Hello students and parents! Welcome to a great new school year. Fifth and sixth grade students have begun working on improving their keyboarding skills. Speed and accuracy will improve with diligent practice (at school and at home!). The keyboarding program is called Keyboarding for Kids. I recommend ten minutes of practice each day at home.
A sixth grade student demonstrates proper posture for keyboarding. Notice that her wrists are lifted slightly off of the table. This makes it easier to reach the upper row keys and the numbers. Her hands are covered so she is not temped to look down while she types. Soon the keys will all be memorized and touch typing will seem easy!
Feel free to get in touch with me with any questions or concerns. My email is rhansen@ucls…
Sincerely,
Ms. Hansen
Posted on September 7th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
Filed under: 5thGrade, 6thGrade, typing | No Comments »
Fifth graders are working on a new video project in computer class. The kids are making book trailers to hype up the five Zena Sutherland Awards nominee books.
The finished movies will be played at the Sutherland awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 26th. Here are a few pictures of Ms. Bloom’s class working in iMovie to create the trailers:
Posted on April 20th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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The week of March 28: Finish up through lesson 7
The week of April 4: Finish up through lesson 14
The week of April 11: Finish up through lesson 21
The week of April 18: Finish up through lesson 28
The week of April 25: Finish up through lesson 35
The week of May 2: Camp, no homework
The week of May 9: Finish up through lesson 42
The week of May 16: Finish up through lesson 49
The week of May 23: Finish up through lesson 56
The week of May 30: Finish up through lesson 63
The week of June 6: Finish up through lesson 64 (Finish the program!)
Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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Fifth graders: Your keyboarding homework for spring quarter is as follows:
The week of March 28: Finish lesson 44
April 4: 46
April 11: 48
April 18: 50
April 25: 52
May 2: 54
May 9: 56
May 16: 58
May 23: 60
May 30: 62
June 6: 64 (Finish the program!!)
Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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Hi All– The Jammed Locker meets Thursdays after school in the computer lab (until 4:30 pm). We will have three more issues released this quarter, including a very special issue this Friday that we worked on before spring break.
There will be no Jammed Locker the weeks of sixth and seventh grade camp. See below for specific dates and deadlines. Remember– new journalists are welcome to join the Jammed Locker at any time, just show up for a Thursday meeting and we’ll go from there.
Jammed Locker Spring Schedule
Thursday, March 31st: (secret special) issue released
Thursday, April 7th: Work day
Thursday, April 14th: Articles due
Thursday, April 21st: Issue released
Thursday, April 28th: Work day
Thursday, May 5th: No Jammed Locker (Ms. Hansen @ 6th grade camp)
Thursday, May 12th: Articles due.
Thursday, May 19th: Issue released!
Thursday, May 26th: No Jammed Locker (Ms. Hansen @ 7th grade camp)
Thursday, June 2nd: Party! Bring treats to celebrate the end of the school year.
Thursday, June 9th: No Jammed Locker (Last day of school!)
Posted on March 28th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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A few fifth graders have asked me this week why they didn’t get a progress report from me. I don’t write progress reports for fifth graders because I only see them once a week. I talk with students and parents about progress throughout the year on an ongoing basis. Any students who would like to hear more from me about how they are doing are welcome to ask.
Sixth graders do get a formal progress report from me. Kids who were in computer science rotation fall quarter received their progress reports last week. Kids in my winter quarter and spring quarter classes will get their progress reports at the end of the year. Of course I’m happy to chat about progress at any time– let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
One last thing about grades– Keyboarding for Kids has a built-in grade report. Students are welcome to look at that, but should know that I don’t use that for my grading. I look at each student’s individual progress towards their goal in keyboarding (where they started, and what they achieved). So don’t freak out if you see a bad grade there or get too excited if you see a good grade there. Make sure to type all of your keyboarding lessons up to your speed goal and always use the home row, and you’ll do fine.
Posted on February 8th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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Sixth graders in my class are starting to learn about programming with Scratch. I highly, strongly recommend that all students download Scratch to their home computers. It’s very helpful to have at home. It’s free, small, and works on most types of computers. Download Scratch here!
Exploring Scratch for the first time.
Students discovering how much fun it is to program in Scratch.
PS Sixth graders should work up to lesson 26 or in keyboarding this week. Fifth graders should complete up through lesson 32.
Posted on January 24th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
Filed under: 6thGrade, Scratch, homework | No Comments »
Fifth graders are now almost to the halfway point in the keyboarding program (lesson 30 out of 64 total). It is amazing to walk around the room during the first ten minutes of class and see every student typing correctly, using the home row keys and knowing where the keys are without having to look down to hunt and peck.
Fifth graders hard at work on Keyboarding for Kids
A student demonstrates the proper way to strike the delete key.
Posted on January 14th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
Filed under: 5thGrade, student work, typing | No Comments »
The computer lab’s floor to ceiling windows offer a gorgeous view of the school’s courtyard. The view is especially lovely on snowy days like today.
Reminder: Fifth graders should be up to lesson 28 on keyboarding this week, and lesson 30 next week. Sixth graders should work up to lesson 14 or so.
Posted on January 11th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
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Hi All– Fifth graders should complete keyboarding lessons 27 & 28 this week.
Sixth graders, you have the next ten weeks to complete 64 lessons of keyboarding. Plan to do six or seven lessons each week at home at your own pace.
Here are some interesting typing facts I found on Wikipedia today:
“Words per minute, commonly abbreviated wpm, is a measure of input or output speed. For the purposes of WPM measurement a word is standardized to five characters or keystrokes. For instance, “I run” counts as one word, but “rhinoceros” counts as two.”
“The average human being hand-writes at 31 words per minute for memorized text and 22 words per minute while copying.”
“The fastest typing speed ever, 216 words per minute, was achieved by Stella Pajunas-Garnand from Chicago in 1946 in one minute on an IBM electric.”
Posted on January 4th, 2011 by Ms. Ruthie Hansen
Filed under: 5thGrade, 6thGrade, homework, typing | No Comments »
