Vol. 2 Issue 8- March 2015
Visit our new NINTENDO-TASTIC, Mario-riffic, Poke-llent, Sylanderish website @
www.MSASLearningLabs.com
THEME OF THE MONTH: NINTENDO CREATIONS featuring Mario Bros., Zelda, Sonic, Pokemon, and Skylanders
This month we begin our eighth theme of “NINTENDO Creations” featuring the many digital worlds designed by the famous Japanese company . We will be learning the Art and Sciences it takes to create these worlds including making our own side-scrolling paper Mario games, Creating our own world Maps, and designing our own Pokemon and Skylander characters. Students will also be using SCRATCH to learn about Coding and Game creations. We will be learning four new Nintendo based songs for the Masterpiece Showcase finale in April (No Showcase in March as we will be in testing mode for the new FSA for third and fourth grade). The whole school will be learning “Mario Theme (DUBSTEP MIX)” “Pokemon Theme (Johto Region)” “Sonic Colors: Reach for the Stars” & “Skylanders Trap Team Rap”
STREAM Projects - SCRATCH Creation!
Mr. J is emphasising the Technology portions of STREAM for this Month’s project. You will be using the science of the internet to learn about coding. Coding is what designers use for video games and websites. MIT has created a child friendly site to learn about code and make your own creations/games. This month students will work on the site and email Mr.J (ArtsLearningLab@gmail.com) a link to their creation:
http://scratch.mit.edu/ THE MAIN SITE
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/412866/#editor A LINK TO A PREMADE MARIO GAME CREATOR
Learn more about code at: http://hourofcode.com/us or http://code.org/
This STREAM project is OPTIONAL for THIRD & FOURTH GRADE since they have their FSA testing this month.
Here is a calendar for what we will be doing this month in the learning labs:
This month we will have Art/Science Lab DAILY (Except testing days) as the tech lab gets ready for FSA CBT (Computer Based Testing)
week 1-
MONDAY, MARCH 2- Art/Sci- Songs, Side Scrolling Games
TUESDAY, MARCH 3- FSA WRITING TEST (Grades 4,5,6)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4- Art/Sci- Songs, Side Scrolling Games
THURSDAY, MARCH 5-Art/Sci- Songs, Side Scrolling Games
FRIDAY, MARCH 6- Art/Sci- Songs, Side Scrolling Games
week 2-
MONDAY, MARCH 9- Art/Sci- World Map creations
TUESDAY, MARCH 10-Art/Sci- World Map creations
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11-Art/Sci- World Map creations
THURSDAY, MARCH 12-Art/Sci- World Map creations
FRIDAY, MARCH 13- Human Mario Creation (For students who earned it)
week 3-
MONDAY, MARCH 16-Art/Sci- Character creations
TUESDAY, MARCH 17-Art/Sci- Character creations
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18-Art/Sci- Character creations
THURSDAY, MARCH 19-Art/Sci- Character creations
FRIDAY, MARCH 20- Art/Sci- Character creations, Divergent:Insurgent Faction Test (For students who earned it)
week 4-
MONDAY, MARCH 23- FSA TEST (Grades 3,4)
TUESDAY, MARCH 24- FSA TEST (Grades 3,4)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25- FSA TEST (Grades 3,4)
THURSDAY, MARCH 26- FSA TEST (Grades 3, 4)
FRIDAY, MARCH 27- NO SCHOOL- SpRiNg BrEaK 2015 begins!
First in Math- Most stickers contest continues!
Our school has a new Math game website “www.FirstInMath.com” from the creators of the “24” board game. Each student has a unique username and password and will be able to access the site at school and home. The site has math games, a skill set “gym” and other features. Students must LEVEL UP to unlock bonus games and increase their rankings. This year we are looking to see who can earn the MOST NEW STICKERS on the site from March 1- April 20!
Moby Max State Test Prep Contest- HHHORAY to our WINNERS!
Congrats to our 30 students who finished their TEST PREP modules before the contest deadline! They will have a special Pizza Party after the testing is over!
Moby Max BADGES EARNED
Our next contest will be who has the most BADGES earned on the site! Log in and click on “Badges” to see how many you have earned.
TypingWeb Contest
Our next contest will be MOST WPM (Words Per Minute) average for students who have spent at least 60 minutes or more on the site practicing from March 1 - April 20. When you log onto your Typing Web account you can practice your typing skills, play typing games, and then MAKE SURE to challenge yourself to the Typing Test! You can take the test as many times as you wish, and each time it will let you know how many words per minute you can type.
Upcoming Events and Important Dates
March 3- FSA Writing test (Grades 4,5,6)
March 23 to 26- Third & Fourth grade FSA TEST
March 27- Spring Break begins
April 6- School resumes with our Avenging Aliens theme (Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and other Alien creations- Men In Black, Aliens in the Attic, E.T., Etc.)
April 13- FSA testing begins for fifth and sixth grade
EXPECT A NEW LEARNING LAB NEWSLETTER AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH MONTH
