I attended Scratch Day at MIT on Saturday. There were 200 people there, young and older alike, while thousands of other people around the world participated  in the learning and all using a program called Scratch to create new presentations. The whole program and process was new to me. It was first developed 5 years ago with the first Scratch Day occurring in 2007. Most of you are new to Scratch so let me just say it has some interesting applications in the classrooms and at home with young people. Basic skills needed to work with Scratch are some reading skills and an understanding of numerical value, to know that 12 is less than 21. I have been mulling over my own experience and trying to think of how I can use this program to enhance the learning experience for my students. I spent about 30-45 minutes working on this small action by my “sprite.” It was a fellow student (who happened to be about 10 years old) who helped me to get rid of some of the clutter in my coding and simplify the product. Click on the sprite and you will go to the Scratch page. Click on the sprite again and it will follow the little program I wrote for it.

This is what the program page looks like.

This is a link to the Scratch project page on nursery rhymes. You can’t tell by watching which are created by adults and which by children. My personal favorite is the Baa Baa Black Sheep one.

The brilliant minds at MIT are using a basic block construction in developing their program. Now take this simple building block approach to a higher level and you can see some applications for all kinds of robotics but it goes much further. I am really inspired by Mitchel Resnick, one of the developers of Scratch. Here is a Wonderful! video where Mitch is interviewed and explains the rationale far better than I can. Please take a look. You are sure to be inspired as well.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been studying and exploring Simple Machines. The key concepts I want the children to know and understand are:

• machines are all around us
• machines make work easier
• levers, inclined planes, and wedges are examples of simple machines

We have used Discovery Education and its United Streaming videos as part of our learning adventure. Here are  some clips of the children creating these simple machines. They declared it to be a really Fun Friday!

We made our first trip to the vernal pool this week. We were prohibited from visiting it in the fall due to concerns about a possible outbreak of the West Nile Virus in our area. The children were very excited about this impromptu trip and voiced much excitement and misinformation, as well as anxiety about what our trip would involve. Will we be taking a bus? Will there be bears in the woods? Here is a class picture taken by the biggest tree in the pool area.

From beginning to end, I recorded some of the happenings and thinking going on. Here is a link to the video prepared after all was said and done. It is another wonderful example of Kindergarten science in action. A side benefit to this experience is the developing language skills of the students. More and more are asking to participate in sharing their thoughts and observations.
Click on the Google Video logo and choose full screen for a bigger image.

This week, our class used Mac laptops alone for the very first time. We explored the installed software StoryBook Deluxe. While there were a number of questions, the children seemed more than happy to click away. When they really got stumped with an error type message, they called for help. The friends at their table were also happy to jump up and show them how they could do something cool. As for Mrs. Piper and I, we were more than happy with the end result. I have signed up for the cart again this Friday afternoon for the short time we have during rest. It is reserved for big blocks of time for much of April already. We will try to steal a bit of time whenever possible. Here is a short video of some of the students as they try to explain what they are doing. Once again, I emphasize the importance of developing good language skills. Explaining their own processing requires higher level thinking skills. Great stuff from some great kids!!!
Click on the Google Video logo and choose full screen for a bigger image.

Kindergarten students examine plants with magnifying glasses and talk/write about what they have seen and thought.