Mrs. Bettenberg's Blog

In honor of I Love to Read Month, we will be focusing on stories. The kindergartners will be reading Nursery Rhymes on Literactive.com, as well as play a few games that relate to the stories. The first graders will be introduced to Photo Booth, which is a program that allows us to take pictures and add special effects to them. They will take a picture of themselves and create a story using the picture.

Links:

1. http://www.literactive.com/

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

This week in computer we will be doing a little valentine math. The kindergartners will have to count hearts while the first graders will subtract hearts. We will also play a few valentine games at--

1. http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/valntine/valgms.htm

Software Programs

2010-01-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

The next few weeks will be spent using Software programs. The children will learn the components that are necessary for running a software program, such as a CD-rom, disc drive and the eject button.

The kindergartners will be using the Edmark House series, which include Bailey's Book House, Millie's Math House, Sammy's Science House and Trudy's Time and Place. Each program provides interactive games that focus on skills the kindergartners are currently working on, such as letters, rhyming, number recognition and counting. We will rotate each program, so the children have a chance to work on all of them.

The first graders will be working on Jumpstart First Grade. Skills that we will work on include addition, subtraction, telling time, parts of speech, phonics, basic science, music, art, synonyms and antonyms, counting money.

Christmas Games

2009-12-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy last few weeks in computers! We have been working on letters and reading in Starfall and also have been doing MAP testing. We will wrap up the year with a few Christmas games using the following link:

1. http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/christms/chgames.htm

Merry Christmas!

Starfall

2009-11-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

This week we will begin our unit on Starfall. Starfall is a website that helps develop phonics, vocabulary and fluency. This site is always a favorite with the kindergartners and first graders. The kindergarteners will work on letters A-F while the first graders will work on short a,e,i,o words. Here is the link to the website:

1. http://www.starfall.com/

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

This week in computer class, the kindergarners and first graders will play a few halloween games. The will have to hunt for letters and numbers in a haunted mansion. Also, they have a chance to carve and light their own pumpkin. Here are the links:

1. http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/learn-abcs/games/game_haunted_alphabet.html

2. http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf

Alphabet Fun

2009-10-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

This week in Computers we will be playing some fun games as we practice our letters and reading! The kindergartners will identify upper and lower case letters through an interactive website called Literacy Center.Net. The first graders will be going to a Clifford site through Scholastic.com. They will have the chance to read online stories and play a few sound and letter matching games. Here are the links to the sites we'll use this week:

1. http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm

2. http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/index.htm

Programs

2009-10-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

This week in Computer class, we are getting to know some of the programs on our computers.

The kindergartners are learning about Kidspiration, a kid-friendly program used for typing and making pictures. The children will create a fall scene of things they may see in the fall.

The first graders will be working on Pages, a document program on Macintosh computers. The students will practice typing their names while changing the font, size and color.

Evaluating Web Sites

2009-09-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

Links:

http://pbskids.org/arthur/

http://www.littlecritter.com/

This week, the kindergarteners and first graders will explore and evaluate web sites. We will rate the text, pictures, colors, and our overall opinion of the site. We will find that not everyone has the same opinion about the quality and usefulness of a web site.

Internet Safety

2009-09-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.bronxzoo.com/

We will use this site to navigate through the Bronx Zoo. Just like on a field trip, an adult should be with you at all times when traveling on the Internet.

Back to School

2009-09-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

The children seem so excited to be back at school and it's been so great to see their smiling faces again! Last Week in computers, we got acquainted with each other and also with the parts of the computer. This week, both the first graders and the kindergarteners will learn how to log in to their computer. We will also have a Internet Safetly lesson on Friday to teach the children how to stay safe on the Internet.