• Set it up with the strongest security settings
• Know your child's password.
• Be sure that you're on Facebook as well and that you and your child are Friends.
• Check your child's Facebook account on a regular basis and make sure they are Friending only people they know in real life.
• Bullying used to be a problem on the bus or playground. Now it's a problem online. Be sure that your child and his/her friends are acting in appropriate ways.
• You may want to hide your posts so your child doesn't see what you're saying on line.
• Be sure to communicate with your child about how keeping him/her safe is an important job as a parent and that you watching over his/her account is way you are doing your job.

Mrs. Buchanan's Class

Ms. Hall's Class

Mrs. Yaple's Class

KDG

Most of the students can log on to the computers with the aid of their card. A few students can even log on without their cards!! I'm going to begin an incentive program soon and give out pencils or stickers to those that can log on without a card. The students log on with their username-first initial and last name and their password is their 4 digit lunch number. Once the students are logged on we've been using the Curious George site which the children love. I like it because it reinforces basic skills and as children answer questions correctly the activity automatically gets more difficult to challenge the children. The students are also learning how to get logged onto Education City. Education City is a subscription site and is a fun and interactive way to practice math, language arts and science skills.

First Grade

It took us quite awhile to complete our Kidspiration project but we did it! The children learned how to insert pictures and link them to the main idea two different ways. They also learned how to change the link colors and search for a specific picture. Our next project was reviewing basic shapes and following directions to draw a turkey in TuxPaint. The children also learned how to use some specfic tools in TuxPaint. The pictures turned out cute. I put them into a slide show using the website Animoto.

Second Grade The fall pictures completed by the second graders can be found on my wiki. Click here to view them. On this page you can also view the Voki's they completed. Click on the play button under the turkey to here its question. Then click on the speech bubble button to here the student's answers. They had to select an animal and when they saved they saved with their intials. We'll be trying this again soon but the next time they'll be recording their voices to work on reading fluency.

Third Grade

The icon quiz is taking longer than I expected. A few classes are done and others have a day or two left. Those that are done will be working on their keyboarding skills using Dance Mat and then moving on to Education City to practice math facts and other basic skills.

Fourth Grade

Fourth graders were my guinea pigs for trying out Voki. They had to answer a question about fall. They did well so then I had the second graders do one as well. The next project was a quick PowerPoint activity. Each student completed one slide about their trip to Potato Hill Farm. The students learned how to select a slide design, change its color and format it for a title and content. Then they inserted a picture and wrote a descriptive sentence about the picture and their trip. Then they inserted a text box to write their intials. Finally it was saved as a JPEG Interchange Format so that I could insert each slide into a new presentation. All their work can viewed on my wiki .

Fifth Grade

Fifth grade internet safety comix strips that were done correctly are posted on my wiki. You can view them here . The next project was a quick PowerPoint activity. Each student completed one slide about their trip to Potato Hill Farm. The students learned how to select a slide design, change its color and format it for a title and content. Then they inserted a picture and wrote a descriptive sentence about the picture and their trip. Then they inserted a text box to write their intials. Finally it was saved as a JPEG Interchange Format so that I could insert each slide into a new presentation.

Kdg:The students are learning how to log on to the computers. Their login name is their first initial and whole last name. Their password is the same as their 4 digit lunch number. Each child is given a card that looks similar to our login screen with the correct name and password filled in on it. I have a tough love class. If you want on the computer you have to fill in the information yourself. Of course I give assistance and encouragement but I don't do it for anyone. Once the children get on they get to free explore in a drawing program called Tux Paint. It's an easy program to learn independently while I assist others. If you have a kindergartner and a computer at home it would be helpful if you could have your child practice typing their login name on the computer.

1st Grade: We listened to the story Swing, Swing, Swingin Wiggleworks on the interactive white board. Now we are working in Kidspiration3 and making a graphic organizer of what animals we'd like to have swing with us.

The children are learning how to:

• add their names to a document
• save and open a document
• add bubbles to an organizer
• change bubbles to a picture
• change words in the main idea bubble 

2nd Grade:Second Graders are learning how to use the drawing program Tux Paint. They are writing a sentence about fall and then drawing a picture to go along with their sentence. Once we are finished I will be posting them online.

3rd Grade:Third graders are learning how to use some of the the icons in the Microsoft products. They are also learning about other shortcuts such as the ctrl+c to copy as well as right clicking for shortcuts. They will be writing a quiz for the 4th and 5th graders about these shortcuts. While writing the quiz they'll be using some of those icons they have learned.

4th Grade:Fourth graders are answering the question "What did you do over the summer?" in a fun way. They are learning how to add a placemarker to a Google Map and writing about their summer on the map. Once everyone is done and has had a chance to edit their work I'll be sharing the map with you.

5th Grade:Last year we learned about Internet safety. This year the 5th graders are writing comics in which the characters tell about an Internet safety rule. Student that follow all the directions will have their comics posted on a bulletin board in October and online once we have them saved as jpegs. Students that didn't follow all the directions the first time will be given a second chance to fix any problems.

I'm looking forward to the new year!