Day 7: Finishing Up The Games

Today, the remaining groups have basically finished up their Dice Simulators and played "Round the Clock."  It's a lot of fun watching them enjoy using something that they have worked so hard to create and code.  I hope they carry this excitement into the next project and enjoy working on the music program.

I'm happy to see that the groups that have moved onto the music program are having fun exploring the various sound options Scratch has to offer.

Day Six: Finishing Dice Simulator and Starting Music Program

Today, the groups that haven't finished their dice simulator continued working on those.  My lunch bunch has been especially enthusiastic about customizing their dice so they may be a bit slower to move onto the music program, but I'm sure their dice will be some of the B-E-S-T!

Day Five: Playing Dice Games

Today, unfortunately, the fifth graders were absent because of SOL testing.  I hope them all the best on their Math SOL and hopefully tomorrow the SOL testing will not overlap with our Java session.  In their absence, however, I decided to make a simple tour of my working space during the time we normally meet.

Day Four: Creating Dice Continued and Starting to Code in Scratch

Today, the students working on the Dice Simulator have made great progress!  Most of them are done creating the costumes for the die and have begun coding how to randomly generate different faces on the die when the roll button is pressed.  Some of them have even finished their Dice Simulator and will have a chance to play the Dice Games I prepared next time!

Day Three: First Day of Teaching

Today was my first day of teaching! I started out with Ms. Molthen's 2nd-grade class and they were great! Everybody was so enthusiastic to learn and it was a lot of fun teaching them.  I got them started on the Dice Simulator and most of them are working on or done with creating the faces of the die.

Day Two: Lesson Planning Continued

Today I finished up the music program in Scratch. Last time I was working on the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," but Scratch did not have enough music notes for the song, so I switched to "Hot Cross Buns." Scratch has many different kinds of instruments, so I duplicated the Script for each of the instruments. I also added some motion to the instruments on the stage to make it more visually appealing. I hope the kids have fun with this lesson!

 

Day One: SOL Testing and Lesson Planning

Today was my first day of capstone! First I started off the day by helping Ms. Tyree set up the iPads for SOL Testing and making sure all the teachers had enough dividers, iPad stands, and mints. After third grade's SOL testing was about halfway done, I stationed myself in the library to begin my lesson planning for the coming weeks. I began setting up accounts on CodeHS and Scratch, so my students would be able to save their progress and continue where they left off during our next session. Also, I created a sample Dice Demonstration and began working on a music program in Scratch.