Blog

As an extension to Garage Band in June, we decided to learn about Podcasting. Mme Odette came into the classroom, and taught the students how to create a Podcast, starting from talking about a topic, and recording their voice, to then finding pictures to go with what they talked about. When they were finished putting their pictures in at the correct times, they were then able to add some background music, and share the project to iTunes, where it could be viewed. We decided that it would be a nice idea to create a Podcast about their growth as learners this year. They thought about two stars and wishes about both Language Arts, and Math. This time, they wrote themselves a script to make it easier when recording their voices. After that, they went through their math and language arts work from the year, and found examples of what they spoke about to take pictures of in Photo Booth. These will be shared with their parents during our yearend classroom celebrations. It really is amazing to see how much they have all grown this year! Enjoy the final project, and the final comments from the students, reflecting on their year as 21st Century Learners!

Mrs. Johnson

This is the last big project that the Grade 2 students will be doing on the laptops this year, and perhaps one of the most time consuming ones. The Grade 2s will be learning how to use iMovie to create a video slideshow about the three communities they have been learning about in Social Studies: Iqaluit, Meteghan, and Saskatoon. They will find pictures on Google images of natural resources, goods, and services from each of those communities, and write a caption about each picture. In the end, they will learn about Garage Band, and compose music to add to their video. They have all been very excited to be learning about iMovie and Garage Band so far. This will be the criteria:

1. Find 1 picture for each community that portrays a natural resource, a good, and a service that can be found there.

2. Choose a theme in iMovie to insert your pictures into.

3. Add text boxes to explain each picture.

4. Insert transitions in between every picture, and set the timing so the movie flows well.

5. Crop the pictures to fit appropriately in the movie.

6. Compose a Garage Band song with 1 background melody, and at least 2 different instrument sounds in the foreground.

7. Insert the song into your iMovie.

As you can see, this is a complex project, but with everything else that the Grade 2s have done this year, I have complete confidence that they will pull it off, and it will be fabulous! Stay tuned to see them at our Year End Classroom Celebration at the end of June!

I hope you have enjoyed following along with your children as 21st Century Learners this year. The skills they have learned will be an asset for them in their future years of learning, as they will be able to go above and beyond with their presentations.

See you in June!

Mrs. Johnson

April is a short month for us at Holy Cross, with Spring Break, and Easter Break. I decided that the students should use this time to learn about Comic Life. This is an application on the laptops that allows them to create a comic strip about anything they would like. First, we had Mme. Odette come in to our classroom to teach all of us how to use Comic Life, and we all had a lot of fun with the crazy sound effects it makes when things are moved and changed on the page, and with the variety of choices we have to make our comic unique. With Easter coming this month, we have been talking a lot about the Passion of Jesus Christ story, and I decided that a great way that the students could show their understanding of this is by retelling it through Comic Life. There will be a few steps that happen in the classroom before the laptops come out though: we will need to review the entire story, and pick out key words that were spoken during the time that Jesus was on trial, all the way through until he rose from the dead. The criteria for this project will be:

1. Students will choose a template in Comic Life that will work for them.

2. Students will search for Clip Art images that describe the Passion Story.

3. Students will add speech and thought bubbles to retell the story.

4. Students will use background colours and lettering effects to make their comic more appealing.

I am looking forward to seeing the final product of this assignment. I have already seen the practice comics that were done with Mme. Odette, and each one was very unique, and showed a lot of personality!

Mrs. Johnson

March is going to go by very fast, with student-led conferences going on, and all of the excellent performances coming to our school this month. Because of this, I was so excited to hear that the Grade 2's have had the opportunity to use Keynote for their research projects in Grade 1, and they have an idea of how it works. They will still get the chance to explore Keynote on their own, to refresh their memories, and share their learnings with the class. When they have finished exploring, they will get their criteria for the next project. The students have been learning how to write stories from the perspective of another object (for example, a story from the perspective of a teddy bear). For their Keynote project in March, they will:

1. Write a story from the perspective of something of their choice.

2. Use 3 Keynote slides - one for each the beginning, middle, and end of their story.

3. Add a picture to each slide that goes with their story.

4. Use slide transitions to go from slide to slide.

I will try to add some examples of stories on the blog, even if they end up being just a word document. Being that Keynote is a slide show presentation application, it may not be possible to upload their finished projects. Stay informed though - the students might be showing these to you during our year end celebration in June!

Mrs. Johnson

February is a short month, so the students will be learning about an application that is a little bit more familiar to them. They will be working on the application called Notebook, which is the most used application on our Smartboard. When using Notebook, you are able to do anything from creating a slide show of pictures, to creating interactive learning games. The possibilities are endless. After some free discovery time on the Notebook application, the students will be asked to create a patterning activity for math. The criteria will be as follows:

1. Create an activity that allows someone to extend a pattern.

2. Use at least 2 different attributes in the core of your pattern.

3. Use the "infinite loop" function on the objects to choose from in order to extend the pattern.

I will post some pictures of the students trying each other's activities out. As for the real thing, stay tuned for Student Led Conferences in March, and ask your child to show you what they have created!

Mrs. Johnson

January is going to be a busy month! The students are learning all about the application called Pages - it is a word processing application, that allows you to make newsletters, pamphlets, letterheads, etc., all from a template that is pre-made! Madame Odette came into our class today to teach everyone (including myself) about Pages. The students made a newsletter template all about cats. They first decided on some important things they know about cats, and then went onto Google Images to get some pictures of cats. They then added the pictures into their newsletter, along with the information that was discussed. All of the students enjoyed learning about Pages today, and are anxious to hear about what comes next!

The next step for this month will be to conduct a research project on an animal. We will go to the library, where the students will be able to look at books to get information, and they will be able to find information as a class with Mrs. Belsher on the Smartboard. In the end, they will need to find out the size of their animal, so that we can do some paper mache art in the classroom; how their animal stays warm in cold weather, or cool in hot weather; and other interesting facts about their animal. They will find pictures and put their information into a Pages document to show what they have learned. The criteria for this project will be:

1. Create a title and a catchy headline for your poster.

2. Find 5 pictures of your animal on Google Images or on ORC.

3. Find out the size of your animal, and include it in your information.

4. Find out how your animal stays warm or cool in the temperatures it lives in, and include it in your information.

5. Find out at least 5 more interesting facts about your animal (Where does it live? What does it eat? Does it have any enemies?) to write sentences into your poster.

This will be a very exciting project, with lots of learning. Watch for the finished product!!

Mrs. Johnson

Since December is such a short month, the students will be working on an easy and fun application called Photo Booth. In this application, they can take pictures of themselves, just like in a real photo booth! The students love playing on this application in their free time, and are fairly familiar with it. However, Photo Booth is not limited to just taking pictures. It also has a record function, in which the students can video record themselves in front of the web cam. For their assignment, they will be recording themselves reading. In the last few weeks, they have been working on the beginning stages of story writing, starting with the beginning, and now working on what is included in the middle of a story. By the end of the year, they will be able to write a full story, with a beginning, middle, and end. For now though, they have the very beginnings of the first two parts of a story, ready to read. Their criteria will simply be:

1. Record yourself reading your story so far using Photo Booth.

2. Give yourself 2 stars and a wish that follows the story writing criteria that was made.

Here are some videos of two of the students reading their stories. These are two very different approaches to the assignment. I hope you enjoy talking to your children about this project as much as they have enjoyed using Photo Booth!

Mrs. Johnson

Another month has come and gone, and the Grade 2s have been busy on the computers. This month, the focus has been on the application "Kidspiration." This is an application that is already familiar to the students from previous years, but they still enjoyed having some time to discover new things that they can do with it. In Grade 2, Kidspiration will mostly be used to create idea webs, but the possibilities with this application are endless, as it can also be used to create graphs, show research, and complete graphic organizers. While the students were discovering, I even learned some new things!

This month, the project is to create a web about the four communities the students have been learning about in Social Studies: Iqaluit, Meteghan, Saskatoon, and of course, Cold Lake. They have so far learned about the physical geography of each of these communities, a little bit of history of each community, and what people in each community do in their daily lives. Their Kidspiration projects will focus on the daily lives of the people in each community. The criteria they have to follow is:

1. Create a web showing each community.

2. List at least 4 different things that people do there in their daily lives.

3. Using the writing view in Kidspiration, write a sentence about each thing that was listed on the web.

4. Print the web and sentences!

Stay tuned for pictures of the finished project, and of course comments from the students about Kidspiration!

Mrs. Johnson

This year, there will be an update in our blog every month. Each month, the students in Grade 2 are learning a new technology application on their laptops. They will get to experiment with it themselves, and then at the end of the month, have a project to complete, after I give them some criteria to follow.

This month, the students have played with Doozla. This application is really neat! It is much like the old "paint" programs from the past, except in Doozla, the students are able to choose pictures to colour in, backgrounds to draw on, OR they can take a picture of themselves and draw on it! They had a lot of fun learning about Doozla. Today, I gave them 3 steps to follow (criteria) in order to complete the Doozla portion of the project:

1. Take a picture of yourself.

2. Draw some details into the background of your picture.

3. Print your picture, twice.

For the students, this was a great idea, except it left them wondering about the fact that we can only print in black and white. Their next steps will be to complete a carbon copy tracing of themselves and the details they drew in Doozla. They will then use watercolour paints to add colour to their pictures. The second copy of the picture will be to add to the bottom corner of their art creation, so everyone will be able to see the original picture!

So far, this is what the art project looks like. More pictures will follow, and make sure to watch for the finished product in our school! Also, keep watching our class blog. I'm not the only one who will be posting on here - this is mostly for the Grade 2's to tell you about what they've learned.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy reading about our learning in the months to come!

Leanne Johnson