Open Court Reading Program

This week, each of the classes will be working on a phonics/reading program that coincides with our school reading program, Open Court by SRA. This program is a nice supplement to what they are learning in the classrooms. The Kindergarten students work on letter sounds by listening to a short poem for each letter of the alphabet. They also practices locating certain letters in the poem and practice the formation of the letters. The Grade 1 and Grade 2 programs consist of short stories that the students read and listen to, while trying to locate certain letter sounds in the story. The students really enjoy using this program and it really helps to reinforce what they are learning in their classrooms1

Keyboarding Software

Hi. I have had some parents who have asked about the keyboarding program that we use here at the KES computer lab. We are using a Sunburst program called Type To Learn Jr. This program helps students to locate the letters on the keyboard and uses color coding to teach students which keys are used by the left hand and which key are used by the right hand. Again, at this age we just want the students to be able to develop their mouse skills, and be able to locate certain keys on the keyboard.This program is put out by Sunburst Technologies. On their website they offer free 30-day product trials of many software titles.

What We're Doing This Week

The KES students have enjoyed using a great website- STARFALL.COM
Starfall is a phonics based site that is as fun and engaging as it is educational! The kids LOVE it. It has 4 levels of activities that range from pre-reading(alphabet, letter recognition) to reading different genres (short stories,Greek mythology fiction and non-fiction). The site also has fun extras such as holiday-themed learning games. Check it out here.

WELCOME!

Welcome to the KES Computer Lab Blog! I set up this blog to share some information about what we are doing in the computer lab at Kingston Elementary School and to share some resources that I find are helpful and/or interesting. I hope that students and their families will enjoy viewing this blog and I encourage you to make comments, ask questions, and share your own information.
Thanks!