Saturday, January 7, 2017

4th Annual Hour-of-Code

Wrapped up our Hour-of-Code last week. Our students have enjoyed these activities. They can continue to use https://code.org/ site to practice/learn coding. 

Many of our older students, 3rd - 5th, have also enjoyed a programming site called BitsBox . I purchased 3 sets of classroom booklets which they can use in the Computer Lab. I like BitsBox because the students type actual code and at the end they can scan the activity they created to a mobile device and play it. 




Friday, December 11, 2015

Enjoying Our "Hour of Code"


Summitt students are proving to be great problem solvers. The Hour of Code activities have been fun! To access all the great activities go to https://csedweek.org/learn 

A special Thank You! goes out to our UT volunteers who helped the younger students problem solve and "debug" their programs. 



Kinder and 1st grade used Kodable or The Foos for their programming lessons. Check with your teacher for the Class Code.






2nd grade tried out The Foos, Kodable and MineCraft coding.











3rd, 4th and 5th grade will use 

BitsBox, MineCraft, Starwars and Scratch to learn about coding.







Wednesday, November 25, 2015

3rd Annual Hour of Code at Summitt



Parents,
Please consider joining your child for an exciting technology event in the Computer Lab at Summitt.
We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. But only a tiny fraction of us are learning computer science, and fewer students are studying it than a decade ago.
That’s why Summitt Elementary is joining, for the third year, in the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during the month of December. Last year, 100 million students tried computer science in one week. This year, we're joining students worldwide to reach 150 million students!
Check with your child’s teacher to find out when their class will be coming to the Computer Lab in Dec. All Kinder – 5th grade students will attend this event. Pre K will have devices to use in their classroom to participate.
If you have questions, please email me, at  barbara.neill@austinisd.org or stop by the Computer Lab. 
Hope to see you there!
New this year... MineCraft Coding!


Check out code.org for great coding tutorials!



Thursday, July 2, 2015

Summer Fun - Practice Coding

Hope you are enjoying the very wet summer we are having in Texas. If your child/ren are getting bored, consider letting them explore some great Coding activities. These links are some of the activities our K - 5th students used during our "Hour of Code" in December. Check back here for more links to more activities as I find them. 


Learning programming/coding helps children learn problem solving skills. They will also learn that not everything is going to work the first time. Take it step-by-step, test each step before moving on. 



Please leave comments if you have tried these activities with your child and how well it went. I would like to work more coding into our Computer Lab lessons next year. If you have suggestions, please contact me.

Enjoy! Stay dry!


Hour of Code Activities

Tynker - Make Fireworks

Tynker - Bad Guy Bowling

Friday, May 22, 2015

Chillin' in the Lab

We are winding down and having a little fun this week in the Lab. 2nd grade is exploring Lemonade Stand, from Cool Math, and working on their business skills.


What's been going on in the Lab this Spring?

Lot's of testing! With TELPAS and the new STAAR online testing, for some of our students, the lab was closed many days March - April. I regret the amount of time and lessons that were lost due to testing.


5th Grade Robotics
On a brighter note... 1st grade classes had access to WeDo Robotics lessons. The students learned how to program simple projects using Netbooks. And, 5th grade students have been building and programming basic robots with our 30 Lego NXT kits.

buildyourwildself.com

Kinder, 1st and 2nd grades have worked on keyboarding skills, internet navigation, and word processing skills. 2nd grade used their creativity to write about an animal they created through the website "Build Your Wild Self".

3rd grade created Earth Day Comic Life strips. This activity is a high level tech skills lesson. They did an awesome job!  


4th and 5th grade worked on Research skills this year, including Mapping skills. 





Student Headphone to go home this summer


We will be sending home all student headphones (grades 3 - 5) at the end of the year. Please remind your child/ren to be aware of where their set is located and that they will be responsible for getting them home by the last day of school. If you did not purchase a set at Meet the Teacher in August, then remind your child/ren to bring home any sets that they may have taken from home to use for the year. 

If your 5th grade student no longer wants their headphones they can donate them to the school. Any headphones left after the last day will be donated to the school. 

We will have headphones available for sale again in August. If you need a replacement you can purchase them at Meet the Teacher night or you can send headphones or ear buds from home as long as they stay at school for the year.

Hope everyone has a great summer!