Seven School Wonders

The Use of ICT in Laajasalo Primary School
 
In our class grade 4a we have a lot of technics. There is a video projector and a computer for every group of 4-6 pupils (we have 10 computers in all). But in our ICT-classroom we have a computer for all the pupils. By a video projector we can watch films and videos. By a camera and scanner we can take photos.

Fronter

We have digital learning  environment Fronter in the net.

In Fronter there are many `"rooms". We work and act in the rooms there. On the page 'Participants' you can see who has the right to use Fronter. You can see their email addresses and send messages.

In the file  for the parents there is all kinds of information. Parents can communicate in Fronter.

In Fronter I have got my own Portfolio. I send there my texts. My teacher can evaluate them.

In one room there are tests and activities. When we study, the small tests help us. In that room we can practice the names of plants and animals. We can also practice maths. In our learning environment, Fronter, there are a lot of exercises and activities to help our learning. In one room there are animations and simulations. We can see there many kinds of phenomenon.

In one room there are chatforums and chats about energy, pets, Northern countries, sports and other hobbies. Our teacher can make questions in the room. The enguiry on sports is in its own digital room.

We can find  information in internet of different things and we make our own little info book. Everyone writes about e.g. race cars, laser, bowing, ice hockey, motorbikes and Finland.

The class´s own diskdrive has different texts.We wrote stories for the Christmas party. We  write dialogues on the computer. We can write there ideas about how to use the extra money at school. We wrote stories for our spring  magazine. We sold the magazine and got some money for our class.

Biology

We made observations on birds when they moved to Finland for the summer.



We learned how to recognise them. At last we drew them.

We studied in biology about animals. We saw different animals and wrote about them. Then we  looked how they behave and what they eat. We also visited the zoo. We took photos in the photo gallery. At last it was our task to invent our own animals that are not real. We found out how heavy they are, how tall they are, what they eat and where they live. At last we drew the environment where they live.

We looked for links in the net. We could see photos of flowers and animals. Everybody in our class wrote about the plants.  If you want to know more you try a link. There you can find more info and photos. Links are very useful for more information.

The Project in Finnish Folk Tradition

We had a project on ´Birds and Plants in Finnish Folk Tradition. It is connected with the culture and tradition in handicraft in Finland. Special birds and plants are popular in old handicraft. It was our purpose to decorate a cover for a sledge according to the earlier plans.The motif was the tree of life.



The planning is not ready and we`ll carry it out next autumn. We practiced how to do the stiches. The directions are in the net.We have written about the tree of life.

There are very many leaves, birds, animals and flowers like tulips, hops and flaxes in the tree of life. We drew sketches of them on the paper. So the tree of life is a tree. A mother came to school to tell about old traditional plants.

ICT is a tool in finding information and building knowledge. It can be used in many subjects.