Layers of the Earth Diagram on Paint- 5th/6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders used Paint to create a diagram of the earth's layers. They were expected to include one fact for each layer and to save their diagram to the server. There are some super artistic students! Way to go kids!

Birthdays of the month, tally marks n' Excel graphs- 2nd-4th Grade

As a mini-checkpoint assessment for Excel, the Second-Fourth Graders collected data using tally marks, converted the tally marks to numbers, layed out the data on an Excel spreadsheet and created a bar graph.  The data that we collected was a count of birthdays for each month of our classmates and family members.  I kept track of the count using tally marks on the white board as the students dug deep into their minds to remember when their classmates' and family members' birthdays were.  Once all of the data was collected, the students took turns converting the tally marks to numbers.  Then, with very little help from me, they were instructed create the spreadsheet and graph.  There were a handful of students who remembered all of the steps, and they proudly reminded the others who had forgotten.  It was a triumph for those who remembered and a good review for those who forgot!

Thankful for- 2nd-4th Grade

The Second-Fourth Graders are working on a simple MS Word document to help them reflect on for what they are thankful.  The document begins with "I am thankful for:" and it continues with a list of things that the students feel blessed for having in their lives.  They reviewed how to insert bullets and how to "define a new bullet" using a picture or symbol.  They also reviewed how to insert clipart,  format clipart text-wrapping, and change the font.

Sympathy Word Clouds- 3rd &4th Grade

The Third and Fourth Graders created sympathy word clouds using tagxedo.com for their teacher, Mrs. Paulsen. Mrs. Paulsen's father passed away on Friday. With the help of Pastor Wagner, the students listed words, phrases and Biblical verses that pertain to going home to heaven, and then they used the words to create the word clouds. The kids saved their work on the server, I printed the word clouds using a color printer, and we worked together to create a collage of the word clouds on a poster. Here is some of their work!

Scripture Poster- 3rd & 4th Grade

The students Googled "popular Bible verses" to find their favorite verse. They copied and pasted the verse to a Word document.  Then the students Googled images that were relevant to their verse by typing in the book, chaper and verse number in the search bar. This assignment was a review of many skills including using search engines and Word tools such as copy/paste, aligment, image boarder, image text wrapping, image resizing, and footer/header.

Favorite Ice Cream- 3rd & 4th Grade

The Third and Fourth Graders created a spreadsheet and graph using "favorite ice cream flavors" as their topic.  They learned some new skills including hiding rows in an Excel spreadsheet and using the "PrtScn" key to copy & paste an image of the screen to Paint.  Below are the images that they generated using the PrtScn key.

Word Cloud-5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders created word clouds using Tagxedo.  The kids learned that if they wrote a word mulitple times, the word would appear larger than the other words in the final image.  They also learned to use the swiggly line ~ between two words that go together such as "First~Last name."  The kids downloaded and printed their word clouds.  Their work will be on display for the parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday!

Animal Homes- 2nd Grade

The Second Graders are working on PowerPoint slide shows about animal homes. Each slide features a unique animal with one simple sentence that states the kind of home that the animal lives in and an image of the home. For example, the first slide was for bats: "Bats live in caves." Emphasis is placed on capitalization, grammar and punctuation. The computing skills for this assignment includes: launch PowerPoint, insert a slide, select a layout, insert an image (clipart or from file), produce symbols and punctuation with the shift key, and use font tools. Additional skills that will be reintroduced later include using slide design and slide transistions.

Excel Introduction- 2nd Grade

The Second Graders were introduced to a new Microsoft Office application, Excel.  They learned the following vocabulary words: cells, rows, columns, graph, and spreadsheet, selected mulitiple and single cells using their mouse and arrow keys and selected entire rows and columns.  On Thursday they will follow up the lesson with a simple spreadsheet and graph.  After they have completed a couple charts, the Second Graders will do the colored candy project!  This project is a special treat for all of the Second Graders, year after year. 

Online Interview with a Wifelife Expert - 5th & 6th Grade

For homework, the Fifth and Sixth Graders will think of at least 3 interview questions to ask a researcher from the NC Zoo Society.  On Monday we'll collaborate and compile a list of the most thoughtful interview questions.  We will go to the following link: http://www.fieldtripearth.org/ask_qa.xml to post the questions.

Field Trip Earth Skype- 5th & 6th Grade

We're Skyping with Mark, a biologist from the NC Zoo Society on Friday at 2:40 in the student's homeroom! He will be coming to us from Pittsboro, NC. He will speak to us about his work with sea turtles, red wolves, Africian elephants and Midwest falcons in the wild. One of the topics he'll present is animal tagging. The students will preview a slideshow that Mark has prepared for his audiences. They will also preview the NC Zoo Society website.

Future Skyping Opportunity- 3rd & 4th Grade

http://www.foxystale.com
Keep your eyes peeled for more about Mr. Ed White, author of Foxy's Tale and Iditarod competitor.  He offers free video conferencing opportunities for schools.  I contacted Mr. White today, and he has already responded.  We will be scheduling a Skype session for Feb/Mar when the 3rd and 4th Graders do a unit on Alaska and the Iditarod!  The class will read Mr. White's book before the video conference.  The book is a 4th grade level book with 88 pages.

Below is a youtube video featuring Mr. White:

Mammal Slideshow Project- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders are creating a MS PowerPoint slideshow about a mammal of their choice.  The topics that they will be researching will include physical description, range, habitat, diet, survival and defense, life span, parenting, a day in the life, and an interesting fact.  They will report on six of the above topics.  They will be assessed on their ability to use their own words (no plagerism), using the correct layout, relevance and grammar, spelling and punctuation.  The assignment will be due on October 20th.

State Fact Sheet- 2nd Grade

The Second Graders will create a fact sheet about a US state.  Each student chose a state to research, and they will use a search engine to find images and certain information about the state.  They will use MS Word to create the fact sheet using the information and images that they find.  The MS Word skills will include using the alignment, font and insert tools.  The states that were chosen are: Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Kentucky.

Marketing Slogan Search- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders are using various search engines to find buisness slogans that could be compared to our Christian values.  They will recreate the slogan during art class, and they will add a the comparison to their work.  Below is an example of a slogan that could be used:  Disneyland- Where dreams come true.  The slogan could be compared to Heaven.  The art work will be scanned and shared on this blog!

Johnny Appleseed Week- Kindergarten

This week in Kindergarten we are celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday. The kids will watch a youtube video of the original classic movie- the embedded video can be found on www.zsjstudents.blogspot.com.  The Kindergarteners will also play apple games on http://www.applejuice.org/fungames.html

"A World of Adventure" Postcard on Publisher- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders randomly selected a location in the world by spinning a globe and stopping the spinning with their finger.  Where ever their finger landed was the location that they were going to research and chose an adventure that could be enjoyed in the location.  They created a greeting postcard that describes the adventure.  We had camel racing in Saudi Arabia, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, surfing in Coasta Rica, heli-skiing in Canada, deep sea fishing in the Pacific off the coast of Alaska, trekking along the Great Wall of China, and swimming with dolphins off the coast of Indonesia!

US Regions Informational Postcard on Publisher- 3rd & 4th Grade

The Third and Fourth Graders have learned, and are practicing their Publisher skills in preparation for their first computer project of the school year.  They will create an informational postcard representing a US region of their choice.  The project will begin with online research at  http://www.dembsky.net/regions/index.html.  They will then use the skills that they have learned for Publisher to create the postcard.

ABCya.com | Kids Educational Computer Games & Activities

ABCya.com Kids Educational Computer Games & Activities
ABCya.com in Kindergarten? I think so! Check it out!

Tagxedo.com

I found the following website during my Summer vacation.  I plan to use it in my computer class :)

http://www.tagxedo.com/

I learned about a cool website called "The Stock Market Game" while watching PBS Biz Kids. 

 I look forward to using this awesome program with my upper elementary and junior high students!

"Welcome to the Iowa Stock Market Game™ Program - Celebrating Over 30 Years!


The Stock Market Game program has worked for over nine million students by appealing to their desire to gain financial independence and experience a little competition. It`s very easy to implement, reaches across the entire curriculum, and is fun to teach.

The Stock Market Game ™ program transports students into real world investing while learning academic concepts that relate to their entire core curriculum. Students (grades 4-12) buy into the entire process through active involvement. Students work in teams practicing leadership, organization, negotiation, and cooperation. As they work to grow their $100,000 virtual cash accounts into a top-performing portfolio, they develop strong interests in the daily events that shape our world and barely realize how much math, business, economics, language arts and social studies they’re learning. Students compete against their classmates as well as other schools so kids see the program as "fun."

No prior knowledge of the stock market is needed! The Stock Market Game program provides lesson plans that teachers weave into their existing plans, giving difficult concepts an easy-to-understand, real-life spin. For only an hour or so a week, or however long teachers choose, students retain more. On-line training materials are provided and teacher-training workshops are available.

Thanks to a generous grant from the SIFMA Foundation for Investor Education, the program is offered at no cost! Simply skip the billing information section on the registration page!"

Christian Videos- 4th Grade

Enjoy the Fourth Grader's videos! Good job kids!!!

Charity Recipient of our Coin Donation- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders voted on a charity to be the recipient of our coin donation.  Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City will be the charity that will recieve the $95 from Mrs. Miller's large stash of coins.  The Fifth/Sixth Graders chose this charity because three of our ZSJ students have stayed at the house during their medical appointments at the University of Iowa Hospital.  I was very delighted with the student's choice! 

I would like to make it an annual tradition at our school to hold a coin drive and donation that is 100% directed by the ZSJ students!

Updated:  The Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City is running a great contest for participating elementary schools called "Pull Tabs".  Take a look!

Google Search and Christian Movie- 3rd-5th Grade

The Third through Fifth Graders are working on a Christian movie using Windows Movie Maker.  The first task was to search for Christian images to be used in the movie. The kids used Google as their search engine. We learned quickly that typing in generic key words such as "Jesus" and "God" was not the best way to search for good pictures.  We found many disrespectful pictures geared at mocking Christianity.  I challanged the students to think of other key words for good search results.  After giving the example "Triune God" and "The Good Shepherd," the kids started coming up with some great ideas.  Some of the key words the kids thought of were Worthy is the Lamb, The Lord is my Savior, Father Son and Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, God my Father, I shall not want, etc. 

Once the students collect at least 20 images in their pictures folder, they will begin to work on their movie.  This project will be their final project of this school year.

Favorite Seasons- 2nd Grade

The Second Graders made suggestions for projects to go along with their Science theme, seasons.  The students suggested creating a fact sheet using word, a slide show using PowerPoint and a graph using Excel.  The kids voted, and the graph with Excel project won the majority!

The students rated each season, one being their least favorite and four being their favorite.  I recorded all of the data, and the students worked together to add the numbers.  The students typed the total data into the spreadsheet.  Then, they showed me how to create a pie chart using the data.  I was delighted to see that everyone was able to create a chart!

The kids formatted the chart color and font style, and they added a title.  Then, they saved their work to the server.  Good job Second Grade!

Class Cookbook- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders have been working on a class cookbook since the beginning of the school year.  Each student published their favorite recipe on Word, and they shared the prepared recipe with their class.  Last week they created a title page.  This week, I printed off 16 copies of each recipe and lamenated the title pages.  The books will be spiral bound, and the students will have a keep-sake cookbook!  Check out some of the recipes!  The kids put a lot of work and time into their work: