Tech Time!! Learning to Code with our Learning Buddies!

Today, we worked with our Grade 5/6 Learning Buddies to work on coding! We had a great time trying to make our robots achieve the goals. They worked on simple codes and become more complex as they problem solved, had a little guidance and tried again to make the robot successfully achieve its goal! We love this time with our Learning Buddies and we love to 'play' in our learning! Watch for more activities as we dive deeper into these coding activities!  

Learning Buddies

Today, our Grade 5 learning buddies came to help us with some different Osmo activities. These activities are educational activities that touch on different skills like learning to code characters to accomplish tasks, translate 2D shapes, practice money concepts through owning a pizza shop, draw through spatial awareness, build numeracy and spelling skills all through play. We are grateful for the 'big' buddies to help our 'little' buddies to advance their learning through collaborative activities. 

 

Tech Tuesday

We are so fortunate to be able to have access to such amazing technology to expand our learning experiences and the learning buddies to support us as we begin our explorations!

Last week, we began to explore Matatalab coding kits. In this kit, students create code for a little robot to follow to move the robot from one spot to another on a grid. Students started out with a guided activy and thankful to have our big buddies around to help introduce us to this concept. Today's Tech Tuesday, we explored with a partner or small group to work together to see if we could accomplish similar tasks now that we have the hang of it. We were presented with some challenges to make our robot accomplish. 

We were so thrilled to get the chance to explore these activities today and look forward to upcoming Tech Tuesdays where we learn more coding, math and language through play and technology to increase our problem solving, critical thinking and perseverance skills.

Here are some snapshots from our time today with our Matatalab kits...

Learning to Code in Grade 1

We are learning how to code!! We used some robotic mice to give commands with forward, backward, left, right and go. We are learning all by making mistakes and seeing what we need to do to correct it. There is no harm in making a mistake here. Just try again and see what happens. Also lots of perseverance but also lots of successes to celebrate when we figure it out! We certainly love to code! It brings about some amazing executive functioning and problem solving skills. 

 

Our First Tech Tuesday!

We are so fortunate to be able to have access to such amazing technology to expand our learning experiences and the learning buddies to support us as we begin our explorations!

Yesterday, was our first Tech Tuesday adventure. We explored the Osmo activities and were able to try an activity we haven't gotten to play before at school. Some students were exploring shapes with Tangrams, some exploring numbers and subitizing, while others worked on letters or a coding game. We were so thrilled to get the chance to explore these activities today and look forward to upcoming Tech Tuesdays where we learn coding, math and language through play and technology to increase our problem solving, critical thinking and perseverance skills.

Here are some snapshots from our time with our Grade 4/5 Learning Buddies who were there to help us for our first time with these activities (they are kinda experts!)...

Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday!! Yesterday, we explored our Osmo kits with the help of our learning buddies!! Some tried a new activity, while others stayed with one they loved from a previous experience! Students are learning through literacy, math and coding activities without even knowing they are doing it! We are also building our perseverance, risk taking, problem solving and collaboration skills as we explore what these Osmo activites have to offer. 

Stay tuned as Tech Tuesday continues twice a month!    

Tech Tuesday!

 

Today, we explored the coding mice!! We had a mission to create a maze and get our mouse from the start to the cheese. Oh what thinking that took but we got the hang of it and didn't give up! We are excited to get these out another time to challenge our thinking, share what we have learned with our friends, and try a new route.  

Our 1st Tech Tuesday!

We are so fortunate to be able to have access to such amazing technology to expand our learning experiences and the learning buddies to support us as we begin our explorations!

Today, was our first Tech Tuesday adventure. We explored the Osmo activities and were able to try an activity we haven't gotten to play before at school. Some students were exploring shapes with Tangrams, some exploring numbers and subitizing, while others worked on letters or a coding game. We were so thrilled to get the chance to explore these activities today and look forward to upcoming Tech Tuesdays where we learn coding, math and language through play and technology to increase our problem solving, critical thinking and perseverance skills.

Here are some snapshots from our time today...

 

Tech Tuesday is Here!

  

December 2022

Dear Grade 1 Families,

The students, at South Perth Centennial Public School, have an amazing opportunity to engage in some rich, learning tasks through technology called ‘Tech Tuesday’. These will be held approximately bi-weekly in our class throughout the remainder of the school year with tomorrow as our starting point with our learning buddies to kick off 'Tech Tuesday'.

Goals of the Project

One of the main goals for this project is to address the application and thinking components of mathematics, as well as meeting the coding expectations in the updated math curriculum. With this project, we are looking to support problem solving questions in innovative ways to address the student’s ability to think critically about math based problems. ‘Tech Tuesdays’ will work through the problem solving models early in the school year to set the foundation of ways to problem solve that will engage and interest the students that can then be transferred to their math based problems. The very calculated steps to complete our ‘Tech Tuesday’ will be experiential learning on how we apply strategies, revise strategies and check our thinking. Increasing student’s ability to take risks and dive into a problem is essential to our application and thinking of math questions.

This project is curriculum based following a STEM model incorporating the four specific disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. STEM integrates these components into a cohesive learning paradigm based on authentic and engaging problem solving tasks. Our other goal is to start students early to experience innovative ways to explore the skills and components of what future jobs require as 21st Century learners. We are confident that through this experience, students will be using student voice and self-selection by offering them choice of activities and to build on skills that are transferable to math and science education, as well as learning skills combined with building positive character traits. We are looking to build and enhance problem solving skills (transferable to our math work and to our scientific/technological inquiries), specific learning skills (initiative, independent work, organization & self-regulation), as well as executive functioning, critical thinking, creativity, goal setting/reflection and perseverance. Coding has also been adding to our math curriculum starting in early primary.

Description of the Project

Investigation/Inquiry/Exploration - Students will engage in an introductory activity where they will explore in small groups activities, such as:

• Sphero Mini Robots
• Ozobots
• Osmo Kits
• Mouse Coding Robots
• Codespark
• Scratch Jr.

  ** other technology/activities will also be substituted due to access to class availability**

Through student voice, self-selection, and play-based learning, students will be able to explore new technologies that work directly with coding and executive functioning. After challenging themselves to process the mechanics of the technology, students will then select one to work with throughout their Tech Tuesday sessions. 

Skill Building/Problem-Solving Application  - As they become more familiar with the technology and what it can do, students will create or be guided to create a ‘challenge’ to complete with their technology (ie. create an obstacle course and run the sphero through the course, create a dance sequence with the beebot, etc.) later in the school year. 

Goal Setting & Reflection - students will be using the problem solving/scientific method to create a challenge/goal for themselves and pausing within the project to reflect on their goals and re-evaluating their strategies to reach their goals. Students will be either blogging or completing recounts about their experiences by answering questions such as:

What is my plan for reaching my goals?

What strategies can I use to help me reach my goals?

When I encounter obstacles, how can I solve this problem or redirect my learning pathway?

Who can I ask for help?

What worked to achieve my goals?

What could I have done differently or could be done differently in the future?

What skills have I had to use to complete this challenge?

We look forward to this exciting time in our classroom! If you have any questions about this program, or would like to discuss ‘Tech Tuesdays’ as a method of teaching and learning further, please contact me directly at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Ms. Nicole King
Grade 1 Classroom Teacher
Tech Tuesday Project Coordinator

Tech Tuesday

Today is Tech Tuesday!! We explored these little mice in our classroom. The challenge was to figure out how to make them move. Can you make it move around your chair without moving the chair? Lots of discovery and inquiry based learning going on today! Lots of questions students were asking each other about 'how do you...?' and lots of giggles when things might not have gone the way we wanted them too. Keep trying! 

Tech Tuesdays

 

November 2021

Dear Grade 1/2 Families,

The students, at South Perth Centennial Public School, have an amazing opportunity to engage in some rich, learning tasks through technology called ‘Tech Tuesday’. These will be held approximately bi-weekly in our class throughout the remainder of the school year with today as our starting point with an introduction to coding on CodeSpark where children were exploring how to give instructions (aka code) to characters in a game to complete tasks.

Goals of the Project

One of the main goals for this project is to address the application and thinking components of mathematics. With this project, we are looking to support problem solving questions in innovative ways to address the student’s ability to think critically about math based problems. ‘Tech Tuesdays’ will work through the problem solving models early in the school year to set the foundation of ways to problem solve that will engage and interest the students that can then be transferred to their math based problems. The very calculated steps to complete our ‘Tech Tuesday’ will be experiential learning on how we apply strategies, revise strategies and check our thinking. Increasing student’s ability to take risks and dive into a problem is essential to our application and thinking of math questions.

This project is curriculum based following a STEM model incorporating the four specific disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. STEM integrates these components into a cohesive learning paradigm based on authentic and engaging problem solving tasks. Our other goal is to start students early to experience innovative ways to explore the skills and components of what future jobs require as 21st Century learners. We are confident that through this experience, students will be building on skills that are transferable to math and science education, as well as learning skills combined with building positive character traits. We are looking to build and enhance problem solving skills (transferable to our math work and to our scientific/technological inquiries), specific learning skills (initiative, independent work, organization & self-regulation), as well as executive functioning, critical thinking, creativity, goal setting/reflection and perseverance. Coding has also been added to our math curriculum starting in early primary.

Description of the Project

Investigation/Inquiry/Exploration - Students will engage in introductory activities where they will explore in small groups:

·        Sphero Mini Robots

·        Ozobots                            

·        Osmo Kits          

·        Mouse Coding Robots

·        WeDo Robot Making

  ** other technology may need to be substituted due to access to class availability**

Through play-based learning, students will be able to explore new technologies that work directly with coding and executive functioning. After challenging themselves to process the mechanics of the technology, students will be more confident in their risk taking and problem solving abilities.

Skill Building/Problem-Solving Application  - As they become more familiar with the technology and what it can do, students will create or be guided to create a ‘challenge’ to complete with their technology (ie. create an obstacle course and run the sphero through the course, create a dance sequence with the beebot, etc.).  

Goal Setting & Reflection - students will be using the problem solving/scientific method to create a challenge/goal for themselves and pausing within the project to reflect on their goals and re-evaluating their strategies to reach their goals. Students will be either blogging or completing recounts about their experiences by answering questions such as:

What is my plan for reaching my goals?

What strategies can I use to help me reach my goals?

When I encounter obstacles, how can I solve this problem or redirect my learning pathway?

Who can I ask for help?

What worked to achieve my goals?

What could I have done differently or could be done differently in the future?

What skills have I had to use to complete this challenge?

We look forward to this exciting time in our classroom! If you have any questions about this program, or would like to discuss ‘Tech Tuesdays’ as a method of teaching and learning further, please contact me directly at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Ms. Nicole King                                   

Grade 1/2 Classroom Teacher

Tech Tuesday Project Coordinator

Tech Tuesday on Wednesday

Today we explored some more coding and programming through different technology. We know this is NOT Tuesday like we usually do but we had to work with when the kits were available ;) 

We sure do love to explore the different activities and get really involved. This might be the quietest and focused these little people are when you challenge them to code! They love making things work and sharing their achievements with their classmates! 

We have been working with OSMO Pizza Co., Coding Jam, Coding Adventures to Awbie, Tangrams, Letters and Numbers. Today, we also had special kits come called Matalab where there is a robot to code and with specific challenges. Half the class was working on the Matalab kits and half on their choice of OSMO activities. 

They are learning executive functioning skills, problem solving skills, critical thinking, and building perseverance as they challenge their own thinking. It amazes me what these little people can do when they take risks and just explore through these activities. 

 

Tech Tuesday

 

Tech Tuesday

 

Last spring, the local Optimist Club generously donated to our school a class set of Osmo kits. We are so excited to start to really explore these through our Tech Tuesday program. The level of excitement in our classroom today as we learned to use these was super high. The focus today was on math problem solving skills with building number sentences and tangrams. Students were super engaged and persevered as the programs naturally built on skill levels. Students are itching for the next Tech Tuesday where they get to try another one! 

  

Tech Tuesday

Today, the students were exploring the codes of programming an Ozobot! This is the second week for these little robots and figuring them out. These have been fantastic to let students take risks and knowing we might not get it the first time and try something else! Our time ran out and these little robots certainly left us wanting more today!

Tech Tuesday

Today was our next Tech Tuesday in our classroom. We spent time exploring the Mini Sphero robots. We had a big class discussion about how we might need to keep trying, ask a friend if we don’t know something and it’s ok to make mistakes. We sure had lots of smiles today!

Bee Robots

Today we explored how these little bee robots worked!! Perseverance and problem solving were skills we were working on today! How do they work? Students explored and tackled the challenge of trying to make the bee go all the way around the chair by programming the bee. Lots of smiles, some laughs and lots of button pushing today! 

Although our bees have to go back to the 'hive', we are have some other cool technology we will start explore on some Tech Tuesdays starting soon!!