Welcome to Lower School Technology!

In 1st through 4th grades, all Ursuline girls take technology with Pre-K-7th Grade Technology teacher, Emily Pastorek. Students in grades 1st-4th focus on learning about the Google Programs: Docs, Slides, & Sheets. Students practice their skills through creating projects with these programs. The girls also learn how block code to create animations, games, and more! The lower school students use Scratch Jr. (1st & 2nd), CodeSpark, Kodable, CODE.org, and Tynker. The girls learn how to work collaboratively while in technology class as well as practice their research and presentation skills. The students also learn about internet safety and how to be a good digital citizen online.

Google Projects

3rd grade students completed a research project on farm animals and presented their work visually through Google Slides. 3rd grade student, Bethany, completed a research project on Chicks. She used kid friendly search engines to gather her information, then learned how to use her own words to share the information she learned through her Slides presentation. She learned how to cite her work as well as add background coloring, pictures, etc. to make the presentation eye-appealing. Each student completed their own research project on a farm animal of their choosing and then presented their final presentations to 1st & 3rd grade students in St. Ursula's Hall.

3rd grade students completed a Christmas survey project and presented their data by using Google Sheets to create graphs and charts. Each girl created a Christmas survey question that she wanted to ask students and teachers. They listed 5 different options to choose from. They were given time to go around the school to gather their data from 12 different people. They were taught how to type in their information into a spreadsheet to create either a bar graph, column chart, or pie graph. These results were shared with their classmates.

2nd grade students practiced their skills on Google Docs with each student completing research on Ursuline's rich history. They drew a beautiful colored pencil illustration in art to represent the Ursuline historical fact that they found. They then learned how to use their iPads to take a photo of their illustration. On Google Docs, they changed their font size and used specific spacing to type their Ursuline history fact. Then, they inserted the picture that they captured of their illustration from their camera roll and added it to
their document.

1st grade students learn the very basics of Google Docs & Slides. For their first Slides project, they worked in groups to come up with their "classroom rules" to start the year on one slide. They learned how to change colors, fonts, and even how to insert a picture. The slides were put together by their teachers to go over their rules for their classrooms.

Green Screen Video Fun

Some of the Lower School grades had a lot of fun learning how to use the green screen this year! Check out some examples below completed by the 1st & 2nd graders.

Stop Motion Animation

To participate in Celebration in the Oak's annual school Christmas Tree decorating, the 2nd grade students centered their design around a book that they read with their 2nd grade homeroom teachers, A Cajun Night Before Christmas. The students designed alligators and Christmas cajun background scenes. In technology, they learned about stop motion video making and each student shot their own stop motion video with their alligators and backdrops. Their videos were assembled into one video presentation which was hung on Ursuline's tree in City Park as a QR for visitors to scan! The students spent a day at City Park decorating their tree with their alligator creations!

4th grade students also learned all about stop motion animation. A project, "A Far Away Galaxy" was supposed to be showcased for the Fine Arts Festival. Unfortunately, it was unable to be completed due to COVID-19. However, be sure to check out the Lower School Cross-Curricular page to see what the project was all about!

Culminating Stop Motion Video

Video Projects

1st and 2nd graders learned how to use Apple Clips, which is an app for video making. 1st graders used Clips to make timeline videos of important details from their lives. They also used ChatterPix to "animate" their self portrait that they made in art class to wrap up their videos. 3rd & 4th graders worked on iMovie throughout the year for various projects.

Coding

The girls in Lower School worked on several coding programs to learn how to block code. These include: Scratch Jr., CodeSpark, Kodable, CODE.org & Tynker.

Students learn how to make very basic animations, stories, and games using code.

Graphic Design

4th graders really focused on graphic design this year. They learned about photo editing and creating digital collages using the apps PicCollage, Clip2Comic, and Apple's Editing tool on the iPad. They also learned how to graphically design and draw using Keynote. Check out some examples below from International Women's Day, Halloween, their "A Far Away Galaxy" project, and Easter.

4th grade student, Emmy spoke at a Parent Coffee in the beginning of the year to share with the parents what she had been learning about photo editing.

Hour of Code

Pre-K through 7th grade students participated in an Hour of Code on Friday, December 13th. Computer Science Education Week was December 9-15 and “Hour of Code” is a global event that is celebrated during the week that gets the students to code for an hour. Millions of students were registered for the event and Ursuline was in this number! The purpose of this event was to build community and celebrate the excitement of coding. The girls listened to why coding is important as a female, what future job aspects they can pursue in coding, and they even completed coding activities on the iPad with buddies. The event was a success and was loved by all! #hourofcode #girlswhocode

Click Here for Code Cardio

Code Ninja Field Trip

Our 4th grade Ursuline girls took a field trip to Code Ninjas. The new local franchise was opened by Ursuline alumna, Susan Hackett Walpole in Metairie, LA. The girls had a great time learning more about coding and they were even able to complete maze challenges by using Javascript!

Digital Portfolios

Students in grades 1st-4th each have their own Seesaw Digital Portfolio where their individual and class projects are posted and shared with their parents through an app. The students also get to see their classmates' work as well! This portfolio follows the student from grade to grade so that they can look back and remember what they had learned from previous years!

4th-Sophie.pdf