Coding

The Hour of Code is an organization that promotes computer coding in schools. They have a week in December where they want everyone to join in and try some coding activities but you can do it anytime. We started at the beginning of the year with coding apps on our iPads and we have also tried some of the coding activities on the code.org website. The crew loves it. They may also work on it at home. They just need to go to the Resources page of our crew blog, click on the Code button and log in. I think all of the crew knows how to log in now. I sent home their password cards home earlier in the year. If anyone has forgotten or lost their password just send me an email and I will send you their password. There are many activities there but the most popular were the Minecraft, Star Wars and Frozen activities.

Articles for Parents about Coding for Kids

Engage Kids with Coding by Letting Them Design, Create and Tell Stories

Coding Class, Then Naptime: Computer Science for the Kindergarten Set 

Hour of Code

Examples of Coding Projects by our Crew
The Great Race by Alex
Disappearing Frog by Maddie
Hello by Evelyn

Visit our Kidblog site for more examples. 

Coding Apps We Use

We recently added PBS Scratch, Jr., too

 

Coding

Ms. Sharon from the school district office came in today and taught us how to program Bee-Bots. This was super exciting! She will be back again in about a week or so.

Kindness and Coding

While we have been working on retelling and thinking about any lessons that an author might be trying to teach us in a story, we have been reading books about kindness. These books all have lessons about kindness and are usually easy for the crew to retell. The added bonus is that we have some great conversations about being kind to one another. I love when lessons have so many possible outcomes. Below are some of the books we have read or will read soon. I will be adding many of these to my Pinterest boards soon.

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Important Dates
11/25-11/27 No School ~ Thanksgiving Break
12/4 Fieldwork to Joyous Chinese Cultural School
12/18 Fieldwork to Pacific Ocean Market and Kings Land Restaurant
12/21-1/4 No School ~ Winter Break

Last week I signed the crew up for the Hour of Code program. This is an organization that promotes computer coding in schools. They have a week in December where they want everyone to join in and try some coding activities but you can do it anytime. We started at the beginning of the year with coding apps on our iPads and last week we tried some of the coding activities on the coding.org website. The crew loved it. The day we introduced it, everyone wanted to try it out so we worked with a partner on our 12 computers and got started. Now they can work on their own or with a partner when they have a computer station. They may also work on it at home. They just need to go to the Resources page of our crew blog, click on the Code button and log in. I think all of the crew knows how to log in now. I sent home their passwords last week. If anyone has forgotten or lost their password just send me an email and I will send you their password. There are many activities there but the most popular were the Minecraft, Star Wars and Frozen activities.

Which One Doesn't Belong?

We tried a new math activity yesterday and we loved it! It was called "Which One Doesn't Belong?" and we had to look at groups of 4 pictures and decide which one didn't belong. We quickly discovered that each group had more than one possible answer for that question. We loved looking carefully at the photos and noticing similarities and differences. I found this activity on Twitter where I follow teachers from all over the world (this is how I met Mrs. Price from Australia). One tweet led to the Which One Doesn't Belong blog where I found the photos that we looked at yesterday (shown below). I am looking forward to creating some of my own photo collections and having the crew try to create some of their own. (If we don't run out of time - there is always so much to do and learn!) Enjoy checking out the photos below and if you like them there are more at the Which One Doesn't Belong blog that are more appropriate for older students and adults. These are great for practicing critical thinking skills.

Coding
 On another note, the crew has recently become fascinated with the coding apps on our iPads. We explored them earlier in the year and a few students enjoyed them but now after another recent coding session, so many students are enjoying playing with them and learning a little more about coding. The crew is really open to new ideas and learning right now. They have grown so much! Below is a screen shot that shows the coding apps that we have on our iPads. They are called Daisy the Dino, Kodable and Scratch, Jr. You might want to check these apps out at home.

IA
Our IA next week is Art.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some great books with your child.


Memorial Day is Monday - No School