Computer Lab

The Computer Lab gives students in Grades Pre-K through 8 the opportunity to become familiar with computer hardware and software.
Students visit the lab once a week to work on various activities and projects in conjunction with classroom topics.

Eighth graders are currently working on a storybook for younger students presenting the life of a First Lady of the United States. March is Women's History Month and what better way to celebrate then by examining the lives of these very important Americans.

Seventh graders are designing their dream room with a budget of $3500. Through this creative assignment students will be learning the Excel Program by setting up a budget of items they wish to purchase.They have been shopping online for merchandise and prices. The items range from hot dog makers to pool tables. Students have inserted the items into an excel spreadsheet. They have learned to insert a basic formula =3500-sum(highlight column of pricing). We also created a pie chart to illustrate the percentage of our budget used on each item. Very interesting!

Sixth graders are completing a database to learn to sort and organize information. Recently they have researched a famous black American musician for Ms. Weir's music class and typed a descriptive essay for Mrs. Culp. Our next project will be an introduction to Powerpoint.

Fifth graders have completed business letters for Mrs. Campbell, and are reasearching rocks for science class.

Grade 8 has completed a timeline of the Atomic Theory and a compare and contrast assignment for Religion. They have completed a creative writing assignment on "What St. Charles Borromeo School Means to Me! They have also completed research on a famous composer for a project in Music class for Miss Weir. This week they will type their paragraphs for Music, as well as begin a project on the First Ladies of the USA.

Students have learned a new video editing program called iMovie. They are editing a newscast they filmed early this year in Mr. Saponaro's class. The video editing project will be ongoing during this trimester. We will work on it between other assignments. We will eventually export the edited video to iDVD and burn each student their own finished copy. So far this trimester the class has also completed venn diagrams about the Transcontinental Railroad, using the program Inspiration, a graphic organizer. They have completed pioneer letters for Mrs. Boland in ILA and Mr. Saponaro in Social Studies.

Grade 7 has completed a saint research project on their Confirmation name. They have completed a guided research assignment on John Locke, a British philosopher and thinker. They investigated his life and times as well as his thoughts on the"tabula rasa" and how his writings influenced documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Students are making corrections to their projects and will be completing research on famous musicians for music class.

Sixth Grade students have completed a web quest on Ancient Egypt, a topic they have been studying with Mrs. Culp in Social Studies. They are currently working on a research project for Black History Month in music classes. They are also creating a database to learn how to manage and sort lists of information. We will be introducing the PowerPoint program this month.

Fifth graders have completed researching the countries of North and South America.
Their beautiful brochures have been on display in the fifth grade corridor. They are currently learning how to set margins in Microsoft Word to learn the proper format for a business letter. They will be composing a business letter to a company to report a problem, make a request, or ask for information.

Fourth Graders are using the library to research information about New Jersey symbols such as the flower, seal, flag, bird, and animal. When their research is complete they will be transferring the information to a travel brochure about the state. We have been learning the program Print Shop and have been having fun experimenting with word art to create a cover for our brochure. Students will learn to download a picture of each symbol and insert it into their brochure along with their information.

Third grade students will continue to work on their keyboarding skills using the program Type to Learn. They are researching animals this trimester. Information will be inserted into a field guide document using the program AppleWorks. They will learn to download an image from the Internet and insert it into their report. We will bind all of the reports into a class booklet about animals.

Second grade students used the program Graph Club to create graphs from information they collected in class. They created a bar graph, a circle graph and a line graph with the information.

Grade 1, Pre- K and Kindergarten, will be using various software programs during their time in the computer lab. AppleWorks 6 to practice typing our name and letters, KidPix for drawing, and Zoo Zillions and Bailey's BookHouse for math and language arts reinforcement.

We have installed five new 20 inch screen iMacs in oour lab. These computers were purchased through the State of New Jersey Non Public Technology program. We will rotate seating so everyone has a chance to use these phenomenal computers! Our students are very fortunate to have such state of the art technology at their fingertips. Working on Macs in school allows most of them to become familiar with both the Windows (at home) and the Mac (at school) world.
I like to think of them as being dual platform experts!

From Grades PreK to 8, students have been visiting the computer lab each week to work on a variety of computer skills. Eighth grade students have completed Microsoft Word "Hopes and Dreams" documents which have been converted to a PowerPoint slide about their expectations for the 2007-2008 school year. They are also working on our school newspaper "The Borromeo Bugle".

Eighth graders have completed assignments for Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Elliott creating an original song about Confirmation using the tune from a song of their choice. Theme from the Brady Bunch anyone? ...."There's a story about Confirmation..." The document and text for the songs were designed in computer class. Students have also done a few proofreading assignments and an Internet Scavenger Hunt to research trivia about the Halloween Holiday. Eighth grade students have been introduced to a new program called iMovie. They will begin to learn the process of video editing using a video taped news cast they performed during Mr. Saponaro's Social Studies class.

We have used the program Photo Booth in grades 4 to 8 to take photos of ourselves on our new iMac computers for our biographical assignments. The photos have been inserted into paragraphs about life in St. Charles Borromeo School (grade 5 and 6), poems about ourselves (grade 4) and PowerPoint slides (Grades 7 and 8). These assignments have allowed keyboarding practice as well as review of Microsoft Word.

Seventh Grade students have been researching Saints and working on a factual document which will include ten facts about the Saint they have chosen for their Confirmation name. They are currently creating a creative writing recipe card for Mr. Saponaro called "Recipe for a Saint".

Fifth Graders are creating a travel brochure for a South American country. We have used the Internet to gather information about climate, land forms, travel sites, capital city, population, issues in the news, and the flag. We have downloaded a map and other images to insert into the brochure. They should be completed during Trimester 2.

Fourth grade students have been working on reading skills using the program Reading Blaster. They also composed a poem about themselves for Mrs. Sulock and Mrs. Rooney. This trimester we will be creating a brochure using the program Print Shop on the State of New Jersey. The brochure will be created during Library and Computer times.

Third Graders have researched saints for the liturgy on November 1st. They have also been working on home row practice and keyboarding. This week they will be introduced to a new program called Type to Learn 3 which will provide practice for correct finger placement on the keyboard. They have been reinforcing math skills using the program Zoo Zillions.

First Graders are becoming experts in finding letters on the keyboard. They can type their names and the alphabet using the shift key for capital letters. We are using the programs KIdPix and Zoo Zillions for variety. The children will be learning a new program called Pixie which includes
language arts and math reinforcement skill worksheets.

Pre K and Kindergarten have been learning how to control the mouse using the program Kid Pix. In Kindergarten we also used the program AppleWorks 6 to type our names and the letters of the alphabet.

Our teachers are busy inserting grades into the new diocesan IGPro Program. Report Cards will be electronically printed this year!

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