Welcome to our Room 3 Starkids Class Blog!
Week 8 already!
Time for parent interviews on Thursday. I am looking forward to meeting parents and discussing our wonderful student learning. We have been very busy each week learning something new with our digital learning. So far all students are proficient with their Google Docs and Slides and logging in to their own Drive. We have been learning about animation with PowToon and making posters with Pic Collage. Each Friday we have digital explorations where we learn something new. This week we are starting our Hour of Code where students will learn about basic coding using Scratch Jr and Hopscotch.
Come and look at our wonderful art work and harakeke ropes we made to replicate the ropes used by Maui to slow the sun. Check out our Star profiles on the windows - our new class name is Starkids!
We have some wonderful writers in our class and many are engaged in writing collaborative stories on Google Slides.
At last all the children in the class have their Google accounts set up and are able to use the digital technology in our class or on their Chrome books. It is great to see so many students bringing in their Chrome books ready to access their digital learning opportunities.It has been a busy time getting to know each other and setting up class routines over the last two short weeks. It is all coming together and the children are beginning to feel more at home in their new class.This blog is for parents and students to access relevant information about learning in our classroom. We will also be using See-Saw as a communication tool and letters will be sent out soon to invite you to join our See-Saw community.
Digital Technology and Chrome Books
A lot of you are wondering how digital technology will fit into your child's learning and may be concerned about it. I would like to emphasize that the use of digital tools in this class is to enhance the learning not replace the teacher. Every day children have focused time with the teacher, either individually, as a class or within a small group teaching situation. Reading groups are set up for the child's level and every child reads a physical book every day in our Daily 5 programme (read more about this on our literacy page) The children may use Book Creator, Puppet Pals, Google Docs or Slides to engage in reading response activities as part of the digital technology enhancement. They are also able to access set work on Studyladder and Mathletics. At Daily 3 Maths time children will engage with the teacher in small group situations to learn more about maths strategy and knowledge (Read more about this on the Daily 3 Maths page) The children may use a range of digital Maths activities to reinforce concepts or practice basic facts. These include Maths Slide, Mathletics, Studyladder. We will not be using SkoolBo as I feel it is not a good quality programme. As you see our classroom runs a balanced programme with both book work, individual and group face to face work with the teacher and digital technology where it supports the learning. We have twelve desktop computers and a few i-Pads so children who do not have Chrome books will still be able to access their Google accounts and use digital tools for their learning. There is a locked cupboard where all Chrome books are stored if you want your child to keep their Chrome book at school. The school Internet access has been set up to be a safe learning environment for students, however there should always be parent or teacher supervision and at school the technology is for learning purposes. I do not allow children to play mindless games in class time.
