Easy Tech for Summer...

Hello Kindergarten Friends...As promised in my year-end letter to you all, we are ready to begin our summer Easy Tech lessons. Back in October we had a post here on how to log into Easy Tech. You can look it over again by clicking here: October post on Easy Tech. As outlined in my letter, these are a review of the lessons covered during the school year. Keep in mind you will start the year in First Grade with a computerized assessment. Repeating these lessons will keep your computer skills sharp and allow you to focus more on the assessment and not so much on how to use the computer. Watch the video to remind you how to log in. Your user name and passwords have stayed the same. Email me if you have forgotten either. Have fun!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Special Visitor: Senator Carole Pankau...

Our class was invited to Springfield, IL (our state capital) to participate in the Illinois Tech 2008 Conference. We were to share with our senators and state representatives some of the fun and exciting things we do with technology in our classroom. Unfortunately, the conference was canceled due to construction at the capital building. Senator Carole Pankau, didn't let the cancellation stop her from finding out how we use technology. On Friday, May 16th she came to our school for a visit. Mrs. Blakely explained some of the many things we do while several children shared with her what they know about using EasyTech, Microsoft Paint , our New Zealand Blog buddies at Manaia Kindergarten , Nutkin's Blog and other programs and web sites. . We think she was impressed and we were very proud to share what we know.
Thank you Senator Pankau, you're welcome back anytime!

Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Grills for sharing your photos with us for our blog! Thank you Dr. Shelley for stopping in to share what we do in our district. Thanks to Miss Kelly and Mrs. Kajpust for your help as well.

More about Robins...

Today we returned from "Spring Break". It was so good to see everyone and know that we missed one another. We began making a book about BIRDS. Can you guess which bird we put first in our books? Yes, the robin! Many of us have spotted them all over the neighborhood. We visited a web site by a lady named Julie Corsi. It's called The Robin's Nest. Ms. Corsi had the exciting honor of having a pair of robins build their nest right below her bedroom window. She could watch each day as the robins built their nest. Even more exciting was the fact that she was able to watch, day-by-day, the growth and development of baby robins, from egg to wings! Take a few minutes to enjoy all the photos and details she provides at "The Robin's Nest". Cornell Lab of Orinthology has a recording of the "song of the robin". It's pretty cool!

For our book we used images of robins to help us get the colors and backgrounds just "right". We followed a step-by-step method for drawing. Look for our images to appear here later in the week. In the meantime, you can learn to draw a robin (or similar birds) by following the directions in the video. You can choose to draw your bird on the computer using a program like Paint, or grab a paper and markers. Either way give it a go and have fun:

Using The Paint Program...

In the Computer Lab we all worked in the "Paint" program. It's a basic drawing or beginning graphics program that is standard on most PC's. The kids really enjoyed working with it! The way they opened the program and worked with the tools was very impressive! I was most pleased with the way they were willing to share knowledge with one another. Many of the kids weren't sure they could find the program on their home computers; so I promised them I would make a little tutorial to help them find it. We haven't really worked on saving our drawing just yet; so far we have just been learning how to work the program. The kids know that when they want to start a new drawing, they go to "file", then press "new" and when asked if they want to "save" choose "no". If you have any questions, feel free to Email me. I hope this video helps:

Remember, go to start, programs, accessories, then paint!

Be sure to check back later for drawings created using Paint!

EasyTech...

We have begun using EasyTech at school. It's a web-based program from Learning.com that uses self-paced, interactive, tutorial-type lessons to support teachers in providing students with 21st century technology literacy skills. EasyTech is fun and provides immediate feedback to students and is available to registered users from any computer that is connected to the Internet. The Spring Trail P.T.O. has generously provided funding for this program for the second year in a row.

THANKS P.T.O. for your support.

Our students can access EasyTech from school or home. They can even access it from the local library. Please watch the following brief video on what your child needs to do to log in. I will add activities as I see children are making their way through the lessons. Please keep in mind that they must complete one lesson before they can go on to the next lesson. If they reach the "certificate page" they should have a perfect score before they are allowed to print their certificate.....18/18 or 12/12, etc.). Please supervise your child as he/she works through the lessons, but do not fall to the temptation to do the lesson for them. If your child completes all the assignments before I have a chance to load new ones, feel free to have him/her repeat previously assigned lessons. Remember the more they practice, the better they get. Thanks again to the P.T.O for providing this valuable resource to our students.

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