Type at Home

Fourth and fifth graders are gearing up for another year with Type to Learn 4. You love this program! Some are disappointed to find that they cannot access Type to Learn at home, so I promised a few web-based alternatives to practice keyboarding:

TypingWeb:  at www.typingweb.com.
There are ads on this site, shown mostly while pages load. Don't bother with them, don't click on them. Just wait for the free program, which has lots of levels and starts right off with the home row keys, where your fingers need to rest. It will ask you to create an account before you start - but to practice, you really don't need to.

PowerTyping: at www.powertyping.com/. 
Not the prettiest typing program but it has the lessons you'll need! It's good practice!

BBC DanceMat Typing at www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ 
This keyboarding website from England and it's fun! Start at Level One and work your way up!

Bubbles: at www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles.asp. 
A fun game to help you practice your typing skills. In the game your goal is to burst the bubbles by pressing the correct key. Have fun!

Kids Learn 2 Type: http://kids.learn2type.com/
To use this one, you do need to create a free account, so ask a trusted adult to do that for you. 

Free Online Typing Course: http://www.goodtyping.com/

Keyboarding and Typing Skills: http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/students/keyboardingskills.asp

Ladybug Book #2: Bad Boys Get Henpecked

Alliteration is when words that go together have the same beginning sound, like this: brownish-blue beach ball. The second Ladybug Award nominated book we read was full of alliteration!

Bad Boy Get Henpecked is about two "bad, bad, really bad" wolves who try to fool a chicken into being their dinner! But in the end, the chicken is champ and the bad boys have PB & J. This book is very funny and we all loved it. We heard examples of alliteration on almost every page!

The author's name is Margie Palatini. Click here for her wonderful welcoming website!

2010 NH Ladybug Award

Each year, a panel of NH librarians choose ten new picture books as nominees for The Ladybug Award, an state award given annually based on the votes of young New Hampshire students. Voting takes place in November so most NHCS K-3 ICT classes in the fall feature the reading of one of the nominated picture books. After all, voters need to well-informed! Ask your student about them and we'll try to include some information about each of them on this blog as well. As Voting Day draws closer, our discussions about which book deserves to win inevitably become livelier!

Connections

This week, as classes listened to stories or chapters of books, we learned about the mental connections good readers make as they read. Sometimes a book reminds the reader of a personal experience - this is called a text-to-self connection. Often a story reminds the reader of another book. This type of connection is called text-to-text. Finally, the reader may be reminded of something that has gone on in the town, the country, or the world. This is a text-to-world connection.
Younger children listened to a story called The Messiest Desk by New Hampshire author Marty Kelley. It's the story of a student whose desk was so messy and gross that he got lost inside it! There were many text-to-self connections as children shared about messy bedrooms or closets or desks at school. There were text-to-text connections between this book and Too Many Toys by David Shannon, the story of a boy with so many toys that his whole house is messy! Finally, there was a text-to-world connection between The Messiest Desk and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - both were huge messes!
As you read a book or listen to a story, think of and talk about all the connections you can make! It's challenging and it's fun - and it's what good readers do!

Technology Defined

a yoyo - a car - a vacuum cleaner - a clock

Technology is something that's made or invented by a person to make work easier or to make play more fun. 
First grade listened to If You Take A Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff and found all sorts of technology in the illustrations. Then they drew pictures to show other types of technology they have at home.
What sorts of technology do you have at your house? How does it make your work easier or your play more fun? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Book Fair is Coming!

The Scholastic Book Fair is on its way to NHCS and is due to arrive this Tuesday! Since I'm not in New Hampton on Tuesdays, Mrs. McDonald has volunteered to help set it up so we are ready for Preview Day on Wednesday! Sales will commence Thursday morning and continue during the day and after school until 3pm. The Book Fair will reopen around 5:30pm, just in time for the Potluck Supper and Open House! Friday morning will be the  last opportunity to buy books, with volunteers coming around to classrooms to help last minute shoppers.
See you at the Book Fair!

Back to School

The LMC is decorated with
Eric Carle colors!

Welcome to another school year at New Hampton Community School! It was a busy and productive summer here in the Library Media Center, but it sure is wonderful to see children again! Lots of new things are going on here with details to come in subsequent posts. In the meantime, everyone has had their introductory ICT (Information and Communication Technology) class and, in the next few weeks, we'll be settling back into our routine.
Open House is earlier this year - it's on September 9th. The Book Fair will be here as well! Welcome back to school!