year 2

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WONDERful WORKSHOP

Wonder Workshop is WONDERFUL – see what I did there?

 

Inspiring the up and coming generation in using digital technologies can be a challenge at times, especially with maintaining attention.  But Wonder Works provides colourful and engaging resources which develop students confidence and competency in using and manuvering their skills with digital technology.

Subject

Digital Technologies

Year Level

Foundation to Year Two

Strand

Knowledge and Understanding

Sub Strand

Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose

Resource Link

https://www.makewonder.com/play/ideas/

Price

Free resource information – price varies on suggest apps for lesson plan templates

 

Cross Curricular Capabilities

The resources suggest that these apps can assist in most learning areas as it is used to consolidate content specific learning which fosters play based learning.

For Example – Using Go App

 

English: – Literacy (Foundation – Year 2)

Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
  • Interpret and analyse learning area texts
  • Navigate, read and view learning area texts
Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
  • Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts
Word Knowledge
  • Understand learning area vocabulary

For example – Using Blockly

 

Math: Chance ( Year one and two)

Year One – Identify outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language such as ‘will happen’, ‘won’t happen’ or ‘might happen’

  • justifying that some events are certain or impossible

Year Two – identify practical activities and everyday events that involve chance. Describe outcomes as ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’ and identify some events as ‘certain’ or ‘impossible’

  • classifying a list of everyday events according to how likely they are to happen, using the language of chance, and explaining reasoning

 

Easy Lesson Plans

Example –  Heads or Tails

 

 

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Classroom Designs

What does your classroom look like?

Subject: Design and Technology

Year: 2

Strand: Process and Production

Sub-Strands: Designing

Content Descriptor:
ACTDEP006 – Generate, develop and record design ideas through describing, drawing and modelling
ACTDEP007 – Use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions

Cross-Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities:
–Sustainability
-Numeracy
–Critical and Creative thinking
-Information and communication technology (ICT) capability

Links to Other Learning Areas: Mathematics
ACMMG037 – Compare and order several shapes and objects based on length, area, volume and capacity using appropriate uniform informal units

Platform:
iPads
Website: http://classroom.4teachers.org

Overview:
This activity helps to develop students concept of designing a classroom using shapes to outline objects. The activity would be completed in a geometry lesson and looking at students recognition of shapes. Students will look at objects around the room and position them on their own template by incorporating various shapes to represent different objects. Once students have drawn their objects, they then need to use shapes in the website classroom architect to represent a layout of a classroom. The app allows you to print the final products to assist in assessment.

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Roald Dahl

Marvellous Medicines Creations
Influenced by Roald Dahl’s, George’s Marvellous Medicine

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: 2

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-Strand: Process and Production skills

Content Descriptors:
ACTDIP003– Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively
ACTDIP004– Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems

Cross Curriculum Priorities 
-Sustainability

General Capabilities:
-Literacy
-Critical and Creative Thinking
-Information and communication Technology (ICT) Capability

Links to other Learning Areas – Literacy
ACELA1470 Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose

Can use on a:
– PC
– APPLE products such as MacBooks and Ipads
Digital devices must have word and or powerpoint (Which ever you chose)

Overview of activity:
The unit of work is based from the text: Roald Dahl: George’s Marvellous medicine.
Students will be developing the concept of informative texts throughout reading the text and ability to create their own marvellous medicine. Students will use multi modal representations to show the instructions on how to make a marvellous medicine that they have created. This unit of work integrates digital technologies and links with Language, giving students a broader context of literacy components including capital letters, commas and full stops; as well as writing instructions with appropriate audience in mind.

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Kahoot

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year level: Years 1 – 6

Strand: Digital Technologies processes and production skills

Years 1- 2: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Share and publish information in a safe online environment, with known people (ACTDIP006)

Years 3-4: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Work independently, or collaboratively when required, create and communicate ideas and information safely (ACTDIP013)

Years 5-6:Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Create and communicate information, including online collaborative projects, using agreed social, ethical and technical protocols (codes of conduct) (ACTDIP022)

Link to the resource: https://getkahoot.com/

Cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities:

  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
  • Literacy (LIT)
  • Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT)
  • Personal and Social Capability (PSC)
  • Intercultural understanding

Links to other learning areas:

Kahoot can be incorporated in all learning areas including; Literacy, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, Society and Environment, Religion and Science.

A classroom activity using this resource:

Kahoot! can quickly become a go-to for teachers looking for an engaging way to run checks for understanding, act as an assessment tool or act as a concluding lesson activity. This engaging, motivating and interactive resource allows students’ to develop their computational and critical thinking by analysing and organising data. This resource allows students to either collaborate with peers or work individually.

Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform, that makes learning fun and engaging for all subjects, languages, ages, abilities and on any device. This resource is used to create quizzes, class discussions or even surveys. Students are able to easily access the application by logging in with a specific game pin, generated by a teacher once they have created or selected a classroom quiz. Students have the opportunity to create their own quizzes which can also be shared (Kahoot, 2017).

I have seen this resource implemented within a classroom and I was extremely impressed with how engaged and motivated all students are when completing the task. Kahoot! created a social, fun and game-like learning environment for all.

How to use this resource:

 

Reference List

Kahoot! learn happy, learn loud (2017). Retrieved from https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works

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Codeable Crafts

Codeable Crafts provides children a gentle introduction to computer coding skills. Students have access to record, animate, share and review drawings. Templates are made available for students to name, animate using coding blocks and attach voice recordings before sharing anonymously. Start your students’ coding capabilities safely and easily with Codeable Crafts.

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: K-3

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-Strands:

Knowledge and Understanding Digital Technologies:

  • Explore components of hardware and software and their use

Process and Production Skills:

  • Follow, describe and represent algorithms
  • Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively

Content descriptor examples:

  • playing with and using different digital systems for transferring and capturing data (ACTDIK001)
  • collecting, and sorting data through play (ACTDIP003)
  • experimenting with very simple, step-by-step procedures to explore programmable devices (ACTDIP004)

Why use Codeable Crafts in your classroom?

  • Simply drag puzzle shaped coding blocks to experiment with different concepts
  • Children create their own characters and stories
  • Save work to edit or build on at a later date
  • Share animations among peers in the class
  • Excellent cross-curricular opportunities

Platforms:

Android

Cost:

Free

Cross-Curricular Priorities:

  • Arts
  • English

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Cork the Volcano – Hands on Coding for Primary Students

 

 

 

 

 

Introduce your students to coding and continue to develop their skills throughout their primary years!

Use Cork the Volcano to teach students coding and engineering skills. Designed to be played in pairs, students also learn the fundamentals of teamwork, collaboration and participation. Puzzlet’s ‘plan, program, play’ model combines physical manipulation with digital play.

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: K-5

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-Strands:

Knowledge and Understanding Digital Technologies:

  • Explore components of hardware and software, and their use
  • Structure and representation of data

Process and Production Skills:

  • Collect, explore and sort data
  • Follow, describe and represent algorithms

Content descriptor examples:

  • exploring and identifying hardware and software components of digital systems when creating ideas and information (ACTDIK001)
  • experimenting with different ways of describing a set of instructions, for example writing two versions of the same simple set of instructions for a programmable robotic device (ACTDIP010)
  • applying the principles and elements of design to a set of requirements in order to produce a user interface for a system that addresses an identified need (ACTDIP018)

 

Why use Cork the Volcano in your classroom?

  • Students begin to think in ways they are not accustomed to while engaging in a game that extends their learning beyond a screen
  • Students have the opportunity to physically manipulate their codes and see the results of their plan
  • Availability to curriculum links and lesson plans here

Platforms:

Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Cost:

App is free

Packages start from $99.99

Cross-Curricular Priorities:

  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Literacy

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Move The Turtle

Screen Shot 2016-08-09 at 8.40.32 pm

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: 1-5

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub Strands:  

  • Process and Production Skills

Content Descriptors Examples:

  • Use data to solve a simple task/problem (ACTDIP003)
  • Share and publish information in a safe online environment, with known people (ACTDIP006)
  • Use visually represented sequenced steps (algorithms), including steps with decisions made by the user (branching) (ACTDIP011)
  • Create a sequence of steps to solve a given task

Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities:

  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Information and Communication Technology
  • Literacy
  • Numeracy

Links To Other Learning Areas:

  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • The Arts (Media Art)

Click here to visit the Move the Turtle webpage.

Platform: iOS (iPad, iPod and iPhone)

Cost: $2.99

Move The Turtle in the Classroom:

Screen Shot 2016-08-09 at 9.20.38 pm
Move the Turtle is a fun and engaging way to learn programming procedures. Each new level of achievement increases in difficulty and teaches a new command that directs the turtle to make a sound, draw a line, reach a star etc. It also has a free play ‘compose’ option which allows students to move the turtle however they want.

By completing the sequenced tasks, students learn:

  • How to plan complex activities composed of simple elements
  • How to reuse previously completed work
  • How to use graphics, spatial orientation and sound in programming
Sphero- SPRK Edition
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Sphero- SPRK Edition

SPHERO-1

 

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: Year 2

Strand: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Content Descriptor: Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems

Elaboration: Experimenting with very simple, step-by-step procedures to explore programmable devices, for example providing instructions to robotic devices to move in an intended manner, such as following a path around the classroom.

Link to the resource:

http://www.sphero.com/education

Lesson adapted from: http://www.timberdoodle.com/Articles.asp?ID=387

General Capabilities:

  • Numeracy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Information and Communication Technologies
  • Personal and Social Capability

Links to other Learning Areas:

Mathematics, Science

Description of the resource:

Sphero is the latest in programming technology for kids and adults alike. This device is a robotic ball that can be controlled by the tilt, touch or swing of an iPhone or tablet device. Compatible with both Apple IOS and Android applications via blue tooth, it is single or multi-player allowing you to engage in a virtual world while playing in the real world.

If you draw a shape on your tablet, Sphero will follow.

Swing your iPhone like a tennis racket, Sphero becomes the ball.

SPRK_Blog_Photo_3_sspngp

A classroom activity using this resource:

Incorporating the mathematics concepts of time, speed and distance through experimentation (science) and collecting of data. The settings on Sphero needed for this activity are roll and stop.

Before getting started ensure that Sphero is connected to the iPads and are aimed in the correct direction. Students place masking tape on the floor at the starting point. Program the speed and time in which students wish Sphero to roll (Start with 3 seconds as a minimum and a low speed and gradually build by changing one of the variable). When ready, press play on the device and allow it to roll. Mark again with masking tape how far Sphero rolled. Students can use a measuring tape to measure the distance that Sphero rolled. Students should records the results before changing a variable (speed and/or time) and continuing.

This activity can be adapted for higher level students by considering other variables and including more complicated commands such as changing directions.

Sphero SPRK Inspiring in the Classroom:

 

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SparkleFish

sparklefish-logo

“The world we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
–Albert Einstein

How will SparkleFish benefit your students?

Using this creative application will give your students the opportunity to construct their own understandings of word formations and sentence structures.

SparkleFish encourages students to explore and discover the different kinds of vocabulary such as adjectives, nouns, verbs and exclamations that may be found within a piece of writing.

This application guides students in creating vocabulary that can be rearranged in their own order to, enhancing key understandings of literacy concepts.

Students are able to practice using their voice projections and pronunciation, an opportunity to improve and reflect on their own skills throughout the experience.

How would Scratch work in your classroom?

SparkleFish is an application which provides audio/visual instructions for students to record their voice. Each instruction asks students to record themselves speaking particular vocabulary e.g. animal, noun, body part etc. Using the student driven words, the application processes all words to make a story.

Students are able to use the “buzz” words and story lines to construct their own creative writing.

Students are encouraged to be imaginative when adding different types of words to their stories.

saying-later-words-ipad-sun-girls-800w

How would you integrate Scratch within the curriculum?

Below is an example of SparkleFish used in a year 2 digital technologies lesson.

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: 2

Strand: Digital Technologies –Processes and Production Skills

Sub Strand: Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and characters from literary texts (ACELT1593)

Cross Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability

Links To Other Learning Areas: English

Activity: SparkleFish can be used to extend students’ skills within a literacy activity. During a creative writing lesson, the application allows students to think of new and creative ways to start a story. Prompting various forms of vocabulary, SparkleFish teaches students the correct format and creative ways to use adjectives, nouns, verbs etc. throughout a story. Students are able to construct their own unique piece of writing with the correct vocabulary and format.

How do you use SparkleFish?

Where do i find SparkleFish?

http://sparklefishapp.com

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Tynker

TynkeTynkerLogo_Fotorr is a browser-based application used to teach your students how to program as they create games and animated projects. Tynker can be used on any computer (desktop, laptop, notebook, Chromebook) with an internet connection. It can be used on an iPad, however some features are not supported. As it is browser-based, it works best in Google Chrome and Safari browsers.

Students can easily learn to code using the visual programming language by solving fun puzzles and creating original projects and games. Students gain an excellent foundation in programming and computational thinking, preparing them to transition to any mainstream object-orientated programming language.

Tynker has multiple learning modules; allowing students to work at their own pace, with each lesson is designed to run between fifty and sixty minutes. As it is browser based, students are able to work from home if the activity is not completed within the specified lesson. Tynker has been created to keep students engaged from start to finish and Tynker also caters for a variety of learning styles.

Teachers are able to assess their students’ learning through creating a multiple-choice questionnaire at the end of a module.

Each student is able to create a unique project, which can then be shared with friends and family.

For more information on Tynker, visit: https://www.tynker.com/?t=reset

    Subject: TechnologiesTynker

    Strand: Digital Technologies – Knowledge and Understanding

    Sub-Strand: Representation of data

    Year level: Year one to year six

 

Cross-curriculum priorities and General Capabilities:

  • Literacy;
  • Numeracy;
  • Information and Communication Technology;
  • Critical and Creative Thinking; and
  • Personal and Social Capability.

Links to other learning areas:

  • English;
  • Mathematics;
  • Science; and
  • The Arts (Visual Arts). 

How to use Tynker:

Visit the Tynker YouTube channel for a variety of short videos, including how to get you and your class started: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2MAKe5X7pohhiMZ4nzdInA

Below are a couple of suggested YouTube clips for you to view:

What is in a Tynker lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bko9qtCeb2A

Preparing for your first Tynker lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmTbED57tes

 

References:

ACARA. (2015). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from http://v7-5.australiancurriculum.edu.au

SCSA. (2014). Digital Technologies. Retrieved from http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-     browser/technologies/digital-technologies2

Tynker. (2015). Tynker – Programming courses for kids. Retrieved from https://www.tynker.com

Tynker. (2016). Tynker. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2MAKe5X7pohhiMZ4nzdInA