Computer and Technology Curriculum

The weekly computer technology class supplements all areas of the curriculum using up-to-date educational software. The class also teaches internet research skills and provides training that becomes more advanced through the grades in the use of the computer to access, retrieve, manage, and display information.

Kindergarten

• As part of the technology curriculum, kindergartners are introduced to the new iMac G5 computers as tools for learning. They are able to identify the major components of the iMac and to demonstrate proper care and use of equipment.

• As part of the language arts curriculum, students work on two pieces of software that support the kindergarten reading program, Phonics Alive and Reader Rabbit (for ages 4-6). These programs help children learn where letters are found on a keyboard, how to make uppercase letters, how to put spaces between words, how to move the cursor, and how to delete work. Later in the year gansters also explore word processing programs including Kid Works Deluxe, which is designed for lower elementary students, and Microsoft Word. They practice their keyboarding skills, show off their ability to use words to tell a story, and begin using computer graphics to illustrate their story. They also use one of these programs to write poetry using words that they study in the classroom.

• In science, gansters create pages for a class book about a science curricular subject area, for example about frogs. While creating their page they increase their familiarity with the keyboard as noted above.

• In social studies, the Travel the World program supports the curriculum by showing gansters how children live in other parts of the world and allowing them to play games and listen to songs that children enjoy worldwide.

First Grade

• As part of the technology curriculum, the children have their first formal word processing lessons using Apple Works 6 and Microsoft Word. With these programs they create pages for a class book, and in the process become more familiar with the keyboard and learn how to close a program. First graders also write stories on a word processing program called Easy Book Deluxe.

• Further supporting the language arts curriculum, first graders continue using Phonics Alive and Reader Rabbit (for ages 6-9), which supplement the first grade reading program. All the students enjoy recording their voices as they read the books out loud.

• While learning about wolves as a classroom science unit, first graders work on the program Thinking Science, which teaches them new science vocabulary and tools and facts about wolves and other animals.

• First graders continue using the Travel the World program, which supports the social studies curriculum.

• In mathematics, first graders use Splish Splash Math to reinforce single and double digit addition and subtraction. The students are challenged to solve equations by determining which operation they need to insert.

Second Grade

• As part of the technology curriculum, students master loading software, opening and exiting programs, proper handling of software, and shutting down the computer.

• Supplementing their classroom language arts and science curriculum, students use word processing software to create a class book on a science curricular unit, for example, on bats. Second graders also use a web browser to find and use relevant and reliable websites to uncover new bat facts that they have not learned in class. When they finish their research, they challenge their classroom teacher to a bat trivia game. Students also use Carmen Sandiego Word Detective to solve a mystery while improving their spelling skills and their ability to identify parts of speech, including verbs, nouns, adjectives, compound words, and prefixes.

• Supporting the social studies curriculum, second graders pick a United States President to study . They type a report on that President using the lab’s word processing software. While creating their report they beco me familiar with centering, underlining, changing the font, and using the spell check.

• In support of the science curriculum unit on dinosaurs, second graders work on a program called Life Science: Dinosaurs, in which they study fossils and learn how dinosaurs moved, ate, and defended themselves.

• In mathematics the second graders continue using Splish Splash Math to reinforce single and double digit addition and subtraction, as well as Math Arena, which introduces and reinforces many topics in geometry including angles, coordinate graphing, tessellation, venn diagrams, and symmetry.

Third Grade

• Supporting the third grade language arts program, third graders continue to use Carmen Sandiego Word Detective to improve their language arts skills. They also use word processing software to type an outline of their life for their personal Me Magazine, a third grade report. While creating their page they become familiar with the tab key, and changing font and font size. The students also use word processing software to make a cover for their State Alphabet book, in the process practicing centering text, and changing font and font size.
• To support the classroom science unit on astronomy, the third graders research stars on the internet. They take the information they collect and produce star mobiles. They also do in-depth internet research on the Hubble Space Telescope, paraphrase what they find, and turn facts into formal informational text. The students also use the internet to collect data for planet research papers.

• Supporting the social studies curriculum, students take a virtual tour of e arly Ann Arbor on the computer and use the internet to collect data. Through this project, they improve their skills in finding relevant material, reading informational text, and putting the information they gather into their own words using complete sentences.

• In mathematics, third graders continue using Splish-Splash Math and Math Arena.
  

Fourth Grade

• Fourth graders continue using Carmen Sandiego Word Detective to improve their language arts skills, and continue studying word processing skills.

• To support the classroom science unit on weather, fourth graders research weather on the internet and record the facts that they find in complete sentences. Students observe the weather each day and use The Graph Club program to record the weather data they collect. Students use the internet to research simple machines that they can build in the classroom, and then they build some of the machines that they find.

• Supporting the social studies curriculum, the students research the life of a scientist and use the computer to create a timeline of his or her life. Fourth graders use the internet to research national parks and how they can help preserve these beautiful places. They collect information about a park they have chosen, and then present this information in brochures.

• Mathematics skills continue to be reinforced by Math Arena, which requires students to solve multi-step problems, and Calculating Crew, in which students review multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals.

Fifth Grade

• Fifth graders show off the research skills they have learned in previous years by using the computer as an information resource for several research papers and as a tool to produce that paper. They become skilled at determining the accuracy and value of particular websites. The fifth graders also create their own general studies page for the yearbook. Through these various projects fifth graders continue to practice word processing skills, including copy, paste, cut, spell check, select all, line spacing, centering, tab, delete, changing font, and printing. Students also continue using Carmen Sandiego Word Detective in further support of the language arts curriculum.

• In mathematics, fifth graders continue to work on the “Math Arena” and “Calculating Crew” programs, which allow them to review multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals.

• In the future, fifth graders will use the computers to edit their family history video projects. See two clips from the class of 2005 family history video project here and here.

• Students also visit http://babaganewz.com/virtual/, which complements their Judaic studies work.