Segunda sesión

(English text below)

Esta semana continuamos explorando la interface de Scratch que empezamos a usar la semana pasada. Antes de mostrarles como usar las herramientas interactivas, l@s niñ@s nos recordaron que ya sabían usarlas. Vimos varios videos cortos que nos mostraron cómo agregar y mover Sprites (caricaturas que se pueden animar), y agregar imágenes de fondo, sonidos, y texto a los proyectos. Después de ver los videos trabajamos juntos para proponer ideas de tradiciones y fiestas de la primavera. Una de las ideas fue el carnaval. Después creamos una tarjeta de carnaval juntos en Scratch. Todos contribuyeron sus opiniones.

Después de la merienda, cada chic@ creó su propia tarjeta. Comenzamos por crear cuentas personales en Scratch. Usando las ideas que habían dibujado en sus libretas l@s niñ@s crearon una tarjeta de primavera. ¡Todos los proyectos les salieron muy bien! Algun@os dibujaron sus propios Sprites, mientras que otr@s bajaron imágenes que les gustaban del internet. Crearon historias de dragones, jugadores de fútbol, tortas de cumpleaños, y robots. También les agregaron texto, sonido, y movimiento para hacerlas mas dinámicas. Los últimos 10 minutos los dedicamos a que voluntariamente compartieran sus creaciones con sus amig@s.

¡Nos vemos el domingo!





________________________________________


In this week’s session of “Sueños digitales,” we continued exploring the Scratch program, which had been introduced to the children last week. Before showing how the interactive tools worked, the children reminded us what they had already learned. Then, several short videos were played, demonstrating how to add and move Sprites (animated objects like cartoon cats), and how to add background, sound and text to the projects. After watching the clips, the children got excited and enthusiastic about using Scratch. Before we let them explore the program on their own, we first did a group activity. The theme of the activity was spring, and everyone worked together to brainstorm springtime traditions or events celebrated in the Hispanic world. We eventually settled on Carnaval. Hands flew in the air, volunteering to help create the card, and those who didn’t go up all contributed with their opinions.

After snack time, the children moved to the computer room for the individual activity. This was the chance to create personal accounts on Scratch, and implement ideas they had drawn in their notepads. Once again, the plan was to create cards depicting a springtime festival or holiday, but the main purpose was to get the children comfortable with using Scratch. In the end, all of them created impressive projects! They were drawing their own Sprites, uploading unique pictures from the Internet, and creating stories with dragons, football players, birthday cakes and robots. The children included texts and sounds that would appear once a user hit “go,” and some projects had multiple changing backgrounds. The final 10-15 minutes was a time of sharing, and those who wanted to share their projects had the opportunity to do so.

Until next Sunday!

El domingo de pascua l@s chic@s aprovecharon el lindo día para estar afuera, correr, y buscar huevos de pascua (y su merienda). Fue un pequeño ritual para recibir a la primavera, que conectaba muy bien con la idea de hablar sobre la naturaleza, las plantas y los animales de sitios del mundo hispano en que han estado de vacaciones. Como parte del trabajo, ell@s mismos crearon relatos e ilustraciones de esos sitios, dejando volar la imaginación como es costumbre.

Esta semana la tarea engancha un poco con la de la semana pasada porque también habla de flora y fauna, pero esta vez en onda ecológica. El tema de la sesió de este domingo será:

¿Cómo podemos mejorar el medioambiente?

Los niños deben traer una imagen de un diario o revista o sacar una fotografía de algo que creen que no es bueno para la tierra y traer ideas de cómo solucionarlo.

Durante la sesion del taller haremos una lista de recomendaciones para mejorar el medioambiente.

Muy pronto estará circulando el segundo número de Niñ@s Reporter@s. Estén pendientes!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Easter Sunday the kids took advantage of the beautiful day to be outside. They ran and looked for Easter eggs (and a snack). It was a small ritual to welcome spring, and it connected well with the idea of talking about nature, plants and animals in the places of the Hispanic world where they have been on vacation. As part of the work they created stories and illustrations of these sites, letting their imagination fly as usual.

This week the homework links a bit to last week's because it also relates to flora and fauna, but this time with relation to ecology. The theme of this Sunday's session will be:

How can we improve the environment?

Children must bring a newspaper or magazine picture or draw a picture of something they think is not good for the earth and bring ideas of how to fix it.

During the session of the workshop we will make a list of recommendations to improve the environment.

The second issue of their Niñ@s Reporter@s will soon be circulating. Stay tuned!