Happy Thanksgiving

We're off all next week for Thanksgiving. Click here to see what the fifth graders learned about Thanksgiving this year.
My family always cooks an eighteen pound hen turkey that has been soaked for a day in the famous Chez Panisse brine that I found in the SFgate Thanksgiving Guide years ago. Where would we be without the Internets?
I hope everyone has a happy,happy Thanksgiving holiday and comes back ready and rested for school next Monday.
This weeks Reading stats:
2,658 books read. 42,980,297 words read. 91% participation over the last thirty days. 65% of all students taking Accelerated Reader quizzes scored 85% or better. Rancho kids are truly amazing students.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

A slide show project from Mrs. Langford's class

Here is yet another student's work from Mrs. Langford's class. This is the first year that the fourth graders have created PowerPoint presentations, and they are very excited about this. They like choosing the transitions and the animation schemes the most. However, SlideShare doesn't preserve either the transitions or the animation schemes when I upload the presentations to the web. I'm looking for another solution, but for now I will continue to use SlideShare.

Indian Tribes Of Californiarancho

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

I wanted to add that I apologize for the length of time between posts of student work on the blog. This is the first time we've done this as a school, and we're still working out the kinks. We're trying to insure that we are respectful of the student's right to privacy while still giving them the pleasure of being able to show their work to their parents, relatives and friends... I'm confident that as the school year gets older, we'll get faster.

More software we use at the Rancho Computer Lab

Today, a young gentleman in Mrs. Kreuzberger's class asked her if she could tell him how to find an online version of Kid Pix. It was a reminder to me of how much the educational software business has changed over the last few years, and how much today's children and their parents might not know about the great software that is out there.
Kid Pix was originally developed here in Novato by Brøderbund Software. In the great consolidation of the educationalsoftware business of the late '90s, They were taken over first by The Learning Company, which in turn was eventually taken over by Riverdeep. Riverdeep now owns most of the old classic educational software that we use in the lab. But because their focus is on online learning and educational publishing, they don't do a good job of promoting them(in my opinion).
You can buy Kid Pix online for 19.99 from Riverdeep. The Kids all love it, and it helps them learn how to use a mouse and begin to type. Plus they already know how to use it. They'll probably get bored with it in fifth grade. At that time, you consider either donating it to the school or passing it on to some one
with younger kids..it's what the trade calls an evergreen classic.