Taipei European School -January 2012 ICT Newsletter
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 1:31PM iPads and iPod Touches
iPod touches
At the end of last school year the reception classes inherited 13 iPads and are being used in the classes nearly every day and in every ICT lesson. With the success that these have brought to the classroom and the many cross-curricular aspects to learning I have now purchased 13 iPod touches for use in Juniors too.
So far these are being trialed in Years 3 and 5 for in-class work and ICT lessons. These are expected to be available across the other year groups by Easter. Please ask your child about the learning taking place and the apps we are using as this is very much transferable to the everyday creativity you can share on your phone or tablet.
Reception
The children in Reception are continuing with there iPad projects and are now getting more and more complex. Last term we were combining the use of the camera app and how to frame a photo with apps that allow us to import pictures. As you can see here with Puppet Pals and Pete the Cat!
This term we are beginning to make our own animations using DoInk.com and their iPad app. So far we have made a Very Hungry Caterpillar and made it move. Now to make the story come true. Easier said than done!
Scratch projects
Games and Programming were the focus of last term's Scratch projects. The notable changes were to the learning taking place in Year 2 and Year 6. Year 2 took on a more in-depth approach to playing a game where they set rules and controls according to their friend's ideas. A lot more sharing took place and in-turn a lot more experimentation too. Well Done Year 2!
The other changes to the our approach was in Year 6. Where the children took control of their learning by setting their own targets for every lesson to achieve the bigger goal of a finished game. We learned that we do not always have to work alone when dealing with the internet and this is even more true when making computer games.
On the Scratch Website there are many games made for youto use and take apart. These 'peices' can be used to form your own unique game from other people's games - we call them 'Mash-Ups'. It means we can make a fully functioning game by recylcling other games. Well done Year 6.
Go to: scratch/glennmalcolm to see the Games the Year 5 Children have made and the Year 6 'Mash-Ups'
Juniors
Movies and Film Making
The Video and Film Making topic is upon us this term and will continue through to Easter for Years 3 -6.
Year 3 and 5 (as mentioned above) are using the iPod touches to make their movies. In these devices the children are using the iMovie App to build the movie from stills and moving intros and outros. They will, respectively, make a film narrative based on the changes made to our local area - the Government building being built and the changes to the area outside school. These, hopefully will be on our school site and my website too. Year 5 will be making a film based on the stories they have made in Literacy and linked to their Greek myths topic too.
An Introduction to using the iPod Touches and iPads for making movies in Year 5. The rest of the year group made their films using the iPods with the now infamous "Cake or Death" routine by Thorn2000 on YouTube
Year 4 and 6 are making something slightly different. Respectively, they are scripting and creating news reports based on good news around the world with a link to weather within a general news bulletin type scenario.
Year 6 will be scripting, recording, narrating, acting and green screening (see picture) their films. The films are based on the the creative stories they wrote just before Christmas working from a basic setting of 'The Factory". This will be the first time the children have used a green screen here in TES and we should end up with some very creative finished products. The finished videos will be posted to our school Vimeo.com/taipeieuropeanschool pages.
Infants
Super Heroes
Year 1 and 2 are embarking on the word processing topic with Year 2 at the beginning of their extended Super Hero theme. This theme encompasses many topics at once where the idea is that the children really take ownership of their theme. This week and last they have designed their super hero here and are now ready to design and build the front page of their comics. The comics are then story boarded and fleshed out into full stories.
Some editing takes place and then they embark on a word processing topic with the added enjoyment that the children know this is their own right from the beginning. Each comic is then filmed in the final term using screen capture technology and narrated by the children themselves. The end of May should see the films uploaded to our school Vimeo.com pages.
Year 1 are working on a similar word processing project too whereby the end product is a picture book in A6 size and 6 sides long. The link below takes you to the web page we will be using. The children learn about typing correctly before typing freely about images they are using on Purple Mash and then making their books online. Please look at the links below.
Internet safety
There will be upcoming event for parents both in KS1 and KS2 and this will be communicated with you nearer Easter. The reason I mention this to you first is that the topic is a combined effort of me and you together. We make our focus that the children are aware of what's appropriate and how to act upon common sense should anything arise while they are gaming, chatting or on Facebook.
I post this booklet for your added reading on Facebook and its uses especially now that Timeline is an extra feature.
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