Students in kindergarten through second grade have been using the laptops and iPads in the MRC in the last few weeks.
First graders have been enjoying Mo Willem's books in MRC and in the last week, they came up with their own ideas for what other adventures Willem's Pigeon could get into. After brainstorming, they used the iPad app Explain Everything or Book Creator to create a book cover for their story. Some of them recorded their voice explaining their idea. After the winter break, they will use the Book Creator app to create a biography of Mo Willems.
Kindergarteners spent some time in December using the laptop application KidPix to draw a holiday tree. Using the trackpad to draw can be tricky for many kindergarteners, especially as more and more of them are used to using touch screens, but it is good practice of coordination. They were proud of their drawings!
Second graders learned a little bit about coding. December 8-14 was this year's Hour of Code Week as part of Computer Science Education Week. We talked about what coding was and the different kinds of jobs people have in computers. Students learned some pre-coding and problem solving skills by giving step-by-step directions to a crane in the iPad app Cargo-Bot. For more activities and information about the Hour of Code, see http://code.org/.
