Dear Park Shore Families,
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!
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 “Colby the Robot Mouse” and Dash 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 programing 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 3-9. I assure you that your local school districts are involved on some level. I will be sending out a separate notification that week detailing the specifics of the program, however I encourage you to log into the following website on your own to read about the importance of this initiative and how to join in on the fun! (https://csedweek.org/) New, super-fun programs have been added this year and I can’t wait to work on them with your children! Can you say DANCE PARTY??!!! (wink, wink, hint hint!) PLEASE ask them questions about what they learn so they can share their amazing wealth of knowledge with you, and look for additional communication from me on this topic next week!
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. I have installed abcmouse.com on all the iPads so the children will now have the opportunity to use those games as well.
Our Toddlers and 2 year-old class are developing their fine motor skills through the use of different sorting and art programs on the 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 brining wonderful learning computer-based programs to their fingertips – literally!
It is my continued joy and pleasure to work with your children and I welcome any questions, comments or suggestions you may have! Have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
Much love and best wishes,
Miss Samantha
Park Shore Computer Science and Technology Specialist