An Hour of Code ~ Students will participate in a world-wide initiative to promote computer science skills.
2nd and 3rd Marking Period
ELA Toy Project
Based on the Toys book by Don Wulffson, students will research a toy and complete a presentation that will include the history of the toy and a video. There are videos for many of the toys on the Staff Public Drive (Cornwells-Tralies-4th Grade ELA Project)
Maze
Students write programs (an algorithm for the computer) that get a character through a maze. They’ll understand the importance of sequence and basic loops (repeated statements) in the programs they write.
Google Earth My World
Students will use Google Earth to take screenshots of their planet, continent, country, state, township, and school. They will use these screenshots to create a presentation.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, students watched two videos: one from brainpopjr and one a clip of his dream speech from Youtube. We discussed MLK's dream and the obstacles he had to overcome to made his dream a reality. We compared the videos and how our dreams where different from his and also how we could achieve our dreams. Students cropped a photo of themselves for the head of the picture. They then had to write about their dream and illustrate a matching picture in Kidpix using their face.
To review formatting in Word, students create a get to know you poem. Writing their names vertically on the page they use the arrow keys to navigate back and forth to the letters. They write a word or phrase that starts with that letter that tells something about them.
Google Earth Animal Safari Hunt
After an initial introduction on how to use Google Earth (one class period- find school and home and place of interest like stadiums, Paris, Hawaii, etc) I tell the kids we are going on an animal safari. I give them this document digitally and have them copy and paste numbers of latitude and longitude into the Fly to box. When they zoom in they can see real animals and have to guess what they are and record on the second column. When they zoom out they can also find what part of Africa the animal is found. Interesting way to teach tech skills and geography.
Social Scientist business cards- as part of connection to social studies unit, kids created business card in Print Shop to match the type of social scientist they wanted to be (political scientist, economist, geographer, or historian) They made cards and traded them in their homerooms as extension activity to lesson.
Baseball Cards-as part of our author visit from Dan Gutman, who writes lots of sports related books, we created baseball cards with students' photos on one side and stats about them on the other side. We displayed them on strings so that kids could flip them over and read about each other.
African American Riddle Powerpoints-each student was assigned a famous African American to research. They created two slides about their person. On slide one they wrote clues about the person starting with a fact that was more general, eg. alive or dead, male or female. On the second slide they wrote the answer: "I am..." with a photograph of the person.
This project allows students to create a story about fall using a comic strip format. It incorporates the students' creativity in a different format and the kids really like this project. First, I have the students complete a storyboard or a blank template of the comic style they have chosen in pencil, so they can organize and map out their thoughts and ideas. Next, they use their organizer they created to begin their project in Comic Life. Students insert clip art or photos into their comic to tell their story (I usually prepare a folder of appropriate fall clip art for them to use). Each picture must be part of the story. They learn how to format the text, background of each frame, incorporate and use word bubbles to tell their story.
Traditions Slide Show-Kid Pix/Power Point
Around the winter and holiday season the we discuss various traditions the students participate in or celebrate with their families. Students use Kid Pix to draw and create pictures about their tradition and then write a paragraph or a short story about their slide. Other options are importing pictures from previous activities or creating slides in Power Point and importing them in to Kid Pix. After each slide the students save it into a slide show. Usually I have the students create at least four slides. When the students are all finished they present their finished project to the class.
Required 4th Grade Projects
1st Marking Period
Keyboarding Skills
www.typingagent.com
Digital Citizenship (use at least 3 of the following)
__http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/UZwAsZME6l81/Internet-Safety#1__Netsmarts video - kids love
__http://www.safekids.com/quiz/__-Online safety quiz
__http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=1391__-Safety Land interactive quiz
__http://www.netsmartzkids.org/indexFL.htm__-Net Smartz actiivites
__http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/other/InternetSafety.htm__ -Internet safety quiz
__http://pbskids.org/old_license/__ -PBS Kids get your web license.
__http://www.kidscom.com/cgi-bin/kidskashgames/isg/kc_teen_safety.pl__ -Online keep safe quiz.
__http://www.netsmartzkids.org/LearnWithClicky/DontOpenThatFile__ -Net Smartz-Don’t Open that file.
__http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/get-cybersmart-phineas-and-ferb__-Get cybersmart with Phineas and Ferb.
Assessment - Phineas and Ferb assessment - scenario quiz
__Quiz__
__Quiz with answers__
December-
An Hour of Code ~ Students will participate in a world-wide initiative to promote computer science skills.
2nd and 3rd Marking Period
ELA Toy Project
Based on the Toys book by Don Wulffson, students will research a toy and complete a presentation that will include the history of the toy and a video. There are videos for many of the toys on the Staff Public Drive (Cornwells-Tralies-4th Grade ELA Project)
SampleUBD Document
4th Marking Period
www.code.org
MazeStudents write programs (an algorithm for the computer) that get a character through a maze. They’ll understand the importance of sequence and basic loops (repeated statements) in the programs they write.
Google Earth My World
Students will use Google Earth to take screenshots of their planet, continent, country, state, township, and school. They will use these screenshots to create a presentation.Other Optional Activities
Dreams- Martin Luther King Jr.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, students watched two videos: one from brainpopjr and one a clip of his dream speech from Youtube. We discussed MLK's dream and the obstacles he had to overcome to made his dream a reality. We compared the videos and how our dreams where different from his and also how we could achieve our dreams. Students cropped a photo of themselves for the head of the picture. They then had to write about their dream and illustrate a matching picture in Kidpix using their face.
Name Acrostic
To review formatting in Word, students create a get to know you poem. Writing their names vertically on the page they use the arrow keys to navigate back and forth to the letters. They write a word or phrase that starts with that letter that tells something about them.Google Earth Animal Safari Hunt
After an initial introduction on how to use Google Earth (one class period- find school and home and place of interest like stadiums, Paris, Hawaii, etc) I tell the kids we are going on an animal safari. I give them this document digitally and have them copy and paste numbers of latitude and longitude into the Fly to box. When they zoom in they can see real animals and have to guess what they are and record on the second column. When they zoom out they can also find what part of Africa the animal is found. Interesting way to teach tech skills and geography.
Social Scientist business cards- as part of connection to social studies unit, kids created business card in Print Shop to match the type of social scientist they wanted to be (political scientist, economist, geographer, or historian) They made cards and traded them in their homerooms as extension activity to lesson.
Baseball Cards-as part of our author visit from Dan Gutman, who writes lots of sports related books, we created baseball cards with students' photos on one side and stats about them on the other side. We displayed them on strings so that kids could flip them over and read about each other.
African American Riddle Powerpoints-each student was assigned a famous African American to research. They created two slides about their person. On slide one they wrote clues about the person starting with a fact that was more general, eg. alive or dead, male or female. On the second slide they wrote the answer: "I am..." with a photograph of the person.
Fall Comic-Comic Life
This project allows students to create a story about fall using a comic strip format. It incorporates the students' creativity in a different format and the kids really like this project. First, I have the students complete a storyboard or a blank template of the comic style they have chosen in pencil, so they can organize and map out their thoughts and ideas. Next, they use their organizer they created to begin their project in Comic Life. Students insert clip art or photos into their comic to tell their story (I usually prepare a folder of appropriate fall clip art for them to use). Each picture must be part of the story. They learn how to format the text, background of each frame, incorporate and use word bubbles to tell their story.Traditions Slide Show-Kid Pix/Power Point
Around the winter and holiday season the we discuss various traditions the students participate in or celebrate with their families. Students use Kid Pix to draw and create pictures about their tradition and then write a paragraph or a short story about their slide. Other options are importing pictures from previous activities or creating slides in Power Point and importing them in to Kid Pix. After each slide the students save it into a slide show. Usually I have the students create at least four slides. When the students are all finished they present their finished project to the class.