We have started using Minecraft Education Edition in our Coding lessons!

When I first mentioned to my Intermediate Phase classes that our new A3 Microsoft license provides every student with access to Minecraft Education Edition, there was such excitement in the air!

What is MinecraftEdu?

Minecraft education edition is a game- based learning platform that can be used in all subjects to encourage the 21st skills of creativity collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Students really enjoy using this program when it is combined with the curriculum.

Getting started with Minecraft

Teachers often feel – how can I use this platform and how do I get started? I felt like that and was encouraged by the YouTube video about Katja Borregaard, an educator at Skt Josefs Skole in Roskilde, Denmark. She claimed one doesn’t have to be a gamer or an expert in Minecraft: Education Edition in order to get started. She took the plunge and got started for the sake of her learners, and she has never looked back. 

           

I started with Grade 7 and Grade 6 in Coding lessons. I was fortunate in that my students are already very knowledgeable about Minecraft – so they were able to teach me! We started with the Hour of Code Minecraft Education Edition activities. found on the Minecraft platform.  In these activities, the he students have to solve quests using coding. Here are some of our photos.

 

This is game-based learning! We are all learning such a lot! As we go along I will post more posts showing how we are using MinecraftEdu in our lessons.

Create lovely Google Site headers using Canva

This term the Grade 6s and 7s have been creating websites to use as digital portfolios. They used Google Sites for their websites and made their Google Site headers using Canva. Canva is a wonderful graphics online application. As a teacher I could apply to get Canva free for myself and all my students - my application was successful, so all the classes use Canva. The students came up with the loveliest of designs.

Learner examples

How did we go about making the website headers? 

Once again I found a relevant Youtube video to use to teach myself the steps. Here is an example of one of the videos that I followed for guidance  - 'How to Create Custom Banner and Buttons for Google Sites' from Vestal's 21st Century Classroom Channel:  https://bit.ly/3x5CkkV.

Create beautiful websites using Google Sites and Canva together

The Grade 6s and 7s have been creating websites to use as digital portfolios throughout the year. They used Google Sites for this. Of course, Canva, my favourite graphics application, helped the students create stunning sites.

How to create website buttons using Canva

They made superb headings for their websites using Canva  (see previous post) and they also created attractive buttons for each page using Canva. They used the following headings (we brainstormed the ideas for these headings based on last years ICT work): 
- About me
- My blog
- My stories
- My other writing
- My projects
- My videos and graphics
- My coding examples

They have started uploading this term's work to their digital portfolios, and so far have uploaded an 'About me video' and an 'I am' poem to their About Me page.

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

Learner examples

How did we go about making the website buttons? 

When I learn to do something, I usually find a relevant YouTube video or two, and then I create a relevant PowerPoint to guide my lessons with the learners. (You can see that I use Google Workplace and Microsoft interchangeably!) I convert this PowerPoint to Google Slides and add it to my Google Classroom lesson so that it is always available for the learners to look at. (I use Google Classroom for every lesson). This procedure works really well for me. 

Here is an example of one of the videos that I followed for guidance in making buttons - 'How to Create Custom Banner and Buttons for Google Sites' from Vestal's 21st Century Classroom Channel:  https://bit.ly/3x5CkkV.

Use Dance Party for your next Hour of Code - it is great fun!

Although we do Coding lessons at school every two week with our Grades 1 - 7 classes, we always love to end the term with an Hour of Code, and obtain a certificate. We were delighted to find that Dance Party was available as an Hour of Code session. 

What is the Hour of Code? 

The Hour of Code is a one-hour tutorial designed for all ages in over 45 languages. It is run in 180 countries from 7 - 12  December - although one can do it any time, like we do.  There are loads of different options to choose from based on your students' age https://hourofcode.com/za/learnThe Hour of Code is a global movement to introduce people of all ages to computer programming in a fun way, and it certainly achieves that. The students are awarded a certificate once they have completed their Hour of Code. Our students love it.

Here is a photo of the Grade 4s who loved using Dance Party for their Hour of Code at the end of this term.

 

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

Make an avatar for blogs or websites using www.cartoonify.de

 

What is an avatar?

At our school we use avatars as a replica of the student creating them. The students use online names when they create online sites such as a blog or sites, and they never put photos of themselves on their own sites - hence an avatar. One can use avatars for various purposes such as uploading a profile picture to ta Google Drive profile, a Google classroom profile, and a blog or website profile etc.

Why use www.cartoonify.de?

The learners love creating avatars. I rather like this site, cartoonify.de, as no login or registering is required and the students can download their avatars in three sizes to their downloads folder. We always use the smallest size, 250 X 250 pixels.

Examples of the created avatars 

Here are a few examples of the avatars made by the learners:

Let your primary school learners create Blogger blogs to use as digital portfolios

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

What is a blog?

Blogging is an online, digital form of writing that has always appealed to me as a teacher. I see blogging as an exciting way to enable my students to express their thoughts and share them with the world while learning the important lessons of online safety at the same time. We use blogs as digital portfolios so that the learners can show their families what they have created. We use Blogger because the teacher can have control over the blogs.

The amount of learning that can happen through blogging is very beneficial. The students not only learn about online safety, but also about formatting, editing, and how to work with images and videos as they work on their blogs. best is they are creating!

The classes were able to create lovely headers in Canva and they added their avatars and poems to their blogs as well.

Examples of our blogs

Use Google Sheets to create a Gingerbread House in Foundation Phase

The Grade 2s learned about using Google Sheets this term. Google Sheets is Google's version of Excel. I thought that I would use the story of the Gingerbread Man to teach the Grade2s about using Google Sheets. (I can't remember now where I originally got the actual Gingerbread house template from - but I love using it!)

1. First they listened to and read the story of the Gingerbread House on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoQyyB5xvLk.

 

2. Then they made an online Gingerbread Man.
https://www.janbrett.com/trim_a_jan_brett_gingerbread_friend.html 

3. After that they decorated a Gingerbread House using Google Slides.
https://bit.ly/3kWgQ3R

4. The final step involved learning how to use Google Sheets and copying a Gingerbread House from an example.

I blurred our learner's face using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

Use Lunapic to blur faces on images

Lunapic, (https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/), is a free online photo editor that can blur a face once you upload a photo to the site. I use this site constantly when I want to blur faces from my classes in a photo. I am writing this post to remind myself how to do this! 

  1. Go to https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/) and select ‘Upload'. You can also select 'Upload' directly under the title on the image. 

2. Upload your photo.  Then go to DRAW /  BLUR. Select the area you want to blur and draw a box over the face. Then click on 'APPLY BLUR'. The face is blotted out. 

3. Download your photo onto your computer and use as desired. Under the privacy policy, the site mentions that the images are automatically deleted from  Lunipic after editing. 

This is a very useful site

Create a simple quiz using a Canva blank presentation template

The Grade 4s were learning how to use Canva from scratch, so we decided that each one would create a quiz about a different group of animals. (Canva has a lovely selection of presentation templates. However, we decided to use a blank presentation for this lesson so that we could learn more about Canva.) We thought decided that one slide would say 'What is this?' and the next slide would have the answer.

In doing this we learned about text size and effects, text placement, how to set an image as a background, and many more aspects of Canva.

Here are some examples of the resulting presentations:

Animal quiz by Carch shared by Fiona Beal

Wild Animals Quiz by Isamum shared by Fiona Beal

Farm Animals quiz bu Kylrob shared by Fiona Beal  

In the image below we see the three quizzes shown above, on the topics of Insects, Farm Animals and Wild Animals, being displayed on the learners' Chromebooks. In the lesson, after the quizzes were completed, the kearners each presented theirs to the rest of the class as a general knowledge quiz. 

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

The Grade 2s - 7s participated in World Read Aloud Day 2022

  

Today was World Read Aloud Day and we celebrated this in my Grade 2 – 7 ICT classes at school with Nali’bali. We downloaded Nal'ibali's #WRAD story,  A Party in the Park, on our Chromebooks, and we all read together in unison. Then we discussed the story in the form of an oral book review. The children loved it. 

Nal'ibali aimed to get 1 million families to pledge their family to read aloud the Nal'ibali special story on World Read Aloud Day 2022 - 2 February. If only parents could realise and embrace the importance of regular reading in brain development – if only they could see the big picture about this. They would then definitely make reading aloud to children a daily priority!

The importance of reading aloud to children

Here are some useful quotes from articles and studies about the importance of reading aloud to children: 

“Reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development, which helps build strong pathways in the brain and in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that can have life-long health benefits.”
- from '‘Reading to young children develops their brains.'   https://bit.ly/3KYQnxr 

"A child care provider reads to a toddler. And in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in these children’s growing brains respond. Some brain cells are ‘turned on,’ triggered by this particular experience. Many existing connections among brain cells are strengthened. At the same time, new brain cells are formed, adding a bit more definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry that will remain largely in place for the rest of these children’s lives.

Therefore, the more adults read aloud to their children, the larger their vocabularies will grow and the more they will know and understand about the world and their place in it, assisting their cognitive development and perception." (An excerpt from a study on toddlers’ cognitive development as a result of being read aloud to) - Quoted from:  https://www.all4kids.org/news/blog/the-importance-of-reading-to-your-children/

As we come out of the Pandemic, let's prioritise reading aloud to children in order to develop their reading skills. The long-term benefits are immeasurable.

Play Chromebook Bingo

              

Today was our first computer lesson of the year and the Grade 4-7s played Chromebook Bingo as a fun way to review our knowledge about navigating our Chromebooks.  I can't recall where I got this lesson from - an online conference I think, but it is wonderful.