Category: 5th Grade

digital whiteboard

*8: Fifth Grade Cloning in Photoshop

clone3Adobe Photoshop is kind of like KidPix for grown-ups, as well as the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in the first volume of the book, 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each project scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.

We’ve already completed Word image editing basics here and Photoshop autofixes here. This one on cloning is going to be a favorite of your children.

The clone tool duplicates a hard to crop-and-copy image (like the flowers below) or deletes part of a background—a sign or a post in a nature scene—you don’t want there. You can clone within a picture (as with the flowers), (more…)

#15: A Holiday Letter for Grades 2-6

 

This holiday letter can be as simple (for 2nd graders) or sophisticated (middle school) as your students can handle. There are a gamut of skills–

  • text
  • borders
  • pictures (from the internet, from clip art, from a separate file folder on your school server)
  • different fonts, font colors, font sizes

I’ve included a grading rubric to guide students in accomplishing as much as they can. Start with the basics (text, a border, some pictures) and add more skills as students get used to the early ones: (more…)

digital whiteboard

How to Use MS Word to Teach Geography

[caption id="attachment_929" align="alignleft" width="182"]Sample diagram Sample diagram[/caption]

Grade Level: 3-5

Background: Using MS Word.

Vocabulary: diagram, graphic organizer, solar system

Time: About 30 minutes

Steps:

  • Open MS Word. Add a heading to the top.
  • Add a title–Where We Are–centered, bold and font 14. Use this to point out the tool bar with the four alignment tools, bold, fonts and font size (more…)
LESSON PLANNING

How to Teach Kids Email

Online communication include faxes, instant messages, blogs, and email. Of the four, email is the most popular—so popular, it has transformed the way the world communicates. According to the Radicati Group, in 2008, 1.3 billion people had email accounts and sent 210 billion messages daily.

Why so popular? First, email is paperless, appealing to our global need to conserve resources. On a more basic level, email is a faster alternative to most other forms of communication by combining the telephone’s speed and efficiency with a user’s need to transfer files and documents. Email has no time or place barriers. You can write and respond (with an amazing level of anonymity) whenever you choose – day or night with multiple contacts, keeping many people in the loop with the click of a few keys. And, email is stored and retrieved quickly at almost no cost. (more…)