Technology
Week of June 15th, 2020
Hello First and Second graders, I'm leaving you a game called Typing Ninja today. I recommend starting on the settings "Easy" and "Home Row". I also recorded a Summer message for all of you. Please know that I am so proud of you for all you've done and the way you've handled the last few months. Have a safe and happy Summer!
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Week of June 8th, 2020
Grade One - Today's activity is called A Royal Battle with Events. This section has a lot of parts to navigate including new command and event blocks, The first level after the video allows you to try out different combinations to see what they do. Take your time with this part.
Grade Two - Today's Hour of Code follows up last week's with an Ice Age themed version.
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Week of June 1st, 2020
Grade One - Today's activity is called Drawing Gardens with Loops. There are some new command blocks to watch out for, such as the jump block.
Grade Two - Today's Hour of Code uses a great variety of command and action blocks to tell a story using Play Lab Classic.
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Week of May 26th, 2020
Grade One - In the next lesson, we continue on using Loops and repeat blocks. Now we will use them to help Laurel collect gems. Don't forget to use a Collect block to pick up gems and you can't collect what isn't there.
Grade Two - We went in a different direction last week, using Star Wars. Today we're back to finish up part 2 of the Dance Party Hour of Code.
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Week of May 18th, 2020
Grade One - Today we're continuing with Harvester. Lesson 6 focus on using the pink repeat blocks. Make sure to use these because in this level, the program will count how many blocks you use. Without the repeat blocks, you may have to use too many.
Grade Two - Today's Hour of Code activity is Star Wars. We've worked with BB-8, but here we'll expand the number of characters we get to play with.
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Week of May 11th, 2020
Grade One - Today we're moving on from Angry Birds to Harvester. Think of it like farming. We're using some of the skills we built last week with Programming but now we'll have to also collect items as part our directions.
Grade Two - One Hour of Code activity we did not preview in Course C is Dance Party. Make use of multiple action blocks to create multiple dancers and have them do the moves you want to a song of your choice. I hope you guys have fun with this one.
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Week of May 4th, 2020
Grade One - We are working with Angry Birds again this week. This lesson is a little bit longer, but no too bad. Instead of focusing on Sequencing, or putting steps in order, this lesson focuses on Programming, or asking you to problem solve and decide what steps to use in the first place.
Grade Two - I'm giving you another Hour of Code activity that we glimpsed during Course C. The Artist Hour of Code series focuses on using both lines and jumps, as well as measuring angles. Remember, I only expect you to work on this for 20-25 minutes, so if you don't finish, that's okay.
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Week of April 27th, 2020
I hope everyone had a terrific vacation. We've polished our keyboard skills over the last few weeks. Now, let's head back to coding.
Grade One - We'll be putting steps in order to get our characters to follow directions and move to where we want them on the screen. This is Course B, so it will revisit some skills you began building in Course A, but now it will expect a little more from you.
Grade Two - Try an hour of code and build your own Flappy Bird game. We got a look at this in Course C, but the hour of code lets you try even more different things. Remember, I only expect you to do about 20-25 minutes instead of our usual 45, so don't feel like you have to finish. We always say in class that I don't care as much about how far you get as I do that you're doing it the right way. Have fun!
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Week of April 13th, 2020
Hello my people! I hope you were able to get all your fingers in the correct places with Keyboard Zoo. This week, I'm moving us up to Keyboard Zoo 2. On the main screen the keyboard shows light purple and dark purple keys. Don't forget the light purple shows which keys the left hand uses, the dark purple shows which keys the right hand uses.
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Week of April 3rd, 2020
Hey technology crew! Let's keep the rust off our typing skills with Keyboard Zoo. Have fun and don't forget to set up all your fingers on the home row. I've included a link to Dance Mat Typing if you want to get in some practice on Home Row typing.
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Week of March 27th, 2020
Let's work on those typing skills. Spend some time with Alpha Munchies - Start with Easy difficulty and work your way up. Remember to use all your fingers like we learned on Dance Mat Typing.
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Week of March 20th, 2020
We've worked hard this year on touch typing and coding, so I've left you links to Dance Mat Typing to brush off those skills or choose to work on an Hour of Code activity.