As Notre Dame's lower division (lower school) finishes phase 6 of its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program—and with the entire Notre Dame academic community moving toward 1-to-1 in the fall—it is perhaps fitting once again to provide an update of what the school's junior-kindergarten through fifth-grade students have accomplished in terms of technology during the last part of the 2013-14 school year.
Lower-school students connect through technology
Junior-kindergarten students did lots of activities in technology to further compliment what they are learning about plants and the solar system. They explored Sid the Science Kid games on pbskids.org that taught them the lifecycle of a plant. They drew pictures of favorite flowers and plants. J-kindergarten used the Max and Ruby Science app to learn how water flows. One of their favorite activities was learning about objects in the solar system. Students enjoyed drawing and labeling various planets using the Edward and Myles Planet Adventure book app. Kindergarten watched a Sesame Street video of Cookie Monster defining living and non-living things and created illustration charts in Doodlebuddy reflecting on those things. They also explored the Animals100 app to learn more about animals, their habitats and the sounds they make.
Kindergarteners drew pictures of animals starting with the first letter of their name.
First-grade students explored choosemyplate.gov and created a Popplet of the five food groups with pictures, daily requirements, and key consumer messages. They also create PicCollages to illustrate how their plate should look for a meal. They also explored the importance of exercise and created PicCollages to illustrate different types of exercise, the health benefits of exercise and how much is needed every day. They ended the phase by creating a Popplet to illustrate six pledges they could make to have a healthy, happy body.
Students in the second grade used the PicCollage app to demonstrate examples of liquids, solids and gases. They also created a Popplet to reflect the different properties that solids, liquids and gases have. Second grade also learned how to create presentations using different fonts and colors and adding pictures. They presented their likes and hobbies to the class. Lastly, they created a presentation about how matter changes from solid to liquid to gas.
Third-grade students learned about what kind of information should and should not be shared online. They also worked in groups to create presentations and iMovies on an assigned simple machine. They created mock Michigan tourism websites using the Presentation app or PicCollage to summarize different things they have learned about Michigan this year.
Fourth graders learned about the differences between paraphrasing vs plagiarizing. They also learned about the importance of citing sources when doing research projects. Students used www.easybib.com to create citations for webpages, magazine articles, and books for their heroes of faith projects. They also created a technology piece using any chosen app they already had used this year to convey information they found when doing their research.
Fifth-grade students worked in groups to research inventors, the technologies they created (cars, Apple products, telephones, PC’s, and TV’s), and the impacts they have had on thier lives.
(From "NDMA Phase 6—IB-PYP News")
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.