Thursday, December 11, 2014

December 11th Photo Blogging by Tech Time Kids


Girls Lead Thursday included photo blogging, crocheting, and drawing. Take a look at these pictures and see what kids had to say!

Rylan

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my favorite color is blue I love dogs i hate clowns


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Charlotte





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I made it by heart.


Cassie

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I really like old school. my fav. color is this.




IMG_0059.JPG Kate and Mr. Bheki are crocheting.
They are using a blackish and grayish color.


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Mr.Travis doing a good job at crocheting.


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Alex and Kayla are making friendship bracelets.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Week of December 6th

Week of December 6th

Last Week of Tech Time Before Break!

Don't Forget: Field Trip
We will have a huge group of students heading over to Siebel Center of Computer Science this Friday. Make sure you are signed up, we'll have a blast!

Survey Continues



Pictures from the Craft Tech Fair

Thanks to all of our student volunteers, community volunteers, and guests! The Craft Tech Fair was an enormous success. Click on this picture to see more . . .


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Week of Dec. 2nd: Broadcasting, Embroidery and Paper Crafts

Help Make Tech Time Better: Share Your Thoughts!



This Saturday! Craft Tech Fair Will Have Tons of Things to Do!

Community Stations:
  • FabLab - Sticker Printing
  • Wolfram - Raspberry Pi Mini-Computer Demo
  • InfoCity - Champaign Urbana Wiki


Kenwood Tech Stations:
  • Makey-Makey Music - Mr. Lash
  • Computer Hardware - Martin Wolske, UIUC Library Science Tech Time Grant Coordinator
  • Scratch/Code.org Demo Station - Student Volunteers with Travis Faust (Tech Time Coordinator)
  • Minecraft Lounge - Bring Your Own Device (iPad, laptop, whatever you have!)


PTA Craft Stations:
  • Foam bracelets
  • Holiday bookmarks
  • Kaleidoscopes 
  • Scratch board ornaments
  • Holiday photo frames
  • Snowman puppets
  • Bags for decorating to take your items home


Don’t forget to share your projects on the Kenwood Tech Time Studio so you can show them off at the Craft Tech Fair. If you would like to volunteer to show Scratch and Code.org to other families and kids, sign up with Travis. 

Next Week
Tuesday, December 9th: Original Scratch – Make a project that is all your own!

Thursday, December 11th: Friendship Bracelets – Join us for a day of making and photographing our own friendship bracelets. Bring your own designs and learn some new ones! (Why friendship bracelets? Tech Time is committed to the simple concept that any tool we use can be a kind of technology,  so thread counts! How will you innovate with thread?)


Friday, December 12th: Field Trip – Join us for a trip to Siebel Center for Computer Science. All students, including Kids Plus students, must sign a permission slip in order to attend. 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Getting Social on Scratch

Update for the Week of November 17th: Getting Social on Scratch

Next Week
Tuesday, Nov. 25th - Turkey Time, like Tech Time but with Turkeys. Come program a turkey project on Scratch.

There will be no Tech Time Thursday and Friday because Kenwood will be on Thanksgiving Break!

Getting Social
1. Log in to Scratch with your user-name.
2. Love at least one project
3. Favorite at least one project.
4. Follow one friend
5. Follow one studio.
6. Check out your own updates to see who is favoriting and following you.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Week of November 11th

Stickers, Volunteers, and Projects to Share



Volunteer at the Kenwood Craft Tech Fair!
Would you like to help run our Tech Time Scratch station? Sign up to be a helper for our Saturday, December 6th Craft Tech Fair 1pm-3pm at Kenwood. Sign up for a 20 minute shift. Then look around the other craft and technology stations.

Share on our Kenwood Tech Time Studio
Would you like to share at the Kenwood Fair or on our blog? Make sure to click the SHARE button and then add it to the Kenwood studio. 

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/25769786/

And here's Travis' Polar Bear and Dino Story. Try making a remix and posting it to the Kenwood Tech Time Studio . . .

http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/641878/activity/


 Next Week 

Tuesday, November 18th: Let’s Get Social on Scratch – Learn how to share your projects and find your friends’ projects. 
Here’s a shared project by one of our fourth graders: 

Thursday, November 20th: Make Your Own Stickers - Girls Lead will be learning to design and print our own stickers. Our Raspberry Pi team will continue to work with our volunteer guest from Wolfram Research.

Friday, November 21st: Make Music with Arduinos! We'll continue playing with little computer controllers called arduinos.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Week of November 13th

Hello Kenwood Tech Time!

Welcome to our weekly update. Here we'll tell you about next week's schedule, show you new ways to learn, and invite you to share your projects with us and with your classmates.

Next Week 
Tuesday, November 11th: No Tech Time! We won't have Tech Time because there is no school in honor of Veteran's Day! 
Thursday, November 13th: Girls Lead will be learning to make stories in Scratch. Our Raspberry Pi team will continue to work with our volunteer guest from Wolfram Research.
Friday, November 14th: We'll be exploring simple hardware with little computer controllers called arduinos. Want to know more about arduinos? 

 Find out more by watching this video: http://viewpure.com/t6fKs3Zbnb0?ref=search

Kenwood Fair: Make It, Print It, Code It, Share It
On Saturday, December 6th from 1pm-3pm Kenwood will  host our very own Craft Tech Fair. There will be lots of stations where you and your family can come make crafts, make technology projects, and even share projects you've made at Tech Time.

Share Your Progress!
We'd like to see what you made and post some of your projects on our blog. Please sign in and tell us about your project below. 



Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Change to Tech Time mornings

Dear Families,
Last week, we developed a worksheet for students to create a design document for a long-term Scratch project.  This has met with much more participation than the morning theme weeks, so Tech Time mornings will focus on the ongoing development of these long-term projects.  We have also been discussing a "Tech Time faire" for a Saturday in December (stay tuned for more on this!), and these long-term projects seem ideal for showcasing as finished, polished products.

The design document worksheet can be found here (page one is for 2nd-5th graders, page two is for K-1 students).  Click "Read More" for some more information on how grown-ups use design documents at their jobs.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Notes, Reminders, and Site Updates

Dear Families,
Because this is our first week back from intersession, and our first week enacting the new attendance policy, we will be accepting permission slips for next week through Monday 10/20.

Permission slips for the week of the 27th will also be available starting Monday 10/20 at 7:15 a.m.  These slips are due, signed, on Thursday the 23rd at 4:30 p.m.

We have also added a "Schedule" and "Workshop Activities" section to our header bar, above.  The Schedule page simply states the recurring schedule, in case there is ever trouble with the calendar module at right.  The Workshop Activities page will be an ongoing repository of materials used in our morning workshops - check out the stuff we have on electricity from this week!  There's a Google Presentation on Lightning, a Scratch Project on circuits, and some web resources about power grids (be sure to check out Tesla Town at the very least!).

Stay tuned for more updates!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

New Tech Time Sign-Up Procedure

Dear Families,
Beginning Monday, October 20th, hand-written notes will no longer be accepted as permission for your child to stay after school at Tech Time. We want to make sure that we have the space and resources to support a great experience for all students. Permission slips for each day will be available the previous week on Monday, and must be handed in by Thursday of that week.


For example, on Monday, October 13th, slips will be available for the week of October 20th. These slips must be signed and returned by Thursday, October 16th. There will also be an option to receive a reminder by text message or email on Thursday evening.

Have a great second quarter!