Cools Tool for the Little Kids- beyond Kid Pix

I have so many cool ideas and neat stuff for my 5th -8th grade I decided it was time to refocus and come up with project based instructional technology ideas for my little kids!

Here is what I have so far and I am hoping you all with share some ideas with me as well.

Lego Digital Designer- For my 4th graders Unit on Map Skills we talk about the Birds eye view and use Google Earth. We locate our school and neighborhoods. Next we design a house using Lego Digital Designer (free download). Then I bring in a Hige tub of lego's and the kids use real lego's to create models of their designs and we set them up in a neighborhood.

Brio Train design- My 1st and 2nd graders do a unit on transporation. Knex has a Brio on-line track creator that allows the children to snap together and create track layouts- Then the kids use the real brio to set up their own train layouts.

http://bubblemaker.freeonlinegames.com/ has a game that the kids use the bubbles to practice their mouse skills. I use this with my K and 1 group. In the fall I them outside and let blow bubbles. we talk a little about air and what makes bubbles. Then we go into the lab and we practice our mouse skills by using the bubble program where you blow bubbles to catch flowers.

Tags: 2.0, k-3, tools

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Permalink Reply by Ann on December 8, 2007 at 4:08pm

These are some great ideas. I still use Kid Pix a lot. I've been working on putting my lessons in one place on a wiki. I've been focusing on more word processing skills this year. Eventually, I'll add a section on the wiki for Word. Another thing I've been doing with K-4 is computer safety, manners, advertising, research, and technology via CyberSmart. In the first grade, I start having the kids color a keyboard chart. We go through a few letters a week. I have them color the keys that should be pressed with the left hand red and the right hand purple. The color scheme came from the Type to Learn Jr program I used. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with my new Intel iMacs. You can take a general look at what I do in each grade here. I've been doing a lot of new work with fifth through eight this year. Here are some links on my Schoolnotes page.

I'm looking forward with interest to replies that you get.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on December 8, 2007 at 9:52pm

I don't know if I've shared this list with you before but it is a list of the tools/software we are using at the Center. We are just starting some of them so I really don't have a lot of products ideas yet. We've added Animoto videos to the blog site and used Scrapblog and Photobucket slideshows as add ins for projects. Our little guys (2nd-3rd) use Dance Mat Typing to practice their keyboarding. Let me know what other good ideas you have.

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Irish on December 9, 2007 at 2:47pm

Ann,
We use Dance Matt typing as well also Typer sharks and I just downloaded Tux typing from the Tux paint people. I am looking into Comicblobs which is suppossed to be 3d modling program for the little ones. Edmark .com has trhe following thinking skill software for free download: Kinetic lab, Symbol sandbox, 2d3dBlocs, My frined (Mr. Potatoe Head). I used to have a program years ago that used gears to put together simple machones-I think it was by Sunburst- feel free to check out my wiki page as well at http://computerkiddoswiki.pbwiki.com
The first page has several sections: An overview, A section for St. Anthony's, a section for St. Mark, a teacher tools section, internet link section, interaction lesson area, and a parents section.
http://computerkiddoswiki.pbwiki.com

Nancy,
I added my Amin8tor files to my wiki for you in case you want to use them. Unfortunately my lesson plan and rubric I left on the server at my old school. I uploaded the links to the video's and tutorials I used with Amin8tor. It is at the top of the interactive lesson list at : http"//computerkiddoswiki.pbwiki.com