January 2020 News from the Computer & Tech Lab
Interactive learning at its best!
Dear Park Shore Families,
It is such a pleasure to be the new computer teacher and to see all of our student’s happy faces as they visit my Computer Science Lab! The children enter the room excited to see what I have in store for them each day and are quickly getting into the new groove we have each week! Following along with the Park Shore curriculum, over the course of the past month we have focused on the letters of the week as well as math skills using the SMART Board and iPads. The SMART Board is one of my favorite tools and I love incorporating it into our computer lessons as much as possible. We have utilized the SMART Board in every class with different activities for the students. With Toddlers and the Threes, we go over picture associations for the letter of the week as well as working on patterns and counting skills.
For Pre-K we do letter searches, practice writing the letter of the week with our picture associations, work on our addition skills, match words to pictures and learn about number families as well as how to determine numbers being less than or greater than one another. Toddler and Threes have been working on their letter writing as well as their sorting skills and shapes on the iPads while I’ve been working with Pre-K on writing and recognizing sight words, problem-solving and critical thinking with new applications specific for their age group. Our Kindergarten boys and girls have been working with the SMART Board using their math skills, sight word writing and coding skills. On the iPads, we have been recognizing and writing word families as well as problem-solving skills with different applications for math. During the month, Pre-K and Kindergarteners learned about all the different parts of both a desktop computer and a laptop. We talked about the differences and the similarities between the two and all the basic parts that make up each computer.
Starting next month, we will be working on the laptops during class with programs to help them use a mouse and keyboard. These programs will help with their math and literacy skills while playing games and doing activities. In the upcoming months, I will be introducing VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) to the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes to take the students to places we wouldn’t get to travel to like outer space, underwater, getting up close to wild animals and sightseeing all over the world. I’m really excited about the progress our children have made with all the new additions to the program. I’ve been working with them and can’t wait to introduce everything else I have planned!
Robotics for PreK is continuing with Miss Samantha’s Robotics in the Classroom program where the Pre-K students get to work on coding and working with Park Shore’s robots every other week as an extra class included within the school day. This month we worked with a favorite program of mine, Code Karts and introduced a new program to the children, Code Spark. Each app uses different coding techniques which helps with critical thinking and problem-solving. We also played with one of the children’s favorite robot, Dash, where they learned how to control a robot with an iPad. The children loved trying to get Dash to maneuver through each other’s leg tunnels and hearing silly messages from Dash. I hope everyone is having a happy New Year and I am so glad to be working with your students in the computer lab on so many fun and exciting lessons!
Sincerely,
Miss Krystal
Park Shore Computer Science and Technology Specialist