blog



**First blog entry....** After our parents signed their consent forms for us to be involved in Mrs K's project, we signed our assent forms so that we could participate. The first thing Mrs K needed us to do was to fill out a questionnaire about what we thought our skills were using different technologies. We had to say what we had used before and give ourselves an honest ranking on what we thought our skill level was. For example we were asked if we had used an iPad before and grade how good we were on it from 1 to 10, 1 being excellent and 10 being not very good.
 * 16th February, 2012 **



** 27th February, 2012 ** This week Mrs K has asked us to start searching for Apps that can be used on the iPads when they're all up and running. (The wireless system is still not ready which means that we can't get on the Internet or on the school server yet.) She has asked us to look for Apps for all age groups - preferably free, but otherwise for a small cost. We have to explain why it's a good educational App and what year level it is most suited for. The interactive whiteboard was fixed this week which means we can now do lots of lessons with interactivity and sound. We've been practicing telling the time at 5 minute intervals with the use of our giant interactive clock and Mrs K says she has lots of time games for us to challenge each other with.





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We've also been practicing our PowerPoint skills - putting in backgrounds and adding and editing text. Animations are next! Mrs K wants us to improve our skills even more so that we can create a presentation about all of the countries of the world that we are learning about this term.



** 2nd March, 2012 ** This week has been technology rich in Year 5. We've had rotations on the laptops practicing and consolidating things like reading comprehension on a program called 'Reading for Literacy'; cardinal and ordinal compass directions, addition and subtraction and time telling on 'Mathletics'. Today we watched some Youtube videos about Bollywood dancing and also the ancient art of Rangoli, both of which come from the country we are visiting right now - India! We even tried some Bollywood style dance for ourselves with an online dance teacher from Youtube. Check out the videos! media type="file" key="IMG_0486.MOV" width="300" height="300" align="left" media type="file" key="IMG_0487.MOV" align="right" width="300" height="300" ** 9th March, 2012 ** This week Mrs K started to show us how to use the program called Photostory3. If you haven't seen it, it's similar to a slideshow, but with some movement which can be controlled and the ability to add music. Have a look at the first one we've made. media type="file" key="PhotoStory1.flv" width="360" height="270" align="center"

As we're travelling around the world this term, it's fairly important that we know how to read an atlas and a map. We've been practicing not only north, south, east and west, but also the ordinal compass points of north-east, south-east, north-west and south-west. This week we've been focusing on reading co-ordinates on a map.

A slideshow made with iPhoto

media type="file" key="Swimming 2012-Medium.flv" width="330" height="330" ** 13th March, 2012 ** This week we are visiting Mexico. Once again Youtube came to the rescue to show us how to do the Mexican Hat Dance. Should go well with our Mexican Fiesta tomorrow when we try tacos! Have a look at the videos of us dancing... media type="file" key="IMG_0492.MOV" align="left" width="300" height="300"media type="file" key="IMG_0493.MOV" align="right" width="300" height="300"

The iPads have started to venture into the Year 5 classroom and everyone's getting very excited! We're able to attach an iPad to the interactive whiteboard and Mrs K has been showing us how to use some of the iPad's apps. Today we were finding out about the South American country, BRAZIL. Some of the work involved researching on the Internet using an iPad or the laptops.
 * 26th March, 2012 **

media type="file" key="IMG_0498.MOV" align="left" width="300" height="300"media type="file" key="IMG_0499.MOV" align="right" width="300" height="300" ** 1st April, 2012 ** Mrs Konle is always telling us that the best way to learn new programs on the computer is to try things and fiddle, like when we're learning how to use Powerpoint or anything on the iPad. Well, it's the same for her! Some of us have said that we can't see all of the videos that she has uploaded on to the blog. So, she asked a couple of IT people and played around with Ethan T and Emma's videos. By putting them on youtube on a private setting (which means that no-one can see them except her) she is then able to do something called 'embedding' by clicking on the 'share' button. This means that she doesn't have to deal with huge files taking ages to load onto the blog as the file has already loaded onto youtube. She thinks it's important to repeat that although it plays as a youtube video, no-one else has access to it, except it appearing on this blog. Let's hope that this solves the problems of not being able to view our videos in the future! media type="youtube" key="cGZVL3bwD-k?rel=0" height="338" width="452" align="left"media type="youtube" key="AYgj5iCxRxQ?rel=0" height="338" width="452" align="right"