mrsdonoatpandh

Fourth grade is working on a Poem Maker this week.

It works a little like Mad Libs. Try it!

Here are some favorite poets:

Shel Silverstein

Jack Prelutsky

and more?

We are working on learning our math facts well, so that we can get high scores for speed! The website that is helping us is: xtramath.org.  So far Second through Fourth at the Hajjar are signed up, and we are hoping that all the Parker Second through Fourth-graders will be on board this week.

Parents need to get the parent flyer from their child, to sign their child up properly in their class. There is a special enrollment code on the flyer that connects the student to their class.  After parents click “Enroll” (not “sign up”) they will then type in the code. That is only a one time thing.

Each child also has a PIN number for logging in every time.  We are logging on together in school, for the first time, so that we get the hang of it.  If parents have any questions, they can email Mrs. Donoghue at cdonoghue at billerica.k12.ma.us.

This week in the lab, I put some Muppet wallpaper on the desktops of the student computers, and the kids loved it! Many asked how to get it on their home computer. Here is the website where I got the Kermit face (and there are others there as well! http://disney.go.com/muppets/#/characters

If kids would like to use Google Earth at home, it is a free  program accessible here: <a href=”http://earth.google.com/intl/en/”>http://earth.google.com/intl/en/</a>

It will have to be downloaded to your computer, and then kids can use  it from home the same way as they do at school.   “Fly to” should be  clicked in the top left corner, not Directions.

Layers should be unchecked if the kids are not using them, and the  opposite is true: they should check the layers they are using.   The 3D  Buildings layer is great for cities, and the kids can use Shift-Drag (the  Mouse)  to tilt the perspective and see how tall the buildings are.

Under the Gallery layer, there are 360 Cities, GigaPan and GigaPxl  photos that the kids can see.  When they click those, it is as if they  are jumping into a “bubble” and looking around. The photos are real.   The little triangle next to Gallery should be pointing downwards.

Email the teacher with any questions: cdonoghue@billerica.k12.ma.us

If any students are looking for Hurricane information, I have pulled together some cool links here:

For Hurricane pictures, satellite imagery, and maps, try the NOAA site

For hurricane preparedness, try the FEMA website that is especially for kids or the Discovery Channel site

You could look around the National Hurricane Center of the United States

The National Weather Service website is here for current forecasts

The kids have been very excited in this month of June to try a few new things in class.  If they want to continue, on a rainy day at home, they can try the mini-golf game from a Mac but unfortunately not a PC. The link is here.

Kids love to play on Kerpoof.com and that is on the internet and available to Mac or PC users. Click here to get to Kerpoof.

Thanks to the third graders, we now have a great list of Top Things to do this Summer!

Students tried the newest version of Google Earth last month, and they walked around town with Street View. Thanks to Mrs. Reid, the former Hajjar/Parker Computer teacher, Billerica Center looks amazing in 3d. Just go to 460 Boston Road, Billerica, with Google Earth Street View, and then jump into 3d mode! It’s beautiful. Mrs. Reid has been working hard on modeling all the Center buildings.