Wildcat Workshop @ Chester Arthur School
KINDERGARTEN
Navigating Our Neighborhood
Essential Questions
Who and what makes up our neighborhood?
How can we give someone directions to navigate a neighborhood?
How is technology an important part of our community?
What does it mean to be a good digital citizen?
Key Projects
Verbal presentation of a robotic mouse that students program to navigate a neighborhood that they designed
Scratch Jr. story that show how different members of the community use technology in their everyday lives
June 2022
We used engineering design practices (planning, prototyping, testing, iterating) to begin building a cityscape using digitally created drawings and cardboard.
We also discussed why we might not want to put photos of ourselves online. We practiced creating digital avatars instead!
May 2022
We engaged in engineering design practices (planning, prototyping, testing, iterating) by creating a ping pong ball maze with paper, cardboard, and tape.
Weeks of 21 March & 4 April
We planned and built simple automata using straws and paper towel holders. We’ve been exploring ways to make things move. To help us with our designs, we brainstormed things that have heads and arms and that move. Then, we practiced searching for images using a search engine.
Week of 14 March
Our theme this year is navigating our neighborhood. We've been doing a lot of work with mazes and sequencing directions. This week, we practiced engineering solutions to help a digital hamster collect food. We realized there were often multiple ways to solve the same problem.
Week of 7 March
We made graphs in Google Slides, which allowed us to practice other skills: typing mathematical symbols with/without the shift key, changing cell colors in a table, and copying/pasting images with keyboard shortcuts. Our graphs were about things we were learning about in other classes, like habitats and arctic animals.
Weeks of 21 & 28 February
We engaged in another engineering design process with brads, scissors, markers, and construction paper as we built designs that could move. We planned our designs first. Some students realized it would be helpful to use their computers to search for images of what they wanted to create to help them with their drawing. We practiced using keywords to find the images we wanted. As students worked, we figured out that it was important to identify where the brad would be placed to help with movement. And we also realized we needed to make our drawing large so that the brad would fit.
Weeks of 7 & 14 February
We engaged in parts of an engineering design process (prototyping, testing) with cardboard, tape, and straws as we built marble mazes. We planned our mazes first. We figured out that it was important to wrap the tape more tightly around the straws to keep the marble in the maze a little better.
We also used Google Slides to create pictographs. We voted on our favorite ocean animals and punctuation marks. (These are topics we were discussing in our other classes!) Not only were we practicing creating graphs but we were also need to know how to copy (ctrl + c) and paste (ctrl + v) images and use the shift key to type punctuation marks.
Weeks of 17 & 24 January
We practiced drawing and formatting shapes (size, fill color, border color, rotation) in Google Slides by creating things we might see in our neighborhood.
Week of 10 January
We earned Digital Citizen Badges for being Conscientious Digital Sharers. That means we reflected on our digital footprints and what kinds of things we could and shouldn't share online. We discussed how footprints in sand or mud can disappear. But our digital footprints can be permanent.
Some students reported that their families talk to them about how other people might use the information we share online in both positive and negative ways.
Week of 3 January
We practiced a few different skills upon returning from the break: identifying and completing patterns and manipulating objects in Google Slides using our mouse and trackpad.
We also continued practicing our keyboarding skills using a few games.
Week of 20 December
We gained more familiarity with our keyboards by matching images of keys to their locations. Then, we categorized and counted the types of each kind of key: letters, numbers, symbols, and actions.
Week of 13 December
We explored how to encode images and patterns using binary code (0s and 1s) using the Pixel Widget in code.org.
Weeks of 29 November & 6 December
We practiced sequencing and using conditionals in code using two sites: Kodable and Code Monkey.
For Computer Science Education Week (December 6-10), we also contributed to a secret pixel message. Each student placed five Post-its based on horizontal and vertical coordinates. All digital images are made up of pixels. And some programming languages, like Javascript, use horizontal and vertical coordinates to place objects on a digital page.
We also practiced finding our letters and typing using our keyboards. After coloring in the keys we would use to spell our names, we played Letter Leaper.
Weeks of 8 & 15 November
We practiced planning an engineering project by describing and writing down the kinds of pieces we needed to build a maze for our robot mouse. Next, we counted out the pieces we needed. Then, we made our own version of the model maze provided by Mr. Smith. Finally, we tested and iterated on a program for helping the mouse move through our maze.
Week of 1 November
This week, we used a bunch of creativity to imagine mazes that a mouse could move through. We built mazes using K'NEX. Then, we practiced giving our mouse robots instructions so that it went exactly where we needed it to go.
Week of 25 October
We pulled the mouse robots back out this week to create stories using code. First, we brainstormed places our mouse might like to go. Some of us said, “a cheese forest” or “an ice cream fountain!” Then, we drew a story on a large piece of paper and programmed the mouse to help it move along the story.
Example provided by Mr. Smith
Week of 18 October
We tried out coding in Scratch for the first time. We explored how the move and turn blocks can control how the firetruck moves. The bigger each number, the more the firetruck moved. One of our themes this year is community helpers in our neighborhood.
Click the green flag to make the firetruck move.
Also, change the code to control the firetruck.
Week of 11 October
We continued to work with patterns using new tools. First, we danced and sang (about bananas and meatballs). Then, we created programs with cards to help us give instructions to a mouse robot.
Week of 4 October
We practiced looking for patterns in how we can write directions using code. For instance, we noticed we could repeat directions like "right-down" or "right-right-down-down". We also created different codes to complete the same task using the repeat block differently.
3 ways to give the same directions!
Weeks of 20 and 27 September
We practiced more counting, thinking in terms of direction (up, down, left, right), and sequencing using another paper map. We added data to a table. Next, we logged in to our Chromebooks and practiced dragging and dropping images on a site called code.org. Then, we independently practiced helping a silly squirrel find his acorn and an angry bird find a pig using code.
We're still practicing logging in to Chromebooks using our usernames and passwords. Now, we have our own Chromebooks to use!
Week of 13 September
In Kindergarten, we’re going to be thinking all year about neighborhood helpers and about where we like to go in our neighborhood.
This week, we practiced counting, thinking in terms of direction, and sequencing using a simple paper map. Then, Mr. Smith showed us how to help a silly squirrel find his acorn using code. We practiced coding on the SMARTboard as a whole class.
We also practiced logging in to Chromebooks using our usernames and passwords.
Week of 6 September
We practiced logging in to Chromebooks using our usernames and passwords. We realized that we have to type the numbers and letters in using the correct order. We also realized that we can't see our password as we type it in. So, sometimes we have to try again if we made a mistake. We'll practice this some more!