Koch's Kaleidoscope
News from Room 11 - September 16
Stop Motion News!
We have finally completed our stop motion videos! Well, Mrs. Koch still has to get them uploaded to Youtube to share with you all, but that part is coming. I have written about the ups and downs and posted four examples on my website. I think it was a fun and creative experience, overall. Your children have the most amazing imaginations. Some groups just built their set for the majority of the time, paying attention to every detail, other groups bantered back and forth about the story (what was happening next, who said what), even though they didn't realize the video wouldn't really be able to show all that was in their minds and hearts! ha ha! There are definitely some that turned out better than others, but keep in mind that a couple of groups got a little more help from me when theirs' were deleted or they lost pictures, etc., and most were done completely by themselves. The most important part will be when we evaluate and self-evaluate our work! Learning is a process, right? :)
Below is the link to my school Youtube channel where I've uploaded four of the videos. I'm working on the rest.
International Dot Day
We celebrated International Dot Day on Sept. 15th. We started by reading the book, The Dot, making our signature, and we created digital dots. Next week we will add to them by writing about what it means to us to "make our mark." This comes from the quote in the book, "Just make a mark, and see where it takes you." All the students digital dots are on my website under the "Pace 2nd Grade" tab. If your child has me for reading, you can see what we did to celebrate there too!
Coding
Students are getting further and further in Course 2 on code.org. They are having to learn their left from their right, for sure! Ha! But they also have to learn degrees (30, 60, 90, 120, 180) in order to solve their puzzles. They use the term "pixels" to figure out how long a line needs to be. I'll be honest, sometimes I hope they don't need to ask me any questions because it always takes me a while to figure it out as well. They've written many lines of code, and I'm proud of them for sticking to these puzzles even when the screen says TRY AGAIN multiple times.
Website
Check the website under 2nd Grade PACE to see our group slideshows on matter, some stop motion video examples, and our digital dots!