Week at a Glance 2020 Archive

Week at a Glance for Computer Specialty

Teacher: Andrea Blake

Questions? Email Ms. Blake at ablake@bostonpublicschools.org

Quick Links:

abcya.com, jqes.org (the Josiah Quincy Elementary School's website), scratch.mit.edu, Computer Specialty Exit Ticket, BrainPOP Jr Featured Movie of the Week, BeeBots Online, go for a Story Walk when you need a break from screentime,

Code.org Dance Party

May is AAPI Asian American and Pacific Islander month as well as Jewish American month.

Extra Activity: if you finish your work before others, watch on BrainPOP these movies: AAPI 2021, Maya Lin, Yo-Yo Ma,

Judy Blume, Einstein, Anne Frank (let me know if you find any other relevant ones please).

How to Watch BrainPOP Movies?

1. Best way: go to BPS Clever, then click the link to BrainPOP or BrainPOP Jr. This automatically puts you into your BrainPOP account that BPS paid for, so you can take full advantage of the extra features and watch over 800 BrainPOP movies.

2. Not the best, but better than nothing: https://jr.brainpop.com/free-stuff/. Anyone can watch the few featured free movies without having to log in. However you can not take a self quiz or do creative coding or watch the other 800 BrainPOP movies.

Week39 June 11-15

All Grades Are you ready for summer break? Let's review the resources you can use in Clever, and on our school website and library page. Keep coding on Code.org or Scratch and keep reading books on Tumblebooks and BOOKFLIX. Teacher feedback survey.

Week38 June 7-11

Grades K-1 Code.org Course A or B, or Scratch Jr. Coding - Dribble a Basketball project

Grade 2-5 Learn about how to be Internet Awesome while playing through the 4 levels of Interland game by Google.

Week37 June 1-4

Grades K-1 Code.org Course A or B, or Scratch Jr. Coding - Dribble a Basketball project

Grade 2-3 Coding patterns with Frozen

Grades 4-5: Scratch Coding: Make a Virtual Pet Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irhNLRWwhv0

Week36: May 24 - 28

Grades K-1: Code.org Course A or B, or Scratch Jr. Coding - Sunset project

Grade 2 - Google Slides Finish your planets presentation, and send it to me: Click Share (in google slides), then type ablake@bostonpublicschools.org, then click Send.

Reminder: Watch my Planets Presentation tutorial for students, then recreate the same google slides presentation you see in the video. Create 4 slides: a title slide Planet Presentation, a second slide titled Mars, a third slide for Jupiter and a fourth slide titled Resources to list where you found information (websites or books) about Mars and Jupiter. The video starts with what the final product should look like, and then gives you step by step instruction on how to get it done. Based on your planets presentation google slides, I will verify that you understand how to:

  1. create a new google slide presentation

  2. select a theme

    1. add slides

    2. add a title for each slide

    3. insert an image from the web (of Mars and of Jupiter)

    4. resize and move the image

    5. add a text box to a slide

    6. search for "Mars facts for kids" in a second tab

    7. make a bulleted list of 3 facts for Mars, and 3 facts for Jupiter based on your search

    8. List at least two resources where you found your facts, such as planetsforkids.org

    9. Once you are finished, share you presentation with me. Click Share, then type ablake@bostonpublicschools.org, then click Send.

For fun: planets song

Grade 3

Take a screenshot of your favorite Tinkercad 3D design (one that you or your small group created).

Create a Google Slides presentation to show your 3D design work. Add one slide that includes your name, a screenshot and a description of what your design is about, and why you chose to work on this particular design. Eventually, we will copy your slide into one class presentation

Grades 4-5:

Scratch Coding: Make a Virtual Pet Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irhNLRWwhv0

Tinkercad Codeblocks

Slides for showcasing 4-5th grade 3D Designs

Backup Activity #1: If our zoom goes down, be an IB Inquirer and Take Charge of Your Own Learning with BrainPOP

What do YOU want to learn about?

If our zoom or WIFI went down, or you are done before others with today's learning activity, please go to BrainPOP Jr (K-2) or BrainPOP (3-5) and watch one of the movies of your choice. Then click Creative Coding and create a coding project. Creative Coding invites students to apply their understanding of a BrainPOP topic through a variety of coding projects. For example you can make a museum, make a sorting game, ... It's practically Scratch coding using extra characters related to the movie you just watched, such as Moby, Annie, recyclable objects (If you watched the Recycling movie). Be prepared to share:

1. Which BrainPOP movie you watched (The title of the movie)

2. How or why did you choose to watch this movie? Examples: I searched for dinosaurs and found the Extinct Species movie. I explored the Health category and saw the title ADHD. My brother has asthma so I wanted to find out more about asthma

3. What was the movie about? The main idea was about types of frogs and the lifecycle of frogs.

4. What did you learn? One thing I learned is ...

5. Share your coding project. For example you made a Recycle sorting game, or a museum project about Caring... During show and tell you can share your screen to show what you made and explain how you did it.

Backup Activity #2: Try one of the Hour of Code coding games:

There are hundreds of choices listed here https://hourofcode.com/us/learn

Here are a few that I really like, but best is if you choose one that looks interesting to you...

Grades K-1: Beaver Achiever on Code Monkey Jr, Angry Birds

Grades 2-5: Dance Party, Angry Birds, Code Monkey

Other things you can find in your Clever Backpack: Nitro Type

Week35 May 17 - 21 Ms. Blake will be away on Friday 5/21. You can choose from the backup activities listed above, unless your substitute teacher has a different plan for you.

Grades K-1: Code.org Course A or B, or Scratch Jr. Coding - Run a Race project

Grades 2-3 - Google Slides Assignment: Watch my Planets Presentation tutorial for students, then recreate the same google slides presentation you see in the video. Create 4 slides: a title slide Planet Presentation, a second slide titled Mars, a third slide for Jupiter and a fourth slide titled Resources to list where you found information (websites or books) about Mars and Jupiter. The video starts with what the final product should look like, and then gives you step by step instruction on how to get it done. Based on your planets presentation google slides, I will verify that you understand how to:

  1. create a new google slide presentation

  2. select a theme

    1. add slides

    2. add a title for each slide

    3. insert an image from the web (of Mars and of Jupiter)

    4. resize and move the image

    5. add a text box to a slide

    6. search for "Mars facts for kids" in a second tab

    7. make a bulleted list of 3 facts for Mars, and 3 facts for Jupiter based on your search

    8. List at least two resources where you found your facts, such as planetsforkids.org

    9. Once you are finished, share you presentation with me. Click Share, then type ablake@bostonpublicschools.org, then click Send.

For fun: planets song

Grades 4-5: Get started with Tinkercad Codeblocks

3rd grade Ms. Smith 3D Models Slide Deck (just started it, check back next week)

Week34 May 10 - 15

Grades K-5:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Loops

Activity: Angry Birds

Students, if you (or I) have WIFI problems and we get lost from the zoom during computer specialty, please do the following on your own:

1. go to BrainPOP Jr and watch Loops. Learning objective: Understand what loops are in computer programming.

2. play the coding game Angry Birds - code.org/hoc

Pay attention to how loops are used in Steps 6-10. Be prepared to explain in your own words why loops should be used when solving puzzles 6-10.

Extra Activity: Be an IB Inquirer

Week33 May 3 - 7

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Gratitude - Teacher Appreciation week

Activity1: Write a thankful letter: abcya.com or Google Doc.

Activity2: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Activity3: BrainPOP Jr Butterflies and Scratch Jr

Grades 2-5 - BrainPOP Creative Coding - Keep Working on Your Coding Projects, be prepared to share

Warmup: Watch BrainPOP Recycling

Activity: Click Creative Coding (next to the movie in BrainPOP) and select Sorting Game. Follow the instructions.

Ask the player: Are these things recyclables? Click on them to find out! Then when the player clicks on the things, display messages like: "Yes, I am!" or "No, I am not! I'm an OILY pizza box! I'm too dirty to recycle".

Extra Activity: work on your own designs in Tinkercad. Ask for help if you get stuck.

Here's a tutorial on how to make a race car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv8f0HVRoi4

Week32 Apr 26 - 30

Earth Day resources:

Grades K-1:

Warmup: Watch PBS Sid the Science Kid How to Recycle or How to Reuse to make less trash.

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Fun: Recycle Game on Starfall.com http://more2.starfall.com/n/holiday/earthday/load.htm and Litter Critter on abcya.com

Grades 2-5 - BrainPOP Creative Coding:

Warmup: Watch BrainPOP Recycling

Activity: Click Creative Coding (next to the movie in BrainPOP) and select Sorting Game. Follow the instructions.

Ask the player: Are these things recyclables? Click on them to find out! Then when the player clicks on the things, display messages like: "Yes, I am!" or "No, I am not! I'm an OILY pizza box! I'm too dirty to recycle".

Week31 Apr 19 - 23 April Break

Week30 Apr 12 - 16 Attention! Wednesday is early release, so we only have specialty for K2 1pm - 1:30, and then the day is over. Zoom Link for today 1-1:30pm only

Grades K-1:

Warmup: Watch Seasons on BrainPOP Jr

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Fun: abcya.com Dress For the Weather

Grade 2 Typing.com typing lessons, Code.org Course C, BrainPOP

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Winter is officially over! Let's wrap up our snowflake project.

Final chance for show and tell, so let me know what you can share! Be prepared to talk about your design.

Turn in: What did you learn? Take a screenshot of your snowflake or other tinkercad design and describe what you learned about 3D printing, snowflakes or both. Share your google document with ablake@bostonpublicschools.org

Week29 Apr 5 - 9

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others - WHACKY WEDNESDAY FUN:

1. Watch Dr Seuss on BrainPOP Jr (log in from your Clever backpack)

2. Read / Listen to Whacky Wednesday by Dr Seuss

3. Design a whacky thing in tinkercad (grades 3-5) or draw a whacky thing on paper (K-2)

4. Show and tell. Let's vote: Who made the whackiest thing of all?

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Bullying

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Grade 2 Typing.com typing lessons, Code.org Course C, BrainPOP

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Learning objective: How to create a pattern in tinkercad by using basic shapes and the duplicate, resize, group and align tools.

Warmup: What's wrong with this snow flake? To find out, examine this Snow Flake Chart and Listen to this NPR podcast: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121827582

Activity: 3D Snowflakes Show and Tell: Finish your snowflake design and turn it in. See video on slide 7 of the Design a Snowflake Slides. I will ask you to share your screen to show your design and describe the process of how you created your snowflake (or other objects you designed).

Next: What did you learn? Take a screenshot of your snowflake and describe what you learned about snowflakes.

Week28 March 29- Apr1

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP Jr

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Bullying

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Grade 2 - Google Skill: Find special characters

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Bullying

Typing.com typing lessons

Activity: Find the special characters

Learning Objective: Learn to type upper case letters and special characters, such as (!?,.@$%*")

Activity2: Code.org Course C

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Warmup: BrainPOP Netiquette or Relativity (Follow up to Einstein)

3D Design. Make a snowflake based on the tutorial on slide 7 of the Design a Snowflake Slides

Today we will create your snowflakes and share!

Week27 March 22-26

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP Jr

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Computational Thinking

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Grade 2 - Google Docs:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Computational Thinking

Typing.com typing lessons

Activity: Find the special characters

Learning Objective: Learn to type upper case letters and special characters, such as (!?,.@$%*")

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Warmup: Einstein on BrainPOP (his birthday is this month)

3D Design. Make a snowflake based on the tutorial on slide 7 of the Design a Snowflake Slides

Extra Activity: design a 3D shamrock on a Happy Birthday project in tinkercad. Tinkercad is 10 years old!

Tinkercad answer to Jasmine's question: how do I stack two blocks on top of each other? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs6P3HetPuc

Chat: AI Google's DeepMind AI teaching itself to walk and https://100jobsofthefuture.com/

Week26 March 15-19

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP Jr or watch St Patrick's Day on BrainPOP.

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Computer Programming

Activity: Code.org, Course A for K1, Course B for 1st grade students

Grade 2 - Google Docs:

Warmup: BrainPOP How computers work

Typing.com typing lessons

Finish your all about me document, based on my video on how to make a google document. Use your own name, take a photo of you or your favorite thing, type three things that I should know about you, then Share the document with me ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. Please do not share with other students for the sake of safety and privacy. This is an individual assignment. You can take your time and play with extra features, like letter types and font size.

Extra Activity: Ms Der-Yi and Ms Gee's class, since you finished your google skills lessons, let's learn 3D design! Follow the instructions for grades 3-5.

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Warmup: Watch BrainPOP 3D Design or Snowflakes

Learning Objective: How 3D printers work

3D Design. Learn tinkercad skills with the tutorials on slide 4 of the Design a Snowflake Slides

Extra Activity: watch St Patrick's Day on BrainPOP and design a 3D shamrock in tinkercad

Week25 March 8-12

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP Jr

Grades K-1:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Computer Programming

Activity: Code.org Angry Birds - code.org/hoc

Extra Activity: Code.org Dance Party - code.org/dance

Grade 2 - Google Docs:

Warmup: BrainPOP How computers work

Based on my video on how to make a google document, write an All About Me. Use your own name, take a photo of you or your favorite thing, type three things that I should know about you, then Share the document with me ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. Please do not share with other students for the sake of safety and privacy. This is an individual assignment. You can take your time and play with extra features, like letter types and font size.

Extra Activity: Ms Der-Yi and Ms Gee's class, since you finished your google skills lessons, let's learn 3D design! Follow the instructions for grades 3-5.

Grades 3-5 - 3D Design:

Warmup: Watch BrainPOP 3D Design

Computer Skills Learning Objective: 3D Design. Join my tinkercad class. Follow the steps on slides 2-4 of the Design a Snowflake Slides

Surprise for Ms. Fong's class

Week24 March 1-5 - NEW STUDENTS

New students: Introductions and overview of Computer Specialty, jqes.org, BPS Clever, Google Skills, Code.org, Scratch coding, abcya.com, brainpop

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP

Grades K-1:

Warmup: StoryLine Online: The Kissing Hand Teacher Slides

Learning Goals: introducing library resources in BPS clever, and getting to know each other.

Activity: Trace your hand on paper using a PENCIL, then decorate your drawing with a heart or your favorite things. Need paper, pencil, colored pencils or markers. Whom will you give your kissing hand card to?

Extra Activity on abcya.com: K1 Counting Fish on abcya.com, K2 BrainPOP Jr. Patterns

Grades 2 - Google Docs:

Warmup: BrainPOP Internet Safety

Learning Objectives: Review how to use google drive, start creating an all about me document

Activity: Based on my video on how to make a google document, write an All About Me. Use your own name, take a photo of you or your favorite thing, type three things that I should know about you, then Share the document with me ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. Please do not share with other students for the sake of safety and privacy. This is an individual assignment. You can take your time and play with extra features, like letter types and font size.

Extra Activity: Watch BrainPOP Jr Biography or BrainPOP ELL Hobby (they are free to watch this week, even if you don't have an account).

Extra Activity: Draw a Panda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs9YUUhBQGg Draw a Polar Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXP7siRUK3o

Grades 3-5 - Intro to Scratch Coding:

Warmup: BrainPOP Internet Safety & passwords

Activity: Introduction to Scratch coding. Explore the basic tutorials on scratch.mit.edu.

Extra Activity: Make Music using IncrediBox (find it in BPS Clever backpack under the Arts section). Here is a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nli3duWG6Ag

What's IncrediBox about: A handful of sleepy-eyed hipsters become your very own beatboxing crew. Beginning with a single person on screen, users assign him a repeating musical element. Choices are Effects, Beats, Melodies, Chorus, and Voices. Give each character a sound by dragging and dropping from a bar of options. Another dude appears next to the first, and you choose a sound for him, and so on, until the screen is full and you've created a rich song

Week23 February 22-26

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP (about Harriet Tubman)

Grades K-1:

Warmup: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP (about Harriet Tubman)

Activity: Code.org

Extra Activities: Abcya.com Cupstack Typing or Counting Fish

Grade 2:

Warmup: BrainPOP Jr Reading Maps and Continents and Oceans

Activity: Learn how to take a screenshot on a chromebook Press Control + Shift + Show Windows, then click and drag around what you want to screenshot. On a Mac it's Command + Shift + 4.

Typing.com (linked from your BPS Clever) continue with your next lesson

Code.org Course C lesson 8

Extra activity: Play counting money on abcya.com or Dolphin Dash - Counting Money

Grades 3-5:

Warmup: BrainPOP Alan Turing - Cracking secret codes. Defeating deadly dictators. Inventing AI (artificial intelligence)

Activity: AI for Oceans

Week22 - February Vacation Week

Week21 February 8-12

This week is Chinese New Year as well as Valentine's Day on Sunday.

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP (about Lunar New Year)

Grades K-1:

Warmup: Read Red is a Dragon on TumbleBook. Rhyming words and colors. Scavenger Hunt: Find something red, something yellow and something green in your house.

Extra Activities: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP (about Lunar New Year)

Abcya.com Valentine's Day Counting or Make a Valentine PreK: Valentine's Day Puzzle

BeeBot Emulator Online - Try different mats

Grade 2:

Warmup: Lunar New Year on BrainPOP Jr, which happens to be the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP

Activity: Learn how to take a screenshot on a chromebook Press Control + Shift + Show Windows, then click and drag around what you want to screenshot. On a Mac it's Command + Shift + 4.

Typing.com (linked from your BPS Clever) continue with your next lesson

Code.org Course C lesson 8

Extra activity: Play counting money on abcya.com

Grades 3-5:

Warmup: Let's discuss BPS coding contest winners - Congratulations, Sudhi!

Let's watch and discuss BrainPOP 3D Printing

3D Design. Design a Snowflake Slides Watch the video on slide7 to learn how to design 3D snowflakes. Start making your own snowflake in tinkercad

Extra activity: play Immigration Nation, or watch Amanada Gorman reciting her Poem at Inauguration

Week20 February 1-5

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch Rosa Parks or the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP

Grades K-1:

Warmup: Storyline online: Please Please the Bees

BeeBot Emulator Online

BeeBot is an award winning programmable floor robot.

Get Started with BeeBot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZuenJlFyE

Literacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaSQgsDQ1w

Grade 2:

Warmup: Let's talk about Conflict Resolution.

Let's get started with typing lessons: Go to Typing.com from your BPS Clever, so we can track your progress in your student account. We will use Typing.com until the end of the school year.

Extra activity: Play counting money on abcya.com or BeeBot Emulator Online

Grades 3-5:

Warmup: Let's discuss BPS coding contest winners - Congratulations, Sudhi!

3D Design. Design a Snowflake Slides Watch the video on slide7 to learn how to design 3D snowflakes. Start making your own snowflake in tinkercad

Extra activity: play Immigration Nation, or watch Amanada Gorman reciting her Poem at Inauguration

Week19 January 25-29

Warmup: learn How Snowflakes Form from Wild Kratts.

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP, Cut snowflakes from white paper, play snowflake match or play Immigration Nation

Grades K-1:

Code.org Lesson 9 More Loops with Laurel (course A lesson 9)

abcya.com ABC Submarine Spelling Practice.

free featured movie on BrainPop today

Grade 2:

Activity 1: Finish Code.org Creating Art with Code (course C lesson 7). If you finished lesson 7, then do Activity 2.

Activity 2: Draw shapes using different angles https://studio.code.org/s/artist?section_id=3082186

Here is an example by Jay: https://studio.code.org/c/1170017297

Grades 3-5:

Warmup: Watch BrainPOP Snowflakes

3D Design. Continue with slide4 Design a Snowflake Slides

Extra activity: play Immigration Nation, watch Amanada Gorman reciting her Poem at Inauguration

Week18 January 19 - 22

Warmup: Helen Keller

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch Rosa Parks or the free featured movie of the week on BrainPOP

Grades K-1:

Code.org Lesson 9 More Loops with Laurel

abcya.com ABC Keyboard Zoo. 123 Blast Off Numerical Order.

free featured movie on BrainPop today

Grades 2-3:

Code.org Creating Art with Code (course C lesson 7)

Grades 4-5:

Computer Skills Learning Objective: 3D Design. Complete the steps on slides 2-4 on our Design a Snowflake Slides

Week17 January 11 - 15

Warmup: watch Ruby Bridges

Extra Activity if you finish your work before others: Watch the free featured movie of the week on BrainPop Jr (K-2), or on BrainPop (grades 3-5) - or learn How Snowflakes Form from Wild Kratts. Cut snowflakes from white paper, or play snowflake match

Code.org Draw: https://studio.code.org/c/1170017297 make your own: https://studio.code.org/s/artist?section_id=3082186

Grades K-1:

Code.org Lesson 9 More Loops with Laurel

abcya.com ABC Keyboard Zoo. 123 Blast Off Numerical Order.

K1: the snowy day in Mandarin by Ezra Jack Keats goes with Ezra Jack Keats biography (free featured movie on BrainPop today)

Kermit the Frog: It's not easy to be green

Grades 2-3:

Computer Skills Learning Objective: Practice Find, Copy, Paste & Citation - Ctrl+F, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V

Interdisciplinary Learning Objective: Review the IB Learner Profiles: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced, Reflective

Activity: Copy and paste the following quotation (all three lines) in this QUOTATION EXIT TICKET form

"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer...

because it teaches you how to think".

- Steve Jobs

Answer the question: Which IB Learner Profile Trait(s) can you connect to this quotation and why?

Grades 4-5:

Computer Skills Learning Objective: Learn to use Google Drawings.

Interdisciplinary Learning Objective: Ruby Bridges and other Black Leaders of Change.

Activity 1: Finish your inspirational poster in Google Drawings and share it with ablake@bostonpublicschools.org.

Examples of Inspirational Posters created by JQES students: Dr King Courage.

Activity 2: If you finished your poster last week, then do this: Find your favorite quotation on the internet, then copy and paste it in this form: QUOTATION EXIT TICKET form Which IB Learner Profile Trait(s) can you connect to this quotation and why?

IB Learner Profile Traits: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced, Reflective

Week16 January 5 - 8

All my students, please watch Martin Luther King Jr.

Additional Free BrainPop Movies you could Watch: Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, Featured Movie of the Week - Winter

Grades K-1: Martin Luther King Jr.

Code.org Lesson 8 Loops with Scratch: students will learn to add instructions to existing loops, gather repeated code into loops, and recognize patterns that need to be repeated.

abcya.com Uppercase and lowercase letter match

Grades 2: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.

Keyboard Scavenger Hunt:

Learning Objective: Learn to type upper case letters and special characters, such as (!?,.@$%*")

Activity: Find the special characters

Grades 3-5:

Learn to use Google Drawings. Watch this tutorial: Complete Overview for Beginners

Create an inspirational poster using Google Draw. Use some of these words on your poster: Courage, Optimism, Fear, Empower, Encouragement, Motivation, Gratitude, Trust, Enthusiasm, Openness (to challenges and changes), Creativity, Compassion, Authenticity.

If you want to use your inspirational poster as a virtual background, then change the Page Setup to 16:9.

A Zoom Virtual Background image should have an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a minimum resolution of 1920 x 960 pixels.

Watch How to make a zoom virtual background

Examples Posters created by students for the City of Boston Art Competition for the Centennial of Women Voting Rights

Examples of Digital Art: IB Learner Profiles in an Art Class,

Week14 Dec 21 -Dec23

Short week. Happy Holidays!

Grades K-1: Continue our regular code.org coding: find your assigned code.org course from your clever backpack

Tumble Books: Lewis Cardinal's First Winter

abcya.com Holiday Games: Make a Snowman, Write a Letter to Santa, play Dreidel Dreidel or Make a Christmas Tree

Grades 2-5: Dance Party on Code.org

Let's play skribble.io

Week13 Dec 14 - Dec18

Wacky Tacky Friday: Dress up or wear a funny hairdo on Friday!

Grades K-1: More Hour of Code Activities

Beaver Achiever

Extra Activity: abcya.com Get in Shape (3D shapes)

Grades 2-5: Email Practice & More Hour of Code Activities

Dance Party on Code.org or CodeMonkey Space Adventure

Optional Email Practice: Send an email to ablake@bostonpublicschools.org with the subject line Convincing Argument: Why I Should get a Good Grade Explain why you think you should get a good grade in computer specialty. For example you participated in our zoom discussion and quizzes, or you shared with me your google doc, google slides or Scratch game or a screenshot of any coding you did in any other programming language.

Learning Objectives: The primary purpose of this exercise is for you to practice writing an email to a teacher, email etiquette, and persuasive writing. As a side effect, you might actually improve your grade! Remember to have a short but descriptive subject line, a proper greeting, a body with complete sentences and examples and a closing line.

Week12 Dec 7 -Dec11

Computer Science Education Week

Hour of Code Activities:

Grades K-1: CodeMonkey Jr.

Grades 2-5: Dance Party on Code.org or Code Monkey Coding Adventure

Grade 5 only: Record your screen using Flipgrid as you tackle the dance party coding challenge. Use this flipgrid join link to get your assignment: https://flipgrid.com/984b4c3b or join code: 984b4c3b

BPS Student Contest Please share this information with your students who may be interested in entering any of the following challenges!

Extra Scratch coding help for JQES students interested in entering:

BPS Asynchronous Links for Hour of Code Activities

Recommended by the BPS Technology Department for students to try at home

3D House Made of Two Papers: https://youtu.be/od-SnIlyT1I

3D House Made of One Paper: https://youtu.be/tkaBwta5560

Origami Christmas Tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZAsOQiZMEs

Week11 Nov 30 - Dec 4

Best version of our Suffragists Scratch project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/467099810

Grades K-1 - Build a Paper House 3D Shapes and Design

Use paper cutout shapes to build a house. What problems did you run into while building your house? How can you improve your design? Here is one way to make a pop-up 3D house using a single sheet of paper: https://youtu.be/tkaBwta5560

Do you think you could build an actual full size house from paper? https://www.paperhouserockport.com/

Extra Activity: abcya.com Build a House.

Grade 2 - How to Write Emails

Learn how to write emails. Keep these guidelines in mind when emailing people:

- typically write to teachers when you have a question or comment regarding school work.

- add a SHORT but PRECISE subject line that describes what the email is about

- the body of the email should have a proper greeting (Dear Ms. Blake, ), a more detailed description of the question or problem or subject we are writing about, and a closing (Best, Thank you, ...)

- be mindful of other people by NOT sending them junk mail, too many emails, inappropriate or unkind messages, and NOT forwarding any of their emails of photos / videos they had sent you privately to anybody else without their permission.

- Tip for the holidays: be kind by sending a thankful or kind message to friends and family on special occasions, such as birthdays and holidays.

Grades 3-5 - Coding

1. Finish your pet project. How can you enhance the game? For example, add a few facts about this animal: what it likes to eat, habitat, how long it lives...

2. Learn to use the Scratch backpack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuolBPY8qdc

3. Extra. Watch the video on Multiplayer Cloud Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoHaz7ZPvo (You have to have full Scratcher status to be able to create a game like this. You get that status by making positive comments on others projects and sharing a lot of your own projects first.)

Griffpatch and Zinnea are two highly qualified professionals. I recommend you look up their Scratch videos:

Week10 Nov 23-25 Short Week

Grades K-1 - Engineering Design Process: Build a House abcya.com Build a House.

- K2 students: Design a house for your favorite (small) toy, using shapes. For example you can design a house for your stuffed animal or doll, or a garage for your matchbox car.

1. Design your house: draw it on paper. You can make more than one designs, then choose one to build.

2. Cut shapes from construction paper.

3. Build your house using the cutout shapes, use tape or paper clips or glue to hold it together.

4. Test your house. Does your toy fit inside comfortably? Does it hold up, or is it falling apart? Did you forget someting?

5. Redesign your house to fix the problems or add new features

6. Build a second house, or enhance the first one. Test it again.

7. We will have a show and tell on zoom!

Extra Activity: abcya.com Build a House

Grade 2 - Engineering Design Process: Build a Bridge

Story Book: Make Way for Ducklings

please collect recycled materials to make a bridge (cardboard, shoebox, cereal box, kleenex box). We will make a bridge during computer specialty class next week. Bring scissors, tape or glue, and construction paper or markers to decorate. Our bridge will need to be able to hold the weight of at least two matchbox cars.

Activity: Next week, you will take a photo of your bridge and write about how you built it in a google document.

Also Teamwork and Collaboration Short Discussion

What if I told you that we have to create a google slides presentation for ALL the planets in just 20 minutes? How could you do it in such short time? How does teamwork and collaboration help people solve bigger problems? Discuss real life examples at work, school and home.

Grades 3-5 - Google Forms. Cats vs. Dogs and what does that have to do with VOTING RIGHTS?

Learning Objectives: How to create google forms, save responses in google sheets, analyze the data and draw conclusions.

Learning Objectives for Social Science: This lesson compliments your studies about suffrage and voting rights, the 19th amendment and why it's so important that women and everyone else can vote now.

Scratch Coding: Make a Virtual Pet Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irhNLRWwhv0

Extra Activity:

1. Watch Cats Versus Dogs (from National Geopgraphic for Kids)

2. Fill out the form to cast your vote Which Pet is the Best Companion?

3. Let's look at the results and analyze the data.

Offline activity: think of something you could make as a homemade gift for someone you care about. We will talk about your ideas in class next week and pick some projects we can work on before the Winter recess.

Week9 Nov 16-22

Kindergarten - Gratitude and How to Write a Friendly Letter

Gratitude Vocabulary: gratitude, feeling grateful, hopeful, relaxed, excited. What makes you happy or laugh? What do you like to eat?

Letter Writing Vocabulary: heading, greeting, body, closing, signature.

Activity: abcya.com Write a Fiendly Letter (let's write one together as a class to your homeroom teacher). Extra: Play Molly Adds Up to 10.

Grade 1 - Gratitude and Write a Friendly Letter

Gratitude Vocabulary: gratitude, feeling grateful, hopeful, relaxed, excited. What makes you happy or laugh? What do you like to eat?

Letter Writing Vocabulary: heading, greeting, body, closing, signature.

Activity: Write a thankful letter in google docs. Backup activity: abcya.com Write a Friendly Letter Extra: Play Molly Adds and Subtracts or Molly Adds Up to 10.

Grade 2 - Gratitude and Friendly Letter

Gratitude Vocabulary: gratitude, feeling grateful, hopeful, relaxed, excited. What makes you happy or laugh? What do you like to eat?

Letter Writing Vocabulary: heading, greeting, body, closing, signature.

Assignment: Write a thankful letter (a Google Doc) for one of your teachers, then share it with your teacher and with ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. If finished, go on abcya.com, play Word Search Creator to practice your spelling words, then Molly Adds and Subtracts if you still have time.

Grade 3 - Gratitude & Getting Started with Scratch Coding

2020 BPSCoders Student Contest

Create an account on scratch.mit.edu. Write down your username and password somewhere so you don't forget. We will use Scratch every week. Create a project in Scratch, get a character from the library, then make it say a thankful message. Share your project and submit the project link in the Computer Specialty Exit Ticket

Grades 4-5 - BPS Coding Competition & Scratch Coding

2020 BPSCoders Student Contest

Learning Objective: How to use variables to keep score in a game.

Activity: How to care for a pet, a Scratch Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irhNLRWwhv0

Create a project in Scratch, get a character from the library, then make it say a thankful message. Share your project and submit the project link in the Computer Specialty Exit Ticket

Other Options:

  • Make a Chase Game following the tutorial provided in Scratch: 1. go to Scratch.mit.edu 2. click Create to start a new project 3. click Tutorials / Make a Chase Game

  • Ongoing: Create a Personal Project in Scratch that shows an example of how to be kind. Watch kindness video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCb85TgeEU

  • Ongoing: Add to our Women Suffrage Project. so far we have this, so Remix this project from your own Scratch account: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/452848211/

Week8 Nov 9-14

Grades K-1 - Parts of a computer. Finding Letters on the Keyboard Review Parts of a Computer. Vocabulary: hardware, software, monitor, mouse, keyboard, CPU, hard drive, input, output, printer, scanner, microphone. abcya.com Alphabet Zoo. Break: ABC Easy as 1-2-3. SeeSaw: color the letters of your name in on the picture of a keyboard.

Grades 2-3 - Google Slides Finish Planets Presentation, share with ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. If finished, go on abcya.com, play Word Search Creator to practice your spelling words, then Molly Adds and Subtracts if you still have time.

If we are all finished, we can review Parts of a Computer.

Grades 4-5 - Scratch Coding

Let's finish our Women's Suffrage project. Next: Create a Personal Project in Scratch that shows an example of how to be kind. Watch kindness video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCb85TgeEU

Week7 Nov 1-7

Grades K-1 - Computer Programming abcya.com Alphabet Zoo. What are Loops in computer programming? Break: Melting. Let's code on Code.org. Practice using Loops.

Grades 2-3 - Google Slides Assignment: Watch my Planets Presentation tutorial for students, then recreate the same google slides presentation you see in the video. Create 4 slides: a title slide Planet Presentation, a second slide titled Mars, a third slide for Jupiter and a fourth slide titled Resources to list where you found information (websites or books) about Mars and Jupiter. The video starts with what the final product should look like, and then gives you step by step instruction on how to get it done. Based on your planets presentation google slides, I will verify that you understand how to:

  1. create a new google slide presentation

  2. select a theme

    1. add slides

    2. add a title for each slide

    3. insert an image from the web (of Mars and of Jupiter)

    4. resize and move the image

    5. add a text box to a slide

    6. search for "Mars facts for kids" in a second tab

    7. make a bulleted list of 3 facts for Mars, and 3 facts for Jupiter based on your search

    8. List at least two resources where you found your facts, such as planetsforkids.org

    9. Once you are finished, share you presentation with me. Click Share, then type ablake@bostonpublicschools.org, then click Send.

Grades 4-5 - Scratch Coding

Women's Suffrage. Continue working on our interactive history project in Scratch

Each student will add a famous person and code it to collaboratively build an interactive history presentation in Scratch,

based on the Boston Women's Tea Party in 1873 at Fanueil Hall.

1. DONE Watch PBS 19th amendment: https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/19th-amendment-passed-women-first-vote-video/carrie-chapman-catt-warrior-for-women/

2. DONE Discuss the women's suffrage movement in Boston, in particular the Boston WOMEN's Tea Party

3. DONE Each student is assigned to work on one famous person from these character cards

4. NOW Watch this step by step video on what you are supposed to do in Scratch: https://video.link/w/CCHub

5. NOW based on the video, remix this starter project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/416904117/. Add a photo of your designated person, then code it, so when the player clicks on the photo, it gets enlarged and we can hear the person "speak" the exact words he or she said during the Boston Tea Party debate.

6. SOON Share your project (click the Share button in Scratch), then submit it via the CS Exit Ticket form this week or latest by next week.

Students assigned to historical characters: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H0hK3ilLYLqi5j19xngS_0zsAzjiLAAu-GdrifrUF2s/edit?usp=sharing

FINAL PRODUCT: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/443248494/ - This is what we have compiled so far. Please submit your work, so we can complete the project with 12-15 historical figures.

Week6 Oct 26 - 31

Grades K-3 - Computer Programming What is Computer Programming? Vocabulary: coding, algorithm, sequence, loop. Let's code on Code.org

Grades 4-5 - Scratch Coding

Women's Suffrage. Continue working on our interactive history project in Scratch

Each student will add a famous person and code it to collaboratively build an interactive history presentation in Scratch,

based on the Boston Women's Tea Party in 1873 at Fanueil Hall.

1. DONE Watch PBS 19th amendment: https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/19th-amendment-passed-women-first-vote-video/carrie-chapman-catt-warrior-for-women/

2. DONE Discuss the women's suffrage movement in Boston, in particular the Boston WOMEN's Tea Party

3. DONE Each student is assigned to work on one famous person from these character cards

4. IN PROGRESS Watch this step by step video on what you are supposed to do in Scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7H0-rfhGg&t=222s

5. START NOW based on the video, remix this starter project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/416904117/. Add a photo of your designated person, then code it, so when the player clicks on the photo, it gets enlarged and we can hear the person "speak" the exact words he or she said during the Boston Tea Party debate.

6. LATER Share your project (click the Share button in Scratch), then submit it via the CS Exit Ticket form

Extra Activity: watch on your own BrainPop Election Day

Week5 Oct 19 - 24

Grades K-3 - Digital Citizenship We will continue with Digital Citizenship activities

Grades 4-5 - Scratch Coding

Women's Suffrage. Start working on our interactive history project in Scratch

Each student will add a famous person and code it to collaboratively build an interactive history presentation in Scratch,

based on the Boston Women's Tea Party in 1873 at Fanueil Hall.

1. Watch Women's Suffrage (8:44): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcdRjYBMKhg or PBS 19th amendment: https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/19th-amendment-passed-women-first-vote-video/carrie-chapman-catt-warrior-for-women/

2. Discuss the women's suffrage movement in Boston, in particular the Boston WOMEN's Tea Party

3. Find the famous person in these character cards that Ms Blake assigned you to work with:

4. Watch this step by step video on what you are supposed to do in Scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7H0-rfhGg&t=222s

5. based on the video, remix this starter project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/416904117/. Add a photo of your designated person, then code it, so when the player clicks on the photo, it gets enlarged and we can hear the person "speak" the exact words he or she said during the Boston Tea Party debate.

6. Share your project (click the Share button in Scratch), then submit it via the CS Exit Ticket form

Week4 Oct 12 - 17

For Teachers: Digital Citizenship Week Activities

Grades K-1 - Digital Citizenship

Grades 2-3 - Google Docs: Based on my video on how to make a google document, write an All About Me. Use your own name, take a photo of you or your favorite thing, type three things that I should know about you, then Share the document with me ablake@bostonpublicschools.org. Please do not share with other students for the sake of safety and privacy. This is an individual assignment. You can take your time and play with extra features, like letter types and font size.

Grades 4-5 - Digital Citizenship:

1. Digital Citizenship Lesson

2. finish your work from last week (gr4 Hispanic Heritage slides, gr5 make sure you submit a shared Scratch project via the CS Exit Ticket GO TO the BREAKOUT ROOM w Ms Boulogne if you still don't know how to do that, or you need help fixing your Scratch account sharing settings

September is Hispanic Heritage Month. If you like cooking, here's a dish I love: Puerto Rican Pastelon

Week3 Oct 5-11

Secret Message from Ms Blake: My Birthday is This Week!

Send me a happy birthday project: K-1 SeeSaw card, Grades 2-3 google doc, Grades 4-5 Scratch animation. You should know what I like: Chocolate, Music, Birthday cake, flowers, pets, computers, art ...

K2-1st grade students: Code.org Course A

Activity1: Digital Citizenship

Activity2:

1. Login on BPS Clever

2. Click Code.org

3. Click Lesson4, or Click Continue, Continue, Continue until you get to the angry bird

OR go to abcya.com

1. abcya.com

2. K

3. Skills

4. Shapes & Colors BINGO

Grades 4: Hispanic Heritage Month

Grades 5: Scratch coding. Make sure you have a working Scratch account. Create an interactive Happy Birthday card for Ms Blake and submit it using the CS Exit Ticket

Week2 Sept 28-Oct4

Grades K-1: Code.org Course A

1. Login on BPS Clever

2. Click Code.org

3. Click Lesson4, or Click Continue, Continue, Continue until you get to the angry bird

OR go to abcya.com

1. abcya.com

2. K

3. Skills

4. Shapes & Colors BINGO

OR go to abcya.com

1. abcya.com

2. K

3. 123 Numbers

4. Count Fish

Grades 2-3 - Google Drive: How to get to your google drive from clever. Organize your files into folders. Create a Computer Specialty folder on your drive if you don't have one already. How to name your files (instead of Untitled Document).

Grades 4-5 - Scratch Coding: Create an account on scratch.mit.edu. Write down your username and password somewhere so you don't forget. We will use Scratch every week.

Week1 Sept 21-27

Introductions and overview of Computer Specialty, Zoom, Seesaw, Google Skills and Code.org or Scratch coding.

What's your favorite technology and what do you like about it? Post your answer on our Computer Specialty Padlet

K1 - K2 students: go to abcya.com

1. abcya.com

2. click Pre-k

3. click 123 Numbers

4. click Connect the Dots

Find, Copy, Paste & Citation - Ctrl+F, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V

Secret Message. I might ask you to find one of these quotes during computer specialty class on my website, then copy and paste it as part of your google skills assignment:

"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer...

because it teaches you how to think".

- Steve Jobs

"The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do when there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation."

- Michelle Obama

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel".

- Maya Angelou

"Never judge a person by the color of their skin"

- Ruby Bridges

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

- Albert Einstein

"It's the beauty within us that makes it possible to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see."

- Henry David Thoreau

Motivational Videos:

Denzel Washington Motivational Speech at Graduation: Don't just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference!

Olaf the snowman's song: In Summer

Warmup: watch It's not easy to be green by Kermit the Frog.

Triumph of the Nerds: TRANSCRIPT of the movie: https://www.pbs.org/nerds/part3.html

History of the Computer timeline on PBS: http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/index.html http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/network.html

Olaf the snowman's song: In Summer and Frogs on BrainPOP

Computer Specialty Padlet

100jobsofthefuture.com

Nytimes article on slavery

Grades K-1: Scratch Jr Activities Page: http://scratchjr.org/teach/activities

Day1 getting started with Scratch Jr: Drive accross the city

Day2

Day3 Butterfly Scratch Jr Project

Warmup: Watch The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Claymation created by JQES kindergarten and 2nd grade students

Day4 Butterfly Scratch Jr Project

Warmup: Watch If I was a butterfly on PBSLearning

Day4 Butterfly Scratch Jr Project

Warmup: Watch Butterflies on BrainPOP Jr

Movement break: Chicken Dance on Go Noodle

Grades 2 - Google Slides Assignment: Watch my Planets Presentation tutorial for students, then recreate the same google slides presentation you see in the video. Create 4 slides: a title slide Planet Presentation, a second slide titled Mars, a third slide for Jupiter and a fourth slide titled Resources to list where you found information (websites or books) about Mars and Jupiter. The video starts with what the final product should look like, and then gives you step by step instruction on how to get it done. Based on your planets presentation google slides, I will verify that you understand how to:

  1. create a new google slide presentation

  2. select a theme

    1. add slides

    2. add a title for each slide

    3. insert an image from the web (of Mars and of Jupiter)

    4. resize and move the image

    5. add a text box to a slide

    6. search for "Mars facts for kids" in a second tab

    7. make a bulleted list of 3 facts for Mars, and 3 facts for Jupiter based on your search

    8. List at least two resources where you found your facts, such as planetsforkids.org

    9. Once you are finished, share you presentation with me. Click Share, then type ablake@bostonpublicschools.org, then click Send.

Extra Activities: Typing.com typing lessons, Code.org Course C, BrainPOP

Please fill out this student feedback form for Andrea Blake, your computer specialty teacher

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf1NBdm6AjkiJrqKEYwSJ25e9YDM2og6QU0HyeV-0C1fQ3EJg/viewform?usp=sf_link