ICT – Enhancing Learning with IT

This week

Kindergarten took photos around the school of different signs. We discussed what they meant and why we have signs. They loved using the digital camera and taking their very own photo

Year 1 used Kidpix to stamp their page. They then counted the number of stamps and wrote the sentence “I can count ……..” Their work can be found on their page.

Year 2 continued on creating their PowerPoints. This week they added in their information on their new slides. Some girls were able to change the font colour and style.

Year 3 finished their animoto videos. The links to these videos can be found on their page. They had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about how to use Animoto.

Year 4 watched episode 5 of Cyberquoll and next week are going to create a glog about their favourite cyber-safety rule.

Year 5 continued to research the Pacific North Western Tree Octopus and place the information they found on the Primary Pad. Primary Pad worked much better than the wiki as it updated in real time. The girls also really liked the chat function.

Year 6 discussed the reliability of websites and how can be tell if information on the internet is correct. We also discussed the importance of referencing our information so that others can also check where we have gotten our information.

In week 7,

Kindergarten learned where the different keys were on the keyboard and what those keys did. After we had finished our sheet which can be found on the Kindergarten page, we played Tux Typing for the first time

Year 1 used Kidspiration to allocate animals to different environments. They had a lot of fun finding strange animals to put in these environments

Year 2 started their PowerPoints on a sea creature. They have been researching their creature using bookmarks I had provided for them. I was very impressed at the notes they took and how quickly they seemed to understand how to create a PowerPoint presentation.

Year 3 watched some videos of plants growing from YouTube. They then used those videos to create one of their own in Animoto. They are not quite finished yet but hopefully will be soon.

Year 4 finished their cybersafety word document which can be found on the Year 4 page.

Years 5 and 6 researched the Pacific Northwestern Tree Octopus using a wiki. We found the wiki didn’t update in real time and therefore we were losing some work when we were all working on the same document at once. Next week we will use Primary Pad instead.

I do apologise I have not updated this until now. I under-estimated how much work was involved in setting up ICT for this year.

Kindergarten have had a wonderful start. They have learnt to use program such as 2Publish,  Kidpix, Tux Paint and played a little on Tux Typing this week. They have also learnt what different keys on the keyboard do. Some of their work can be found on their page

Year 1 have focused on learning about typing and have played lots of typing programs such as Typing Tournament. They have also learnt about the different parts of the computer and their function

Year 2 created a Word document called ‘All about Me’ where they typed a few sentences to describe themselves. They then inserted a picture of themselves and added borders and sometimes backgrounds.They are now researching a sea creature so that we can learn how to create PowerPoint presentations.

Year 3 learnt how to login using their unique login. We then create a plant lifecycle in Kidspiration. Their work can be found on their page

Year 4 have been learning about Cybersafety using Cyberquoll. They have created posters advocating some cyber-rules using Word

Year 5 have been using Welcome to the Web as a Cybersafety tutorial. We have had wonderful discussions regarding how to keep ourselves safe on the web, safe searching tips and what to do when things go wrong. Year 5 are now researching the “Pacific North-Western Tree Octopus” using a wiki.

Year 6 created Glogs using Glogster about Rainforests. They did a wonderful and their work can be found on their page. They are also now researching the “Pacific North-Western Tree Octopus” using a wiki.

This week

Kindergarten created Snowflakes using the fill in paint tool in Kidpix. They coloured their snowflake and printed them out for display.

Year 1 created Christmas cards for their buddies in 2Publish. They typed amazing sentences about what they enjoyed about spending time with their buddies.

Year 2 finished their PowerPoint slide about Christmas in their particular country. I was impressed with their ability to find images that were able to be re-used under Creative Commons. They were then able to insert these pictures into their slides and manipulate them.

Year 3 completed their Prezis about what Christmas means to them and will present next week.

Year 4 created modified photos using Photoshop. This week they played with the various filters in Photoshop. They saved their photos and inserted them into a 2Publish document for display.

Year 5 stretched their knowledge of Scratch and Mathematical co-ordinates by writing a program which enables their sprite to write the word Hi. This was not as easy as it sounds and it requires an understanding of x and y co-ordinates. Some groups were very successful and I was very proud of their efforts.

Year 6 had their Year 7 orientation this week and unfortunately missed their lesson.

This week was a busy one as the end of term rushes closer.

Kindergarten worked on their typing skills using Tux Typing which can be downloaded free here. They completed lessons 1 – 4 before playing some games with the software. The aim was to familiarise them with the position of the keys and the correct fingers to use.

Year 1 discovered Computer Classroom which is also available in their classroom pod. They had a great deal of fun playing with the software, particularly since they got to use headphones as well.

Year 2 did something a little different this week. Instead of finishing off their glogs, instead they used a website called Christmas Around the World to research Christmas celebrations in a particular country. In pairs, they created a PowerPoint slide about their findings. Next week they will add pictures to their slides and the slides will be collated to make one presentation.

Year 3 worked on their Christmas Prezi’s about what Christmas means to them. They were learning how to change the size and the appearance of the writing and beginning to add pictures to their presentations.

Year 4 played with Photoshop. They used the features; black and white, saturation and posturise to create three new pictures. Next week they will play with more of the adjustment features in Photoshop and  create a 2Publish document to showcase their photos.

Year 5 finished working on their Scratch assignment with most groups well on the way to finishing.

Year 6 worked on their Christmas Glogs which included a bible verse, Christmas symbols and a Christmas theme. I even learnt a few things about why we associate particular symbols with Christmas. They have done a fabulous job.

I can’t believe we are already more than half-way through the term! It goes so quick.

This week…

Kindergarten were on an excursion and missed ICT but last week they used 2Publish to create a picture showing themselves picking up rubbish in the playground and placing it in the bin. They did some great work which I hope to display soon.

Year 1 created a page of celebrations using Kidpix. We brainstormed all the celebrations we could think of from birthdays, weddings, Easter and of course Christmas! They then used the text function to place them around their page and then decorated it with stamps and stickers. Last week I was on an excursion and did not have ICT with Year 1.

Year 2 learnt about Glogster last week and this week they had their first experiment with the program. We discussed what we should not put on Glogster as it is an online application, such as personal information or images of themselves or others (even though the settings indicate  their glogs are private, it is best to act as if they are public). Year 2 had a lot of fun playing with it and are currently creating a Glog of Celebrations.

Year 3 and Year 4 have not had ICT for the last two weeks. I was on an excursion last week and this week they were on camp. I hope to catch up with them next week.

Year 5 have been learning how to use Scratch over the past two weeks. I gave them tasks to complete using the program and they have been working through them by watching the tutorials on the Scratch website.  They have done a fantastic job and when they are finished I will place them on their page.

Year 6 finished their memories pages and moved onto Glogster. They are creating a Christmas glog which must include a bible verse, Christmas symbols which must be explained, a Christmas theme and colours. I will publish the links when they are finished.

This week in ICT…..

Kindergarten used Kidpix to create an alphabet book. Each girl was given a letter of the alphabet and they had to find objects that started with that letter and insert them on their page. This was a challenging task for many of them (including myself at times). Trying to find objects starting with a certain letter is more difficult than I thought. They did very well and I will upload their work to their page very soon.

Year 1 made bookmarks of their name. They copy and pasted their name several times down a page in Word. They then changed the font, colour and size of their name to create a very colourful bookmark. We will try to laminate these and send them home.

Year 2 were testing this week and missed their lesson. Next week we hope to finish off the last of our speeches and discover Glogster as a class.

Year3 were introduced to Prezi this week. Using my login, they started to create prezi’s about what Christmas meant to them. Some of us (including myself) were beginners using Prezi, but others had played before with this presentation tool and were soon off creating fantastic presentations. Next week, I am looking forward to Year 3 showing me how they created a particular ‘look’ to their presentation. They were quickly learning from each other which was wonderful. I hope to share their finished product with you soon

Year 4 had a look at the page I created on this blog called Year 4 links. As year 4 are learning about Space this semester, I have placed links to some great Space sites on this page. After exploring we started working on some photos in Photoshop. We will be doing this over the next couple of weeks. As it took as a little longer to create a folder and copy and paste some photos in it, we will be finishing off our photoshop work next week.

Year 5 explored Scratch this week. This free program enables you to create scripts which tell your sprite what to do. We started off just exploring the software and making our sprite do simple things. What others have done with Scrach is amazing and their work can be found in the gallery on their website. At the moment Year 5 and I are just starting to work out what we can do and how much we can create.

Year 6 continued to finish their memories page using a combination of Photoscape and Word. These projects are mostly finished and have been made homework from now on. Next week, I hope to show Year 6 Glogster and see what we can create.

Term 4 is here and so is the sunshine.In ICT this week…

Kindergarten used Kidpix to colour in Elmer the Elephant. They had a lot of fun playing with the different colours and patterns in Kidpix. The final product will be on their page.

Year 1 had their orientation for next year on Friday afternoon and missed their ICT lesson this week.

Year 2 wrote their speeches for their PowerPoints and delivered them beautifully. We videoed their fantastic effort and placed them in a file on the internal server for the girls to watch.

Year 3 played with Scootle this week. In science they are learning about the human body. Scootle had lots of fun activities to support their learning in class. Year 3 enjoyed working through the activities at their own pace and having fun all at the same time.

Year 4 also had their orientation for next year and missed their ICT lesson this week.

Year 5 were tidying their animations from last term using Adobe Premier Pro. However, Premier Pro was not behaving itself and we had lots of trouble opening files and importing information. Have a look at their animations on their page. They are great fun to watch even without the tidying efforts of Premier Pro.

Year 6 have been exploring a new program called Photoscape. It is a free download which can be found here. They have been using it to create a memories page of their time at school. They had a great deal of fun going through the old photos of themselves in previous years and then adding features to the photo using Photoscape.

Last week of school!!! Holidays…… but first this week

Kindergarten didn’t have ICT this week. As they had a very exhausting term, they had some quiet time in their classroom

Year 1 recorded a podcast about their time on camp. I will post it on their page

Year 2 finished their PowerPoints. They will be writing their speeches to go with them next term and we will film their performances. In the meantime I will post their PowerPoints onto their page.

Year 3 imitated the work of Piet Mondrian using the website of Stephen Lindhart. As you can’t print their work from this page, we took a screenshot and pasted it into Paint. From there, Year 3 deleted the parts of the screen shot they didn’t want and saved their work as a jpg file. They exceeded my expectations with this as I was expecting this process to be a lot harder than it was. They finished in plenty of time so we played with Computer Classroom 3 for the rest of the lesson.

Year 4 used Glogster to create a glog about cybersafety. The links to the finished versions will be on their page. As Glogter Edu is a public site, I again stressed to Year 4 to treat their glogs as public. Therefore, no names, photos or identifying information was to be uploaded. It was a great way to put what we had learnt about cybersafety into practice.

Year 5 finished their animations. Two groups didn’t quite finished but I am sure they will finish these off quickly next term. I will post their animations on their page. Next term, we will insert our animations into MovieMaker to make some adjustments, add slides, sounds and text. It will be a great way to learn the features of Moviemaker.

Year 6 finished their advertisements. I have placed links on their page to the ones that have not used faces. If faces are visable, I will upload to a site that is password protected and post the link on their page.

Enjoy your holiday!! See you next term.

The countdown has begun to the end of term. Unfortunately my three year old was sick on Friday so I was unable to teach half my classes. But here is what the others were up to…..

Kindergarten recounted what they did at camp. The drew a picture and wrote a sentence about camp in 2Publish. I will upload a slide-show of these later on in the week. So keep a eye on their page.

Year 2 learnt how to put pictures and animations into their PowerPoint presentations. I am so impressed with their skills. I can’t wait until they are finished (probably by next week) and I can upload them on their page.

Year 5 continued filming their animations. Most of the class is now up to editing their filming and adding music. Once we worked out how to do this, it was a smoother process. Hopefully by next week we will have some of them finished and ready to upload.

Year 6 was away on camp this week and didn’t have a lesson.

My apologies for the lack of ICT this week. It was unfortunate timing by the sickness fairy.