Today in the Lab

Ms. Goodfellow's class created a monster in kidpix. I gave them instructions and they created their pictures according to their answers. For example, I told the students to give their monsters purple bodies if their favorite subject was recess, green bodies if they like math best, and orange bodies if their favorite thing to do is read. They gave their monsters four heads if they had at least one brother and one sister, three heads if they only had sisters, two heads if they had brothers. They added eyes, ears, mouths, and objects as they chose. It was a fun activity and the children worked on their listening skills and their creativity. Great job!

Today in the Lab

Mr. Sharp's class did our sudoku game with scary faces taken in photo booth. The kids had a great time and I was really pleased with how quickly they caught on to the pattern. We printed them and the students were able to take them home. Thanks for doing such a great job!

Today in the Lab

Today in the lab, Mrs. Pendley's class put together a sudoku pattern with scary photos they took in photobooth! They had a lot of fun! Thanks to our parent helper!

1/2 Hour Activities

As the Crow Flies.

Using Google Earth, explore your city. Have the children learn roads and how to navigate from one place to another. Start by typing your zip code in the "fly to" window.



Then, find major roads. Follow those roads, looking for things the students will find familiar, such as schools, malls, stores, libraries, etc. Explain addresses and how they work. Use directions, street names, and as many details as you can to show the children how maps are made. To make finding specific locations easier, open "Layers" on the bottom of the tools window in the left hand side of your screen. Click on "Places of Interest." In the newest version of Google Earth you can select which places of interest to show, such as "major retail", "schools", "hospitals", and "tourist spots." You can move the map by grabbing it and dragging your mouse.

You can do a scavenger hunt and create a list of places you want your students to visit. Give them directions to help them find the places and check them off of their list when they've found that place. Try double clicking on a location. Some locations have pictures and even histories embedded in a pop-up window.

You can even have the kids make their own map in Neighborhood maps to show the places they visited. These maps can be printed and taken home. (This option will take more than 1/2 hour.)

1/2 hour Activities

Sudoku is a popular game that teaches pattern recognition. Whether you use pictures or numbers or shapes, this fun logic game teaches a useful mathematical skill. For Halloween, I created a sudoku puzzle with scary photos I took in photo booth and placed them in a 4X4 grid in comic life. Students can create their own sudoku puzzles, print them, and take them home! Enjoy!

1/2 Hour Activities

Fabulous Fall--Discuss what happens in our environment when the weather gets cooler. Which trees stay green all year long? What happens to grass? To water? Using KidPix, change a bright summer day to a crisp, cool fall day. Add gray to the clouds. Add color to the leaves. Show some leaves dropping to the ground. Add yellow to the grass. Export the picture as a jpg and use it in a different project, or just print and hang in your classroom. Enjoy!

Today in the Lab

Mrs. Weichers's class started typing in Keyboarding for Kids today. We have booklets to help the kids know what to type, and they are timed as they do their drills. They will make great progress with this program once they get used to logging in. Please help your students remember where home row is so that they can learn to type properly. They'll be able to type much faster when they learn this skill! In this modern, technological world, typing is a necessary skill!

Thanks, parents and teachers for all you hard work for our children!!!

1/2 Hour Activities

On wordle.net you can create art with words! I had fun creating this wordle for Halloween. To make one word bigger than the others, simply type it in your list more than once. To make sure multiple words stay connected, type a toggle (~) between them! Have fun!

Today in the lab...

Today, Mrs. Alvord's class studied basic formatting. We learned how to change fonts, spacing, and alignment in Microsoft Word. We also learned how to copy clip art from Inspiration and paste it in the word document. We will work on copying and pasting again next time in preparation for a Halloween story.

Today in the lab...

Each day, I will describe at least one class's activities in the computer lab. This will give you an overview of the kinds of things we do in the lab.

Mrs. Tripp's class explored Neighborhood MapMachine. We learned about the compass and the directions North, South, East, and West. The students were able to explore two maps and various places on the maps, such as fire stations, libraries, police stations, and homes.

Mrs. Haynes' class worked on the stories they are writing for our fiction unit. They finished their character graphic organizers and began writing!

Yay for computers!

Hello, Bella Vista students! I've had many of you ask if you can check out the websites we use in the lab when you're at home. ABSOLUTELY! I think you are all wonderful students and I love your enthusiasm and curiosity! Make sure to ask your parents before you visit any sites and follow the rules of using the internet:

1. NEVER share personal information over the internet.
2. Use a search engine you can trust, like kids.yahoo.com
3. Type web addresses in the search engine rather than in the address bar so that you are sure to go to the correct site.
4. NEVER download anything unless your parents are there with you.

I love using technology to teach at Bella Vista! You are wonderful children who learn quickly and learn well! Keep clicking!