Final Week of Summer Technology Program 2015

Thank you Family and Friends for coming to our presentation and spending time with our class!
We are glad you enjoyed our projects!  The Sneaker design was a big hit and easy to do at home.
Just download the app and print out the sneaker or pick from other  worksheets.  Have your children color their worksheet, then use your device to make their picture come to life!

Link to website:Print worksheets from Quivervision website

Here  is the link to the Quiver App that you might enjoy doing at home:

Quiver 3D Coloring App for iPad

Quiver App for Google Play

Make your own Sneaker Design!

Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Visions Upper Elementary Summer Staff

Week Four: Our Time for Music

Ok, Now it's time to listen to music from our time: 2000-2015! The students really enjoyed listening to music from the previous decades, but they have a strong connection to music created during their lifetime. They wanted to hear Hannah Montana and Black Eyed Peas!  How about Lady Gaga!
Students spent time singing and dancing before lunch!

The Rock'n'Roll Mystery Sovled!

Well, we finished our book, The Rock 'n' Roll Mystery today and discovered who stole the Greenfield Four's instruments! Before reading the final chapters, we have made our predictions. Check them out below:

The Guy in the Beret

We were right! The guy in the beret, Jon Emmott was the thief!  Jon was the ex- band member who admitted to stealing the instruments because he was jealous and didn't want the Greenfield Four to succeed. Too bad Jon, you're going to jail and the Greenfield Four did so well at the concert, they got a record contract!

Pop Culture Pictographs

Over the past three weeks, we have learned about American Pop Culture from 1950 to the 1990s. We talked about important people and events like Rosa Parks standing up for civil rights, Hawaii becoming our 50th state, an unpopular war in Vietman, The Woodstock Festival, technology developments; and how we as American's reacted. We discussed how we- especially the American youth expressed ourselves through art, music and fashion.

We used our technology tools to explore and create projects throughout the summer program. Everyone learned something new and each person had their favorite music or art project.  So we decided to create pictographs to show the most popular music, art and technology among our students and staff.  To prepare for the activity, we studied pictographs on Brainpopjr.   We have sought out several very informative videos and activities on Brainpopjr  throughout the summer.

Check out the video on pictographs here:brainpopjr pictograph video

Here's what we created on the SmartBoard to display our data:

Here's what our pictographs revealed about our class:

1. We liked music from the 60s and 70s best.

2. Our favorite artist was Mark Rothko. Students liked how he used color to express emotion.

3. Our favorite technology: an old time record player! Even though we love our iPods, we enjoyed playing records!

An Hour- or more of Coding with Judith

Learning to write computer programs

During our 80s & 90s week, we learned there were significant advances in computer technology. These were the decades of Windows 95, the iMac G3, cell phones and games....Lots of games!  We had handheld and computer games. Everybody did The Oregon Trail, and Nintendo is still a big favorite.  

So we ask, " How does Mario jump and get coins?" Well, we asked our computer programing expert, Miss Judith to come and teach us some basic computer science concepts. 

Students learned that computers do only what you tell them to do. They learned the importance of analyzing a task and how to "program" with careful attention to sequencing actions in the correct order.  They also learned how to evaluate and correct their errors. 

Judith started the lesson with a "hands on" or "unplugged" activity by making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If the students didn't tell Judith the correct order, she could end up with jelly on her belly!

Then we worked as a group to complete a programing activity using the Smartboard at kodable.com

Check the website out here:kodable.com 

We finished up with an individual sequencing activity.  We had a great time learning to code! 

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Kodable.com Activity

Quinci

Hope

Jackie

Mikayla

Jerel

Emily

            Thanks Miss Judith :) 

Boxcar Children Mystery

New Suspects in The Rock'n' Roll Mystery!

Well, we up to chapter 9 in Boxcar Children Series #109 - The Rock 'n' Roll Mystery and more suspects continue to emerge.  The Alden children are investigating new leads on the stolen instruments, but don't have any solid evidence. They may have to leave it in the hands of the police. But when Jessie sees Grandfather's glasses on the table, she remembers something important: maybe the thief is wearing a disguise! 

The Aldens review their list of suspects and clues again!  But, we'll keep reading to find out who did it!

RockRoots Concert

                  Today was our assembly performance from Rock Roots Band!   We had a great time learning about the history of American Pop music while dancing and singing along with the band.

RockRoots Performers

 

Go Mr. Perez!

Here's a link learn about the band:Young Audiences of New Jersey- RockRoots

A Sneaker Culture

We researched what people wore in the 80s and we noted that sneakers were popular and continue to be popular today.  In fact,  people have been wearing sneakers for over 100 years.  The first sneaker was created by the U.S.  Rubber Company in about 1892 and probably looked like this:

Keds Sneaker from 1892

Shortly after the Keds Sneaker was released, they were mass produced and everyone was wearing the sneaker!  Then, in 1908 came the Converse Rubber Shoe made for basketball players called the All Star.  Well, the Converse All Star was a hit and is still popular today.
The All-Star might have looked like this:

Converse All-Star 1917

The Sneaker Design Challenge

Our next project was The Sneaker Design Challenge. We researched some converse sneaker designs for inspiration.  Take a look at our favorite Converse sneaker designs that we found.

Andy Warhol Converse

Minions!

Batman Forever!

Design with Technology

For our sneaker design, we used some art media and the iPad app Quiver to create an awesome Augmented Reality Sneaker!  

  

The Visions Converse Design  will be released July 28, 2015 on Summer Program Parent Day. 

Here is a "sneak" peek of the design process:

Week 3: The 80s & 90s

Technology Now and Then

Awe... The 80s & 90s: Great music, great hair and the birth of the "Yuppie." Even though this was the time of the conservatives- there were those who were opposed- like in the decades prior.

Our students were curious about the pop culture and other significant changes in the 80s and 90s.  So they asked, "What did people do for fun?" What did they wear?" And of course " What did they eat?" We began our research on something very important to each of our students: technology!

We learned that computers became personal: The first PC ( Personal Computer) was released in the 1981 by IBM.  Even Thought the Apple1 was created in 1975, the personal computer became the trend beginning in the 1980's.  Check out this computer history timeline for some interesting information:
Computer History Timeline

The Apple 1

We continued to research other technologies, especially devices used to listen to music. We found out that in the 80's you just had to have a Sony Walkman!

Walkman

Now, many of us listen to music on our iPods, iPads or iPhones. These devices have come a long way from the Apple 1! But our greatest find... The Apple Watch! You can do everything with the Apple Watch- listen to music, call your friends, pay for a Big Mac, send an email and even tell time! And it couldn't be easier to access it right from your wrist! 

Apple Watch

Popart Hand Project

On Monday this week we completed the Pop Art Hand Project we started last Friday. Many of our art projects involve a combination of various art media and digital components- and our Andy Warhol Pop Art hands have been just that. First, each student made a hand print in black paint on four different colored papers. Then we digitized the hand prints and the students choose four different background colors.  We used the Smart Notebook software to color and layer the project. The students focused on choosing contrasting colors and a pattern to achieve the pop art style. We loved the result! Check them out below:

Jackie

Mikayla

Jerel

Emily

Hope

Quinci

Sporting our Tie Dye Shirts

The tie dye shirts we made on Thursday were rinsed and dried on Friday. We plan to wear them on Parent Day, but had to try them on! Looks like the spiral design was the most popular!

A Seventies Disco Party

 70s Disco

What comes to mind when you think of Disco?  Dance....John Travolta... The BeeGees maybe :)

We talked about how the music changed again as the 70s progressed. And how American life changed as well.  We went from outdoor concerts like Woodstock to the dance clubs.  Miss Katie brought it a real Disco Ball and we watched video clips of "Saturday Night Fever." 

               We can't do a good music review without putting it to the dance test!