Merry Christmas CyberKids! Dec 11

Wow! The countdown has begun.

To make sure Santa Clause can make all his rounds on the 24th, let's offer him some advice and/or directions.

Let's go CyberKids, now it's your turn.

1) Go to this site: http://www.streetsigngenerator.com/

2) Choose a street sign

3) Type in your message ( remember you are limited to 21 characters and spaces)

4) Choose a suffix

5) Click on GENERATE STREET SIGN

CyberKids

November 27

CyberKids!

Today we are going to produce an image with a "catch-phrase or keyword". This image will then be uploaded onto your blog. The keyword should be associated with the theme of your blog.

1) Think of a "catch-phrase" or "keyword" which can be associated with your blog.
2) Go to this site: http://www.glassgiant.com/custom_keyboard/.
3) Type the word(s) and produce the image.

November 20

Good Afternoon Cyberkids!

Thursday is an important holiday in the United States. It is Thanksgiving Day. This is a day for reflection and a time for being thankful for what we have. People celebrate by having a big dinner for friends and family. The main dish is turkey and it is served with mashed potatoes and all the trimmings (stuffing, yams and cranberry sauce). Yum.

Below are some links for you to learn about this wonderful holiday.

History of Thanksgiving: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/

More about Thanksgiving: http://holidays.net/thanksgiving/

Thanksgiving jokes and games: http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-games.html

More Thanksgiving games: http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/thanksgiving/games.htm

Even more Thanksgiving games: http://www.history.org/kids/games/

November 13

Cyber Kids! Hooray! Each of you now have a blog of your own. Fantastic!

But now is the time to think about what you are going to include on it and how can you really use all the features that Blogger.com has to offer?

Check out Rory's blog for ideas - it is first rate:-)
His blog is located here: http://irelandforkids.blogspot.com/

The first thing that we are going to add to our blogs is a virtual pet! It will be a great addition/friend to your blog.

To adopt a pet follow these instructions:
-Go to http://bunnyherolabs.com/
-Click on the words Cyber Pets and follow the steps.
-Step 1) Choose a pet
-Step 2) Give your pet a name, Type your name, Choose a color for your pet:-)
-Step 3) Copy the code
-Click on Template in your blog
-Click on Add a Page Element and a box will open
-Choose HTML/JavaScript and click on Add To Blog (this will allow you to add the virtual pet)
-After the box opens PASTE the code into the box
-Click on Save Changes

Now open the blog in a new window and admire your work!

You are done! You did it! You have added a cyber pet to your site. Don't forget to feed it (hahahaha).

November 6 - Creating Individual Blogs

Welcome Back CyberKids! I hope you had an enjoyable break and are rested and ready to take a journey into cyberspace.

The time for each of us to join the millions of people in cyberspace and create his/her own blog has arrived (hooray). But what is a blog and why should you create one? Let's discuss that first. Blogging is a great way to explore a topic or interest and share it with others. In doing this you will using English as your communication tool so you will be practicing reading and writing in English without even knowing it:-)

In order to create a blog you need an email address. We will use Blogger (www.blogger.com) as our blog provider.

*Remember, it's really important to keep a record of your email address, your password for your email address, your blog username, and your password. Write this information in your diary so you won't forget it.

Happy Birthday Daire

October 16 - Time Machine

Another week has flown by!
I will collect your limericks and upload them to our blog;-)

Our activity for this afternoon is a bit different. Last week we visited sites that focused on the Age of Discovery and that got me thinking. . . Let’s use our imaginations and think of a time period (other than the current era) which you would like to visit if you had a time machine. Write a small paragraph explaining WHY you have chosen this time period. Collect some images from the internet to include. Let’s see what you come up with!!!!!

Columbus Day - October 10

Hi CyberKids. October 10 is Columbus Day in the United States. We are going to take this opportunity to indulge in many Columbus Day activities online.

• Columbus Day Word Puzzle - http://everythingesl.net/downloads/columbusday_puzzle.pdf
• Explorer's Routes - http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/botr/botr_009_23-24.pdf
• The Story of Columbus Day and Activities - http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/botr/botr_009_8-10.pdf
• Why Explorers Explored - http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/why.htm
• Make a timeline - http://abcteach.com/MonthtoMonth/October/timeline.htm
• Word Search - http://www.thepotters.com/puzzles/kids/columbus.html
• Paralaugh - Fill in the blanks and create a story - http://www.mrnussbaum.com/libs.htm
• The History Channel - http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1044

Check out this site for some cool games - Merchants of the Great Exchange and Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

THEN

We will write poems - Limerick

A limerick has 5 lines.

The last words of lines one, two, and five rhyme.

The last words of lines three and four rhyme.

A limerick has to have a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

An example is:

There was an old man from Peru

Who dreamed he was eating his shoe

He awoke in the night

With a terrible fright

To discover it was totally true

Limericks online - http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/limerickcontesthelp.html

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/limerick.htm

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/limerick.htm

Zé intends

Sebastião plans

Daniella hopes

Daire wants

October 2 - Welcome Back CyberKids!

School is now in full swing and we can settle in and have some fun combining English and Computers!

Our first task is designed to get each one of us thinking about what we would like to accomplish this year in CyberKids. What goals do you hav for your learning? What would you like to learn in regards to English? Are there any computer skills that you need to know?

1. Go to this web address: http://www.glassgiant.com/back_to_school
2. Write your message (goal that you wish to accomplish in CyberKids)
3. Choose "Chalkboard Type"
4. Click on "Show Message"
5. Right click on"Save As"
6. We will save the text to my pen drive and I will upload it to our blog.

It was that easy:-)

The end of Term 3

CyberKids,

We've come to the end of Term 3 and everyone is ready for a little down time. We've had a great term and we've learned a lot. I'm glad that you decided to spend an afternoon a week connecting language and computers (it's sooo much fun).

Have an enjoyable summer and I hope you join me for CyberKids 2 in the fall.

Beijinhos until then,

Ms. Dietrich

I like Club Penguin because . . .

Daire explains:
1) meet friends, 2) it's cool, 3) it rocks!

Maria announces:
1) lots of games, 2) meet my friends there, 3) even if you don't have a paid membership, there is lots to do!

Zé states:
1) it's fun, 2) meet cyber-friends, 3) it's kid-friendly

Carlos suggests:
1) it's fun, 2) meet new friends, 3) it's always available

Rory comments:
1) it's adventurous, 2) it's funny, 3) penguins and puffles are cute!

Francisco answers:
1) it's good, 2) can become members and buy stuff, 3) lots of games

Ulrica thinks:
1) it's fun, 2) can buy things, 3) can play games

Club Penguin

Club Penguin is everybody's favourite! It's the hottest game in school.

Our task for Tuesday, June 26 is to give 3 reasons why you like Club Penguin.

I like Club Penguin because; 1), 2), 3). (So easy:-)

Too bad. . .

CyberKids,
I'm really sorry that we were unable to complete our cartoon project due to technical difficulties with the computers. Let's try again next year.

If you make cartoons at home, please send them to me and I can upload them onto the blog!

Cartoon Madness

Today we are going to get in touch with our creative side and each of us will create a cartoon.


The site we will use is: http://toondoo.com/


Below is an example of a cartoon created in Toondoo.

Now it's your turn. Let's see what you can come up with.

And the question is. . .

You CyberKids are something else ;-).

Usually it's the teacher that asks the questions and the students provide answers. Today in CyberKids we did things differently. The teacher provided the answer, and the CyberKids then wrote questions to fit the answers. As usual, the CyberKids were on top of it. Way 2 go!

Here is what we came up with!

The answer is: GREEN
Carlinhos' question is: What color are leaves?

The answer is: A NEWSPAPER
Daire's question is: What is one of the things you can get news from?

The answer is: LOTS OF KITTENS
Daniella's question is: How many kittens do you have?

The answer is: CHOCOLATE
What is your favourite ice cream?

The answer is: AT MY SCHOOL
Maria's question is: Where is CyberKids?

The answer is: 2025
Rory's question is: What year will kids fly to school on hovercrafts?

The answer is: SPORTS
Ze´s question is: What are my favourite hobbies?

Questions . . .

How are you? What time is it? Whose pencil is this?

A question asks for information. But questions sometimes have other uses, especially questions with modal verbs (e.g. shall, could, can, would, may, etc.)
Here are some examples:
Making a suggestion: Shall we go then?
Requesting: Could you pass the sugar, please?
Offering: Can I carry something for you?
Inviting: Would you like to come to a party?
Asking permission: May I use your phone?

There are two kinds of question.

1. YES/NO Question - A yes/no question can have the answer yes or no: Are you ready? Do you have a pencil? Is it raining?
2. WH Question - A wh-question begins with a question word (who, what, which, whose, where, when, why, how): What have you done? Where do you work? When did you arrive? These questions require a complete answer.

When asking questions we change the word order of the sentence. We invert the subject and the helping verb. This means that the helping verb (a form of be, have, or a modal verb) comes before the subject.

In the present simple and past simple, we use a form of do
Do the shops stay open late?
When does the coach leave?
Did you like the film?
What did Joanna buy?

A question cannot begin with an ordinary verb like stay, leave, like or buy.

The verb after the subject does not end in s or ed.

Now that you know everything there is to know about questions, let's write some.

We're going to do this a little different though. I will give each of you an answer, and you will write the question ;-) Have fun!

Way 2 go CyberKids

CyberKids, you've done it again! Let's show our cyber-audience the well wishes you are sending to the Year 13 students!


Carlos advises:


Daire advises:


Daniella advises:


Francisco advises:


Maria advises:


Rory advises:


Zé advises:

2 Cyber-tasks

CyberKids we have 2 tasks for this afternoon: commenting on a blog and offering advice to Year 13 students

1) Blogging is a lot of fun (and educational too!) and we are watching our blog grow. If you look at some of our posts, we are getting a cyber-audience and they are beginning to leave us comments. It's really great to have others appreciate our work and these comments motivate us to continue to build our blog. As thoughtful cybernauts it is now time for us to begin to comment on blogs and offer motivation to others.. Our first endeavor will be SDIS's Wednesday afternoon activities Computer Group. They will be so surprised!

Instructions:
1. Go to: Computer Group.
2. Read through the posts (which include photos) and find one that you like and would like to comment on.
3. You will see something like this: Posted by evan at 8:13 AM 0 comments
Look at the "0 comments" - this means that no one has made a comment. If it says "1 comment" it means that 1 person has made a comment.
4. Click on "0 comments" (or 1 comment, 2 comments, 3 comments, etc.)
5. On the right-hand side of the screen you will see a box titled "Leave You Comment".
6. Write your comment here. (Something like: "Good Job", "Way to go", "Keep blogging" or some other appropriate comment)
7. Include your gmail address and password

Let's show our support to the Computer Group.

2) As you know St. Dominic's high school graduation ceremony was held on Sunday, May 27, 2007. Our Year 13 students have completed their secondary education and are now preparing for the next stage of their lives. They have many options to choose from including university, the military, art school, and woodworking to name just a few.

No matter what they decide to do, they will need the help and guidance of others to point them in the right direction: Let's lend a hand and offer them some advice!

Instructions:
1. Go to www.signgenerator.org/parody/post-it-notes/ .
2. Enter your text (advice) into the text box.
3. You can change the font and the font size if you like.
4. If the text isn't centered on the post-it note, you can adjust it.
5. Click to customize your paper note.

It's that easy. Now, it's your turn.

When you are satisfied with your final product, please see me and we can save it on my “pen drive”.

Year 6 Exhibition

The Year 6 Exhibition is tomorrow (May 23, 2007) from 15:30 to 17:30. CyberKids want to lend their support and have made signs advertising this event.

Good Luck Year 6!Carlinhos boasts:



Daire reveals:

Dani suggests:

Francisco welcomes:

Maria explains:



Rory promises:



Zé announces:

Advertisements for the Year 6 Exhibition

Hollywood Sign

The Hollywood Sign is a famous, 45 foot tall landmark in Los Angeles. It was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for a new development and has since appeared in countless pictures, TV shows and movies.

As you may know Year 6 is having their exhibition on Wednesday, May 23 from 15:30 – 17:30. Let’s make Hollywood Signs (that will be uploaded on our blog) advertising this event! The catch is that we don’t have unlimited space available. We are limited to 22 spaces and characters. So, keep it short and sweet!

Good Luck CyberKids!

Instructions:
1. Go to http://glassgiant.com/ .
2. Click on Hollywood Sign (make your own Hollywood Sign!)
3. Read the information about the Hollywood Sign.
4. Write a small text advertising or encouraging people to visit the Year 6 Exhibition tomorrow (Wednesday, May 23, 2007 – from 15:30 – 17:30).
5. Size – Full Size
6. Click on "Make Sign"

When you are satisfied with your final product, please see me and we can save it on my “pen drive”.

Congratulations Maria and Francisco.

Maria and Francisco, congratulations on your First Holy Communion.

Adjectives

Busy, Busy, Busy. . .

Here is our representation of adjectives.

Way 2 Go!

Yesterday we made a lot of progress at CyberKids!

We learned how to isolate photos and we saved them to a "pen drive".

Let's review what we did so that each of you can repeat this process (saving images/pictures) for use in the future. There will be 1 difference - instead of saving the image to a "pen drive", you will save it to your computer.
The file you will save the image to is called "My Documents".
(Each computer has a file with this name. ;-) )

To find and save an image/picture to your computer follow these steps:

1. Do a google search (www.google.com). Click on images. Then type in a "keyword" of the kind of image you would like to find (example: Big Ben, calico cat, rabbit, John Cena). After that click on "Search Images".
2. You will fly through cyberspace to a page (or pages) of images that you can choose from.
3. Select your image and click on it.
4. You will see a small image at the top of the page. To see a full size image click on it.
5. Now the image is isolated (alone) and in full size. You can save this image to use in the future.
6. Go to File (upper left hand corner of tool bar) and click.
7. Click on "Save As".
8. A box will open. It says "Save In". Along the left side of that box you will see some icons. Click on the one that says "My Documents".
9. Finally, name your image (example: dog, cat, etc.) and click on "Save".

Voila! You are done! It was easy, wasn't it.

Now you try it. Let me know what happened.

Adjectives are handy words to carry around!

Adjectives are words that we use to describe a noun (a person, place or thing). Words like big, pretty, happy, wonderful, blue, and short are all adjectives.

This is a photo of a big, fat, upside-down, calico cat with green eyes! Big, fat, upside-down and calico are all adjectives because they describe the cat and green is an adjective that describes the color of the cat's eyes.

Now watch the video to learn all about ADJECTIVES!

Click here for the words (lyrics) to the song from the video

Poetry

Poetry is a creative expression of our thoughts and/or feelings.

In honor of Mother's Day, we will write poems to tribute our mother's and publish them online for the world/cyberspace to see!

We will write a 5-line poem in the following CONSTRUCTIVIST manner.

1. On the first line write a noun of your choice
2. On the second line write two adjectives joined by and to describe this noun
3. On the third line write a verb and an adverb to describe this noun in action
4. Start the fourth line with like or as followed by a comparison
5. Start the final line with if only followed by a wish

Below is an example of such a poem (written by the Norwegian pupil Sven Grüner):

Politician

phoney and false

lying desperately

like a mocking bird

if only I had the key to the bird cage

Now it's your turn. Let's write poems about our mothers!

Introductions are in order . . .

Welcome to the pilot group of CyberKids. We are a group of kids who want to practice our English skills in CyberSpace! We would like to introduce ourselves to our cyber-audience which includes family and friends. We hope you visit often and we navigate our way to better English skills.

Please click on the to hear the message.


Daire

Dani

Francisco

Karlinhos

Maria

Rory

Zé

Welcome

Welcome to Cyber Kids, an afterschool writing project. Cyber Kids aims to improve skills, promote writing, build vocabulary, and have FUN. Join our journey into cyberspace and visit our blog often. Leave us lots of comments (it motivates us to do more).