is an online instructional tool for grades K through Adult. If you are a middle school parent, you may already know about Skills Tutor. We will be working with it the last nine weeks of this school year to see if it benefits our students. Stay tuned for more information from your teacher. Most likely, students will be using Skills Tutor at school only.
Happy Spring!