February 9 Grade 1: Basketball

As students have started a new Unit of Inquiry "Play and Learn" we talked about the inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, and about the first basketball game. We even learned that when Mme Nora was a girl, one of her high school teachers was Dr. Naismith's grandson!

Students then learned about concurrency in computer programming and made a ScratchJr project that made the cat dribble the ball to the basket, which required to separate scripts to run simultaneously.

February 2, Grade 1: ScratchJr Dance

Today students created SratchJr projects in which two characters danced. We used two new blocks: "Start when bumped" and "Repeat forever". Excellent work all round!

Grade 1: ScratchJr Photo Sprites

Last class, the grade 1 students learned how to create a new Sprite in ScrachJr that included a photo. Every student then applied this new skill to create a Sprite that was a photo of their model animal made for their Habitats Unit of Inquiry. Excellent work all round!

Grade 1: January Lessons

In January, we were all very excited to start using ScratchJr on the iPads. Students are working on programs that:

• make a car drive along a road
• have three animals, travelling at different speeds, race across a scene
• show friends having fun at at dance party.

Students have been very engaged in these activities and have had great success!

Grade 1: December Lessons

In December, the Grade 1 students explored computer science concepts using hands on classroom activities and the Kodable Class app on the iPads. We practised following conditional statements as done in Kodable by walking on coloured squares in the classroom. We learned about the the very first computer "bug" (there was once real moth stuck in a computer that made it not work!), and tried out the Bugs Below Kodable levels. Some students even started to the Function Junction Kodable levels!

In an activity relating to the Unit of Inquiry about Air, students learned how to find the e-mail app on the iPads, open a message and follow a link to see images of air pollution in Beijing.

Grade 1: November 25 - Looping and Pattern detectors

This week, students used a "pattern detector" (a short pipe cleaner bent into an "L") to help find the paths in Kodable where the Looper feature should be used. To be able to use the Looper, there needs to be at least two spots, right side by side, where the pattern detector fits.