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!

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!

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!

'Tis the Season

This last week before our Christmas break, students have been busy writing labels, greetings, sentences, and paragraphs. Much of the work had to do with Christmas traditions and holiday greetings. Older students constructed a short paragraph about a family tradition, then illustrated it using TuxPaint. The  younger students, still learning about the painting program, drew a Christmas object, then used the Fill option to color it in. A quick label or short sentence finished the project.

Students also viewed an ebook, Olive the Other Reindeer, through Tumblebooks. Some also watched The Polar Express. 

TuxPaint, the program mentioned above, is a versatile, robust program which is free for most operating systems. To download it to your computer at home, click here. And don't forget to download the stamps!

Free Math Apps

Beginning today and for four days only, Everyday Mathematics® is offering free math game apps for your iPhone, an iTouch, or iPad. These games are the same as the Everyday Math online games students play on comptuers and they're electronic versions of the games each grade level plays in class. These games reinforce major concepts presented in our math program. To find the games, go to the iTunes App Store, then search for Everyday Mathematics. After April 16th, the games will go back to their original price - so get them while you can!

A Gift for You!

In school, we use many free programs but our favorite one is TuxPaint! It's introduced at the kindergarten level, then used quite a bit by the primary grade children for projects and work and also for "play". Even the older kids love TuxPaint - though they don't use it for class at that age!

TuxPaint is a free download for Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. You can find more about this program at the TuxPaint website - and you can download your own copy to use at home!

A Gift for You!

Christmas week both second and third graders used TuxPaint, a free painting program, to draw a seasonal picture and make a label or a sentence about their work. You can have TuxPaint on your computer at home, too - download it here. Happy Holidays!!

Slideshow!

Using photographs taken at Riverday, fourth graders each compiled and narrated a short movie using iMovie. Then they used the same pictures to make an online slide show on Animoto, a free slideshow program on the internet. They chose music from freeplaymusic.com to accompany their brief show. After they downloaded and saved a copy of their work to their digital portfolios here at school, they embedded the slide show into their blogs. Here's an example of one student's work:

Veterans' Day

Students at DES performed their traditional Veterans' Day assembly not only for the invited local veterans but also live for members of the armed forces stationed in Baghdad. Using Skype, free videochat software, students were able to sing, recite poetry, and read original work to audiences both here and on the other side of the world! We even had a chance to ask the servicemen and women some questions about their work in Iraq.