We're Back!! 2016-17 Shepard Computer Lab

The computer lab is all ready for the new school year, and it holds a nice surprise for the students! They will hear about that surprise when they come to class this week. This year, everything is AWESOME!

This Was a Fun Week!

Testing is over, and the school celebrated by hosting a week of dressing up and creativity!  Students dressed as their favorite book character one day and as their dream career another day. They had time to read interesting books one day and play new games on Field Day.

Friday was a day devoted to combining art and math projects. We joined in the fun in the computer lab by using Excel to create pixel pictures 😀.

Jazz Time

Our students are learning safe researching techniques this month using the acronym RADCAB:  Relevancy, Appropriateness, Detail, Currency, Authority, and Bias.  They are using these techniques to learn about legendary Jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington.  Our music teacher, Ms Felder, will be introducing the students to Jazz music this month, and asked if we could coordinate our efforts - YES!

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students are also taking short practice MAP tests in our class. We are doing this to make sure they are comfortable using the various tools in the MAP test.

Growing Learners

Our Kindergarten friends are learning how to now log in to MyON!  MyON has hundreds of book titles that our students can read or have read to them. It can be found on the Shepard school homepage.

Kindergarten students are doing a fabulous job in the computer lab, learning how to do things that the older Shepard students can do! They are proud of that!

The 1st - 5th grade classes are practicing keyboarding skills. 1st and 2nd graders are using Dance Mat Typing, and 3rd-5th are transitioning from Dance Mat Typing to Typing Club, a more sophisticated keyboarding program.  Some students are sad to leave the singing goats and dancing sheep behind, though! 😉

Busy Days!

Our kindergarten students are proud of the fact that they can log into the computers now using their own usernames and passwords. They practice reading skills, counting skills, and mouse skills while on the computer.

Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are finishing the diagnostic tests this week. The 2nd graders are exploring what they can do in Word, and the 1st graders are using keyboarding skills with Dance Mat Typing.

Our 3rd, 2nd, and 1st graders are also listening to books nominated for the 2015-16 Show Me Readers Award. They will vote for their favorite book later in March. Will students throughout Missouri choose the same favorite book as Shepard students? We let you know :)

Kids At Work

Yes, the sign on our door says it all! 

Our third, fourth, and fifth grade classes are working on classroom diagnostic tests this week, while the  second and first grade students explore life in the San Diego Zoo.  They are using the San Diego Zoo website which is full of information and games.

And our kindergarten classes? They are learning how to log into the computers using their own special user name and password. They are rock in' it!

Art and Champions!

Our 5th grade students made this colorful art project by creating their initials in ASCII code in a 16 block box:

The scattered boxes on the right side are "just for fun" boxes 😊

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have been working on keyboarding skills using the Dance Mat Typing program. This fun program uses singing goats, hippos, yaks and cats to teach touch typing. Students who complete all 12 levels get to sign their name in gold pen on the Dance Mat Champions board:

On to February!