With all that has been going on in our world, and our country, in the last week, the sermon this weekend at church about the Beatitudes could not have been more fitting. The priest reflected on these beautiful words. I hope that you will also take the time to do so if you are grieving, searching for answers, or wondering how to approach these topics in your classroom.
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I know that some of you are probably thinking "coding with kinders? I can't even figure out how to code; how is a four year old, in a play-based environment going to be able to?" Well, the OTF Connects webinar that I participated in last night answered that very question (Thank you Tina Zita!). It turns out, there are a few great resources on the market to engage young students in the newest educational phenomenon that is coding. 1. Scratch Jr.This is an interactive tool that provides young children with an introduction to programming. It teaches children to program their own interactive stories and games. Students can make characters move, dance, sing, and can even add their own voices to the program. Scratch Jr. is a modification of the original Scratch coding activity designed for children 8 and up: "In creating ScratchJr, we redesigned the interface and programming language to make them developmentally appropriate for younger children, carefully designing features to match young children's cognitive, personal, social, and emotional development" (ScratchJr.org). Oh, it is also free! Check it out at https://www.scratchjr.org/teach.html I've attached a short video below to show you how Scratch Jr. works: |
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