Mr. Funke's Blog

I’ve been a bad blogger. Here’s what we’ve been up to in the computer lab since the last time I updated…

Kindergarten have been hard at work on an animal project. After learning about insects and fish in their classroom, they created slides for a Comic Life project to be worked on next week. Each student drew the habitats for each animal, compared insects to spiders, and designed their own fish.

1st graders have been working on a sequential project in Comic Life. Each class wrote 4 steps on how to do something (get ready for school, make a PBJ, cook a turkey, etc…) and are now importing them into Comic Life and writing the captions for each panel.

2nd graders have finished writing their plays and will be recording them very soon. Each group wrote a script based on a story posted to the Write Your Own Story Wiki drew backgrounds on their iPads (to be inserted through the magic of green screen). We’ll start practicing next week and recording the week after.

3rd graders are hard at work on their Illinois brochure projects. Each student is creating a travel brochure, similar to what you’d find in the lobby of a hotel, about Illinois. The writing must include facts about our state and also be persuasive.

4th grade are either working on state or animal projects. Everyone is done with their research and have moved on to either writing up their reports (animal) or creating their Keynote presentation (state).

This week and early next week, all our students will be signing up for their Parent Share Day classes in computers. Please do not let them fill out this form at home.

Kindergarten spent some time exploring some of the educational sites we bookmarked for them on the Internet. We’ll be starting a new small project on community helpers next week.

First grade practiced their math skills in EMGames this week. We’ve got an exciting new project look at next week but I think it’s still top secret so I can’t say exactly what it is just yet.

All of our 2nd graders have now started working on their Write Your Own Play projects. Some have moved on to writing scripts while others just started and have finished their story inventory. We’ll be taking a break next week to work on the same top secret project the first graders are working on.

Third grade started an exciting new planet project this week. This one is being entirely done on the iPads and we should have them posted shortly after Spring break. Each student chose one of the 9 planets (not Pluto or Earth though) and had a choice between three different projects. 1) An acrostic poem. 2) A postcard from their planet with a letter to mom and dad on the back about their trip. or 3) A poster advertising their planet, trying to convince their teachers that it’s a better place to live/visit than Earth.

4th are putting the finishing touches on their Southeast region field trip project. Look for this one to be delivered hopefully before Spring break.

Kindergarten did a great job working on their speech bubble project. Each student drew a picture of two people talking in Kid Pix last week which we imported into Comic Life this week to add speech bubbles.

First graders finished up their Solid and Liquid comics and tested a new drop box application for me so that they can turn their projects into me to be posted to the web.  Look for their last two projects (Solids and Liquids and About Me movies) to be posted soon.

Second graders published their Light and Sound and Map projects to their class wikis this week. You can search for the class wikis here by typing in your teacher’s last name.  We also took some time to leave feedback on stories posted recently on the Write Your Own Story wiki.

Third grade is putting the finishing touches on their Simple Machine games.  We’ll be exporting them to playable movie files and posting them on the class wikis so that they can be played online next week.

Fourth grade spent another week exploring the Southeast region of the United States.  Next week they’ll use the information they’ve gathered for a surprise project.

Kindergarten started an exciting new project this week. It will take two or three weeks to complete. This week, each student used Kid Pix to draw a picture of two people having a conversation. Next week we will import their pictures into Comic Life and add word balloons and dialogue to create a scene.

First graders are finishing up their Solids and Liquids project this week in Comic Life. Look for them to be posted online soon.

Second graders are finishing up their Map and Light and Sound activities. Look for both of them to be posted to their class wikis in the next couple of weeks.

Third grade is nearing the end of their Simple Machines project. This week, we finished adding all the images and examples to our questions. Next week we’ll program the correct answer buttons and hopefully get them posted online.

4th graders started an exciting new Google Earth project this week. All of our classes are using Google Earth to go on a virtual field trip of the Southeast region of the United States. At each stop, students will read about important historical and cultural events and figures from that location as well as watch videos and listen to music.  At each stop, they will also write down an interesting fact they learned which we will incorporate into a second project in 2 or 3 weeks.

Have you heard of the SIT Conference? For the 2nd year in a row, Stevenson High School is hosting one of the sites for this exciting technology conference  by students and for students. This year, Tripp School is sending 3 groups to present on some of the special technology projects our students are working on in their classrooms.

Kinderarten spent some time exploring the 5 senses online with a couple of fun science web sites.

1st graders continue to work on their Solids and Liquids comic project. Some classes are still taking pictures while others have moved on to importing their pictures into Comic Life and organizing and labeling them there.

2nd graders are starting to flip projects. Those who started with and have finished their map projects are now working on measuring sound and light around the building using laptops and Pico Boards.

Have you seen our new podcasts? Mrs. Labbe and Ms. Seveska’s classes are working on creating daily podcasts about their school day. Ms. Seveska’s is up and running and we expect Mrs. Labbe’s to begin sometime today or early next week. These podcasts are created and published by students with minimal assistance from the classroom teachers.

3rd grade is close to finishing up their Simple Machines Quiz Games. Just a couple more questions to go and programming the correct answers before we can post them to the wikis.

4th grade took some time to work in MyAccess this week while we prepare for a virtual field trip to the Southeast Region of the United States next week.

Kindergarteners took more time to explore Tumblebooks in computers this week.

First graders are working on an exciting 5 senses project. This week, we’ve been taking pictures of solids or liquids around the building with our class sets of iPads. Once we have enough pictures, we’ll be putting them together into a comic book page about solids and liquids.
Second graders continue to work on their community maps. Many classes have finished and will start the light and sound activity than many of the other classes finished a couple weeks ago.
Third graders are working on a fun Simple Machines game project. Look for it to be posted and playable online in a few weeks.
Fourth graders spent one last week on Rock Riddles. We’ll be taking a virtual field trip to a region of the United States in the next couple of weeks.

Kindergarteners used Kidspiration for a creative little drawing project this week. Using the pattern blocks in the math section, they created a number of different illustrations which they were then allowed to print and take home.

1st graders learned how to use Tumble Books this week. Tumble Books can be accessed through the Vernon Area Library web site and allows students to read and have books read to them online.

2nd graders continue to work on their Light and Sound and Map and Community projects. Our Light and Sound groups took the data they collected last week and graphed it using the Create a Graph web site. Our Map and Community groups are starting to finish up their projects. Most of them should be done by next week.

3rd grade used BrainPop to learn about Internet safety for one more week. We will be starting a new project next week.

We missed a couple 4th grade classes this week due to a field trip but the rest of them continued working on their Rock Riddles. Most of them should be finished next week.

We only saw 2 kindergarten classes this week so we returned to Treasures, which we haven’t used in a while, for a week of extended reading activities.

1st grade also worked with Treasures this week completing the activities from Book 2.

2nd graders are working on two different projects right now. Guntly, Labbe, and Seveska are working on a wrap up activity for their light and sound unit. Each class was split into five groups and asked to predict which rooms in the building (Library, Office, Gym, Lunchroom) would be the loudest and brightest. They had to rank each room 1 through 4 (1 being the loudest or brightest). Then, using laptops and Picoboards along with a simple measurement program written in Scratch, each group measured the light and sound in each room and wrote down their results along with the actual rankings. Next week, we’ll be graphing their results in a spreadsheet.

Novak, Lamour, and Tincknell’s classes are working on a map activity. Using a template in Pages, each student is creating a small town, using clip art to add buildings to the map. They need to think about the kinds of buildings that a community would need to operate and where they should be placed in the community.

3rd grade started learning about Internet safety through BrainPop videos and quizzes. Feel free to watch and discuss them with your children at home.

4th grade is starting to put the finishing touches on their rock riddle projects. Many students finished their projects this week. Look for them in the hallways soon and see if you can guess the rocks before looking at the correct answers.

Kindergarteners had a field trip this week so I only got to see a couple of classes. We celebrated the impending holidays with some free choice time.

Our first grade classes who had finished up their slide show projects also took some well earned free choice time this week while the other classes finished their projects. Look for them to show up online shortly after break.

2nd graders spend one last week learning about Internet safety through a series of BrainPop videos online. We’ll be starting some map and light and sound projects when we return.

3rd graders finished up their food chains and posted them to their wikis. Once finished, we spent a little time working in Study Island.

4th grade is almost done with their rock riddle projects. We should finish them up in a week or two after break.

Kindergarteners worked on a Transportation sort in Kidspiration this week. Each student sorted a group of vehicles into the terrain they travel on (air, land or water).

1st graders are finishing up their about me slide shows. This week, we worked on transitions and sounds and exported them to iPod friendly movie files.  We have one class left to finish up early next week and then we’ll try to get them online.

2nd grade continues to talk about Internet safety.  This week we watched a video on cyberbullying and discussed it as a class while taking a BrainPop quiz with our Promethean voters.  This weeks video is a free one so feel free to share it with your friends and families who don’t have access to BrainPop at home.

3rd grade is finishing up their food chains and starting to post them on the wikis. Every class should have this done by next week.  Mrs. Finnen’s class used the iPads this week to create posters for their Futabaki pen pals in Moodboard. We’ll be sending those posters off to their pen pals hopefully next week.

4th grade continues to work on rock riddles.  Most students are working on writing their clues and gathering images for the final product.