Springville Elementary Computer Lab » Projects

Springtime Projects

barbsmith — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:53:47 +0000

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve written. In February we created Valentine messages to parents using my new Flip Ultra video camera and Hallmark’s Smilebox. They were really sweet messages. (You can find them on my wiki.) In March we participated in another global project in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. (http://andtothink.wikispaces.com/AL_2-4_BSmith)

Now, we are hard at work in all three grades getting ready to do final projects.

Second and third graders are practice formatting skills to create some poetry we’ll be posting. They will microphones to record themselves reading their poetry. If we get time, we will also be creating pictures to illustrate the poems.

Fourth graders are working on an autobiographical PowerPoint presentation. I have scanned a baby picture they brought in, and they will be inserting it into their slideshow. I also found a really neat site to create a fake newspaper clipping that we used to make a birth announcement to insert also. (http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp)

Between testing and field trips and general end of the year activities, the final 9 weeks should prove to be hectic. Keep checking the http://bsmithses.wikispaces.com page for updated activities.

Winter/Holiday Project

barbsmith — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:48:15 +0000

My students have had the best time with TuxPaint this December. TuxPaint is a free download from www.tuxpaint.org. It is similar to Microsoft Paintbrush, but has way more options! They especially like the stamps, which allows them to fill a picture with stamped images. You must also download the stamps file when you download the program to access them. I added some pictures to the file so they would have a lot of holiday stamps from which to choose.

Second and third graders created a picture that was posted to www.winterwonderland.wikispaces.com. This is not MY wiki, but one started by 3 teachers who live in AL, CA and NY. There are participants from all over the world. We will have a project posted in January and another in February.

Fourth graders weren’t a part of this project, but I let them create a picture that we turned into a slide show posted to MY wiki – www.bsmithses.wikispaces.com. They did a fantastic job!

Third graders also helped in creating a gift for the kindergarten classes. Each student was responsible for creating a page in a Christmas Counting Book (Numbers 1 – 20) that was laminated and assembled to create a book for each of the 10 kindergarten classes.

I gave each of my students a card with some websites for the holidays. You can check them out too:

www.northpole.com, www.northpole.net, www.noradsanta.org

Have a wonderful Christmas break. Check back in January to see what we’re doing next!!!

New Things

barbsmith — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:40:43 +0000

I’m excited about a new project we’re going to do in the lab. For grades 2 & 3, we’re participating in a global project called WinterWonderland. Each month, December – February, we will complete an activity and post it on the Winter Wonderland wiki. In December, we’re going to draw a picture and sing a winter song. We will put it on our page in the wiki. Please check in and see it around the middle of December.

My 3rd graders are going to create a book to give to the Kindergartens. We will be using TuxPaint to make it. TuxPaint is an awesome FREE paint program. You can get it at www.tuxpaint.org. The students LOVE it!!

Podcasting with 4th Grade

barbsmith — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:14:26 +0000

I absolutely LOVE doing this with the 4th graders! They seem to be having a good time, and I know I am. Because we are so pressed for time, I am having to write the scripts so far, but I’m hoping to eventually get them to do the writing. I’m using a different team each week, so it doesn’t allow for much collaboration between them and me. At any rate, it’s a fun, learning experience for us all!

I’m In!!!

barbsmith — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:21:23 +0000

I made it to iTunes (twice ), but now I can subscribe to our SES Tiger Bytes podcast. So far, I am the only voice heard–and it’s not too good–but in the next few weeks, we’ll start hearing from the students at SES. I am SO excited about this. I am sending home media releases this week, so I’m hoping to start using students as reporters and broadcasters in two weeks!!!

Podomatic was SO easy to use. Thank you!!!! Look for the sestigerbytes’s podcast on iTunes. This week I only have the menu, but soon we’ll have other things too.

Trying to Start a Podcast

barbsmith — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:38:11 +0000

Sometimes it seems I go all around the world to do something instead of doing it right the first time. I am trying to create a podcast that I can submit to iTunes. I finally got the file off my iPod into a file on my desktop, which I had to import into Audacity to change to a mp3. Now, I know everyone doesn’t have to go through this just to create a daily or weekly podcast. So I will keep trying.

I have finally been able to submit to iTunes. I did it twice since I didn’t name the podcast correctly the first time. I ended up using podomatic instead of feedburner to submit. I have accounts in several places now, but I think I’ll delete feedburner and archive.org. It was much easier to use podomatic. The podcast is listed on the right side of this screen in two different formats. I’ll eventually eliminate one. I’m excited that I finally got this far! I’m looking forward to creating more. Once one has been accepted, I think it’ll be easier to do the next ones. Itunes hasn’t reviewed it yet, but I’m hoping it’ll be published there soon so parents can subscribe.