Summer Vacation

Even though summer doesn't officially begin until the summer solstice on June 20 (at 7:09pm!), it's here for DES kids NOW! I hope you are already having fun times!

When the weather is warm, sunny, and beautiful, being inside at a computer or a TV is a terrible idea. But there may be times when you'd like a little time on the internet. As promised, here's the "ICT Summer Tizmos Page" of links for you to use. There are online magazines, links to free videos, typing games, and the amazing Seed Ball game we all love! As I find more interesting websites this summer, I will add them. Have fun!

Don't forget to read! The beach, the campground, at summer school, on road trips, in the yard under trees - you can take books anywhere! Leave me a comment (with your first name only!) and let me know what you're reading!

Have a safe and happy, fun-filled summer!

It's Magic!

Recently, kindergartners practiced "coloring inside the lines" using the Magic-Fill tools in TuxPaint. It's sure easier than trying to color back and forth, even with a digital brush! See?

David Elliott

we were so lucky to have New Hampshire author David Elliott visit Danbury Elementary during Read Across America week! I liked how he visited with each class and helped children make animal poems. He had some interesting stories and facts about what it means to be a writer. It sounds like hard work - but I bet it's lots of fun!

If you want to read some of David Elliott's books, here are the ones we have in the library:
The Cool Crazy Crickets Club
The Cool Crazy Crickets to the Rescue
In The Wild
On The Farm
Knitty Kitty
Finn Throws a Fit
And Here's to You

In fourth grade, David Elliott read from a chapter book called Evangeline Mudd and the Golden-Haired Apes of the Ikkinasti Jungle. This book is out of print - but I found one online to order! It should arrive soon. We also ordered his new picture book - In The Sea.  I can't wait until it comes so I can see those woodcut illustrations of sea creatures up close!

If you want to read the poems classes wrote with David Elliott, click on Mrs. Hattan's Literacy page And here's David Elliott's webpage if you want to take a look!

Decorating a Cake

Kindergartners listened to the book, Clever Jack Takes the Cake, a fanciful story about a poor young boy who makes an elaborate birthday cake for the princess. But the cake never arrives at the birthday party. Ask your student what happened to it! As a follow-up activity, students logged into their computer accounts, then made their own version of a birthday cake using TuxPaint. For the first time, students used the "fill" tool and learned to color inside the lines - digitally!

We ❤ Seuss!

Read Across America Week is coming! In ICT this week, in addition to their other tasks, most classes had a chance to briefly visit Seussville, the website devoted to all things Dr. Seuss-related. At this extensive site, there are games and activities, links to books and movie trailers, and even a spot where children can create their own accounts so they can save their online creations. My favorite place is the "Mulberry Street Parade", with music and sound and a host of characters from each of Dr. Seuss' books. I promised the children I'd post the link - so if you're looking for a fun and appealing site to use with your children, check out Seussville at http://www.seussville.com/!

Leap Day!

All months of the year have 30 or 31 days, but February always has less than that. In most years, February has 28 days. But every fourth year (mostly), February gets an extra day, so it has 29 days. This year, 2012, is one of those years and is called a leap year. The last leap year was four years ago in 2008; the next leap year will be 2016. See the pattern?

Some people call that extra February day, the 29th, Leap Day. And that day is today! I wish we could be in school to talk about it, but since it's vacation week, this blog post will have to do.

The extra day every four years has to do with the amount of time it takes for the Earth to go all the way around the sun once. We know that's one year, and a year is 365 days. But it actually take the Earth just a few hours more than that to orbit the Sun - it's about 365 ¼ days. A quarter of a day is 24 divided by 4 or 6 hours. And 6 extra hours every year for 4 years equals 24 hours - and that's the extra day, the Leap Day.

If there were no Leap Day, the seasons would slowly shift over time and, in about 700 years, we'd have snow in June and beach weather in December! Whoever thought of Leap Day was a really good thinker and problem-solver!

Graphs & Charts

Google spreadsheets, a free program used by teachers and students, was the tool fourth graders used to organize data they collected from their families and classmates. First, they recorded data on spreadsheets in cells, rows, and columns. Then they learned how to use the Chart Editor to display their findings visually. After bar graphs and pie charts were generated, customization ensued! In the near future, these students will again be using this tool as they represent data collected for their science projects! Stay tuned!

3rd Grade Usernames

chickenbob100

Third graders know they should never put their names on the internet without the permission of a trusted adult, like a parent or a teacher. Today they learned tips and tricks for creating good usernames. Think of favorite animals, TV shows, books, movie characters, or favorite numbers, then combine some to make a unique username.  Adults can do that too! Here are some usernames the students created--

catkai689

chocolateowl18

purplepig14

wipeout123

regularpuma721

pumawill1725

54whotheman

cheetahup8

Perspective

Today kindergartners and first graders listened to a story called Shrinking Mouse by Pat Hutchins. In the story, Mouse is worried as he watches his friends Owl, Fox, and Rabbit walk across a field to the woods on the other side. As they each get father and farther away, it looks to Mouse like they are getting smaller and smaller. He's so happy when he joins them on the other side to see that they are the same size they have always been! After the story, we "measured"our friends using our fingers, and watched as they got smaller and smaller and smaller. But not really!

Read For Our School

DES is participating in a wonderful opportunity for students to earn books for our school library.  The Pearson Foundation is currently sponsoring a reading initiative called “Read For My School” where participating schools are eligible to earn up to 500 free books for their libraries, just by reading.  The program runs from February 14th through March 14th and is open to all students.

Registration is necessary in order to participate in the program. The online form can be found at http://www.wegivebooks.org/pf/rfms/register.php  In order to register, students will need to create a username and a password, and provide an email address, his or her birthday, state, and our official school name. Please assist your child with this registration. Once the registration is completed, students can begin reading the online books.  There are over 150 books to choose from at various reading levels. After the book is read, click “Give a Book” for it to be counted towards our school’s total.

In order for DES to be eligible for the free books, we must cumulatively read 50 or more books.  We hope that you will consider registering your child for this program. Please feel free to call or email with any questions you may have. Have fun reading!

Northern Lights

Image from NASA

Late in January, there were many reports of Northern Lights in Europe, especially over the Scandinavian countries. As fourth graders were coming into the room for ICT on Friday, parts of this video were playing so they could see the phenomenon. The kids showed more interest than I had anticipated, particularly when they learned that, in the past, Northern Lights have been visible over our area of New Hampshire. Mrs. Bruning shared a wonderful story about seeing them when she and her family were camping.

Students asked that I post the video here so they could access it again. If your child shows continued  interest, you might want to sign up for email alerts with a website called Spaceweather.com. When solar activity takes place that makes the liklihood of seeing the Northern Lights good, I get an email - so I know when to keep my eye on the night sky. I know some day I'll see them again!

Kindergarten Paints

Kindergartners are beginning to learn about their computer usernames, a tricky concept to grasp since this name is not much like the name they're learning to print in their classroom. Once they are logged in, they are practicing drawing and painting using TuxPaint, a free program that children really enjoy. Shown is a drawing done using the symmetry tool. TuxPaint is available for Window, Mac, and Linux platforms and can be downloaded here. And don't forget to get the stamps, too!

Happy Anniversary, Mulberry Street!

On my drive to school this morning, I heard on the radio that it's the 75th anniversary of the first book ever written by Dr. Seuss. He named the book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street because there was a street by that name in the town he grew up in. He liked the way the word Mulberry sounded! Do you have words like that, words that just sound good to you? I do - serendipity!

After Dr. Seuss wrote the story, he tried and tried but couldn't find any company that liked his book well enough to publish it. At times, Dr. Seuss became so frustrated, he almost destroyed his story and the illustrations! He was turned down 27 different times before he finally found a publisher! Twenty-seven times!

Dr. Seuss sure was persistent! What would his life have been like if he hadn't been? Would your life be different if he hadn't been so persistent?

Brain Quest!

You know Brain Quest ®, right? Check out the new Brain Quest widget posted on our blog! Look - scroll down a bit, over on the right under the link for Tumblebooks. See? There's a new Brain Quest challenge question every day for grades 3 & 4. Can you try it if you're not in grades 3 or 4? Sure you can! Click below the question to see if your answer is correct!

Learning to Type

This month, third grade joins fourth in working with Type To Learn 4 during portions of their ICT times. To practice at home, try the links posted here, or try one of these games -

Keyboarding games from the Learning Games for Kids website:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html

Alpha Munchies
http://www.abcya.com/kids_typing_game.htm
Type the letters above the critters as they fall from the sky - to protect your character's lunch! Letters appear on screen as upper case but do not need to be typed that way. That's good!

Typer Shark

http://kids.aol.com/games/typer-shark/

Type the words and letters on the sharks before they can attack the diver. There are several levels to this fast-paced game. 

Typer Spider

http://funschool.kaboose.com/gamesFiles/flash/kaboose/spidertyper/spidertyper.swf

Type to help the spider escape the hungry chameleons. 

Remember to sit up straight and keep your fingers on the home row keys!

Private Information

Fourth graders learned this week about private information, details that are private and personal and not given out to strangers in real life or to people or websites on the internet. Students practiced looking for requests for private information on various webpages. The rule to follow is this: never give out private information online without first asking a parent at home or a teacher at school. Here's a list of what students feel is personal information:

full (first and last) name
street address
name of school
school address
e-mail address
phone numbers
passwords
calling card number
mother’s maiden name
parent’s place of work
photos in which you can be recognized
your zip code

Discussions about subjects like this one can and should be ongoing. As your child grows and uses computers and the internet more, there will be more opportunities to practice these important skill.