Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Let's Go On A Scavenger Hunt with PebbleGo

Second graders in Mrs. Christina Young's class visited the laptop lab with a special Scavenger Hunt in hand. Various famous people were to be located in the biography section of PebbleGo, an online resource for students. 
Student listening to narrative...

Selecting biography from list of categories...
PebbleGo Biographies features 12 main categories, featuring both traditional and less traditional biographies. It includes articles on the person's early life, life"s work, milestones, and legacy. The articles are fully narrated, includes animated highlighting, educational videos and games, and much more.
Using animated highlighting...
PebbleGo can be accessed at school and from home. If accessing on computers other than RRISD computers, you will need to have the user name and password. Please ask the teacher, Mrs. Beasley, or Mrs. Oliver for those passwords.
Scavenger hunt complete!
  Each student was to list accomplishments or contributions of various famous people. Students were able to accomplish a lot of research in very little time.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Kinder Canales Class Conquers the Keyboard!

Students in Mrs. Canale's Kindergarten class were assisted by Mrs. Platte's fourth grade students in the Computer Lab. The helpers assisted them in logging in to the computer, navigating to the program, and opening the correct lesson.

The kindergarten students completed a lesson in Learning.com, in which they were to use all the basic drawing tools to make a picture.

Students were also taught the difference in logging off the computer and shutting it down. Now that the fundamentals are conquered, students will be able to accomplish so much more on the

Monday, November 26, 2012

 First grade students completed  their Word Sorts for Words Their Way Spelling  by using the laptops and software Kidspiration Program. They had a list of words completed on their notebooks, but used the computer to make the Word Sort Chart. 
 Students were instructed on what to include on the chart, but the rest was left to their creativity.
Once they completed their work, they printed a copy to display.
Spelling was an especially fun subject today, thanks to Kidspiration and a laptop lab!



Here are some examples of their work. 
Students were asked to place the main word in an oval, then add the other words beneath it by using the rectangle.






Some students experimented with changing colors of categories. 




Monday, November 19, 2012

Projects in Kidspiration

TAG students from Mrs. Horony's Grade 3 group are creating some projects using the Kidspiration software.

The topic was" Someone Special to Me," and students used the graphic organizer to select pictures to characterize that person.

Once they completed the project, they printed them to put with the rest of their independent study project. Projects were also saved electronically to present as well.






Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Absorbed in Learning!





First grade students in Mrs. Zientek's room are used the Laptop Lab

at Blackland Prairie to research animals. Prior to today, the class had completed a class research project on penguins, but now they are able to research different topics.
Each student, armed with a graphic organizer and clipboard, used the school and district online resources to find various facts about their subject.
One source used is Pebble Go, an award winning PreK-3 database for reading and research. There is a built in reading and research tool so students may listen or watch the passage as it is read. Students listed facts about their animal in a graphic organizer, which will be used when students compose their papers.

Another online source used was World Book Kids. Students were able to access various articles or videos on their topics.

All these resources may be used at home as well. Parents may be provided with the user name and password for these either from the classroom teacher or the librarian.

Election Day at BPE!

Students at Blackland Prairie participated in an online voting election last Tuesday. Martha Kuhl, Social Studies committee representative, gave each class a schedule of when and where they would vote.

Parent and 5th grade student volunteers were available to help with getting the screen ready for the next voter, and handing out the "I voted" sticker as they exited the polling places.

Hallways were decorated with art posters from Mrs. Gonser.
Ballots were submitted electronically, and results were revealed at the end of the day. 
Hopefully this voting experience will encourage them to participate in elections when they are eligible to vote.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Acceptable Use

Acceptable Use was the topic for the first few weeks of school. Anita Oliver, ITS, along with classroom teachers, reviewed the RRISD policy for Acceptable Use. This year, in compliance with SB407,  all RRISD campuses are training students in Internet Safety and Cyberbullying.

Children's Internet Protection Act
"Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing: (a) access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet; (b) the safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications . . . . " (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html

Once students completed the Acceptable Use training, they practiced logging in. They are off to a great start of lots of learning.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

First Graders in Mrs. Fuch's classroom have completed their acceptable use training and are now utilizing the grade level netbooks. Thanks to PTA, we now have some wonderful headphones that make listening and learning so much better! Today, students logged in by themselves, and were instructed to go to the library page of BPE website. Then they selected PebbleGo, one of the resources obtained through paid subscriptions. Teacher Karla Fuchs, with the help of her student intern,  instructed students to select something in "Biographies" or "Animals', and then listen/read about that topic. Afterward, they were asked to tell why it was non-fiction. 

Students can read about more things in PebbleGo at home! Just ask the teacher or librarian, Mrs. Beasley, (424-8846) or Pam Finley (424-8647) for the subscription passwords!

Human Number Line


Mrs. Reye's Second Grade Class made a Human Number Line. Students were given random numbers and were asked to line up in chronological order. Students eagerly worked so that the number line could be made in record time. Mrs. Reyes was ready with the flip camera to film them as they progressed through the lesson.


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

"Touch" Me a Story!



Students in Christina Speer's PPCD class are having a real "hands on" approach to technology. Students take turns on the touch screen computer to listen to stories from BookFlix. Storytime has a whole new angle now!

Using the mouse to create and draw is a skill that many have mastered!

 The children also enjoy watching the streaming video from Discovery Learning using the projectors in the classrooms. They watch attentively as they become "active listeners."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Let's Meet on Today's Meet!


In Mrs. Horony's classroom, TAG students used the site Today's Meet to participate in a group discussion on poetry. Students logged into her "meet" and posted questions and comments about the poem.



Today's Meet is a website tool that allows the classroom to become a "Chatroom." Students practiced using this tool to post comments about the poem. The discussion can be extended to last up to a year, and students may post their comments from home.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

First grade has been hard at work completing research on famous inventors and animals.  After using PebbleGo to research, students had an opportunity to “show what they know.”  Some students used the technology carts to create PowerPoint presentations to demonstrate their knowledge of the animal they researched while others used technology to create an “All About” book.

Hamsters by Debbie


Here is just one of the many projects that have been created by these amazing first graders!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Student Response Devices...being Paper-Lean and Green



Students in Mrs. Reyes’s second grade class are currently taking teacher-made quizzes or prepared quizzes using the Turning Point system.

Mrs. Reyes prepares some quizzes from material covered in class and the students answer questions by using the response system.

After watching Brain Pop, Jr., students use the Turning Point Student Response system to answer questions from the quiz. 

Feedback on those quizzes is immediate. The students are able to compare their answers using the graph results and discuss their reasoning behind their choices.




Friday, April 13, 2012

Avatars


Students in Mrs. Beard's Classroom have been making Avatars to narrate stories. Using the online program Voki, students selected their avatar and recorded their story summaries. It was fun seeing the avatars present the book reports!


You can see some examples from her website Avatars  -







Wednesday, April 11, 2012


Third Graders are working on research projects.
The students use specific resources such as World Book Web, World Book Kids, and Kid's Search to do a complete research project. They must use multiple sources and find forty facts on a topic of their choice. Students make a presentation of their facts. 

Bunnies

  Here is an example of one student's work.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Riddle Me - Inferencing Game

First grade teachers love-love-love using PowerPoint to allow students to practice making inferences. 

Riddle Me Inferencing Game is an "ongoing powerpoint", where clues are given about a certain thing or object, and students infer what that might be! The topics cover all subject areas - a great review for everyone. Some students come up with their own suggestions for future topics.

Organizing with Graphic Organizers!

First Graders are making graphic organizers to summarize the content of a topic. They are able to create their projects using Kidspiration, using graphic organizers to express thoughts and explore ideas and relationships.

Here is a summary of the the first Thanksgiving.

Captured: Geometric Shapes!

Fifth grade is currently producing PowerPoint projects showing geometric shapes around the school.
Digital cameras are used to capture the images then the pictures are downloaded for use in the PowerPoints and Photostory. Here are two examples of their work.



                                
                                      

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Family Literacy Night

Family Literacy Night at Blackland Prairie was a big success! Librarian Meg Beasley, along with assistant Pam Finley, incorporated technology into this year's event.


And it appears it was embraced with enthusiasm
. Parents and students were engaged in a variety of activities, from listening to "Pebble Go" biographies to response devices to answer comprehension questions. 
Thanks to all the staff members who helped make this event happen.
Thanks to all the staff members who helped make this event happen!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Students in Mrs. Horony's TAG classroom are learning how to knit! Believe it or not, technology has made it even easier for those small stitches to be seen and practiced. By using the document camera, Mrs. Horony shows students her own handiwork. Also, by using a YouTube instructional video on knitting, the students are "casting on" and knitting away! Learning how to knit has never been so much fun!  We'll check back later and post some of their work!



Click on the arrow to begin the Knitting Show!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Color Poems by 4th Graders

Students in Mrs. Williamson's room have been writing Color Poems. They wrote their poems, then used the computer netbooks to publish their work. Students selected fonts, colors, and produced their work on computers. Enjoy!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Mrs. Brinkley's Kingergarten

Remember how to cut the paper snowflakes? What if you could experiment with various shapes to see how your snowflake would look without cutting the paper? Wow! You could save yourself a lot of time and wasted paper to create that perfect snowflake. That is exactly what the students in Mrs. Brinkley's kindergarten classroom discovered while on the netbooks. Once students logged in with their user names and passwords, and they were  given a choice of activities. Some chose to create snowflakes, some decided to "read along" with the stories, and some viewed videos of ocean animals. One thing everyone did - they had FUN learning. Great day for "netbooking"!
Figuring out how to cut the perfect snowflake is just a few clicks here and there.

Reading along is so relaxing.

So many choices! Now, what to do next!