December 2019 News from the Computer & Tech Lab
Interactive learning at its best!
I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday and this note finds you well! It seems like only a blink of an eye that we were wrapping up from our Halloween festivities and then getting ready for Thanksgiving!
Interactive Technology-based Learning
Over the course of the past month, we focused on developing our skills through iPads and SMART Board games to reinforce classroom learning. As we progress through the alphabet, we covered up through the letter G and are working on the letter H this week. We watch fun learning videos about the letter of the week and then they trace the letters and play different sound and picture identification games to ensure that the children have fun while they are learning! Also through the games on both abcya.com and sheppardsoftware.com, we have been practicing number identification and counting up to ten.
Our PreK classes have been developing their engineering skills with one of my favorite apps called Pango Imaginary Car. I purchased this app for them last year ($2.99 App Store) and they loved it then, so I began teaching it to this year’s classes as well. This app allows the kids to design and build their own moving machine with the option to add many fun and interactive features. The kids are really enjoying it and it sparks creativity as well as develops problem solving and technical skills!
Our Toddlers and 2-year-old class are developing their fine motor skills through the use of different sorting and art programs on iPads. They also love the fun shape and color identification games that we play on the SMART Board. This interactive technology is an amazing learning tool and we have so much fun bringing wonderful learning computer-based programs to their fingertips – literally!
Robotics and Coding for PreK and Kindergarten
Our Robotics in the Classroom program is underway, and I am so proud of how enthusiastic the children are and what great PROGRAMMERS they are becoming! Not only have we been using Robot Mouse in the classroom, I have begun to teach the children CODING in our Computer Lab in preparation for Computer Science Education Week! The directional robotic programming that we started in the classroom is the foundation of what the children will be doing for the upcoming coding exercises.
Park Shore is a proud registered participant in the Hour of Code, which is a global event taking place in schools throughout the world during the week of December 9-15. Many of your local school districts are involved on some level, and I encourage you to log into the website on your own to read about the importance of this initiative and how to join in on the fun! New, programs have been added this year and I can’t wait to work on them with your children! Last year we had fun with a coding Dance Party, and there will definitely be more of that again this year! PLEASE ask them questions about what they learn so they can share their amazing wealth of knowledge with you.
It is my pleasure to work with your children and I welcome any questions, comments or suggestions. I wish you and your families much love, peace and joy for the upcoming holiday season!
With love,
Miss Samantha
Park Shore Computer Science and Technology Teacher
samantha@parkshoredaycamp.com
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