COMPUTER EXPLORERS Teachers' Holiday Luncheon

Our staff took a break from teaching in December and enjoyed a nice luncheon at Buca di Beppo in Lombard. It was a chance to catch up with each other, share ideas, tell stories and just enjoy some good Italian food! A good time was had by all!

Our New Jurassic Cinema class

We began offering a new movie making class called Jurassic Cinema. We use plastic dinosaurs or clay dinosaurs as figures and the students write their stories and draw their backgrounds. They film their movies with a digital movie camera and bring their dinosaurs to life. The kids have a blast with this class and they all get to keep a dinosaur figure after class ends as well as getting their movie on a CD-ROM.

Here's a movie with 4 short Jurassic movies:


This one is called "Teen Dino Movie":

Highlights of Computertots and Jr. Fun-gineering

Here are some pictures of students from our Computertots and Jr. Fun-gineering classes taken this summer!

In Computertots class, our students enjoyed interactive, hands-on classes on the computer. They learned basic computer skills and also gained academic readiness skills in reading, math and science. They also worked together to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

In Jr. Fun-gineering, the students had a great time builing fun and interactive models using Lego educational sets. They learned all about levers, pulleys, gears, wheels and axles while they were building!

We were written about in the Hinsdale Doings Newspaper!

Our Spiderman moviemaking class has gotten lots of press this summer. The first article was for our class at the New Lenox Park District. This one is for a class we had at the Community House in Hinsdale. Please click on page to enlarge article.

Pictures from our Lego Robotics class at Bolingbrook Park District

This week we are having a Lego® Robotics class at the Bolingbrook Park District. Students work with LEGO Mindstorms® kits and infrared technology to build and program robots to accomplish different tasks. They work with touch and light sensors and motors and bulbs, and learn how to program using Robolab software. The kids are having a great time and learning how to program in fun and creative ways!

Here are some movies created in our "Making a Harry Potter movie" class

Here's one entitled "Harry and the Curse of the Evil Spirit"

Some examples of movies created in our Claymation classes

Here's a movie entitled: "Happy Mushrooms". 4 little mushrooms come to life and combine to form a giant mushroom!



Here's a movie entitled: The Dancing Hippo

One of our classes was written about in the Lincolnway Sun Newspaper

Here's an article written about our Making a Spiderman movie class at the New Lenox Park District. Please click on each page to enlarge the article.

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Digital Moviemaking class for 3-6 year olds

Even little ones can make movies. This movie was created by kids ages 3-6. They learned to use concepts in special effects and stop motion animation. They used toys and clay as props and had a great time doing it.

Movies from our "Lights, Camera, Action - Making your Own Spiderman Movie" class

Here are some of the movies created in our "Lights, Camera, Action - Making a Spiderman Movie" class this past spring and this summer at the local Park Districts. The students were between the ages of 8 - 12 years.

This one is called Spiderman 4. Starring: Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Spiderman and Sandman



This is called Spiderman the Villain Returns.



This is called Spiderman 3 1/2. Could this be the sequal to Spiderman 3?

Fun-gineering class at Batavia Park District

We just finished up a Fun-gineering class at Batavia this week. The students had a great time working with educational Lego kits and learning about simple machines. They learned about structures and forces, levers, wheels and axles, gears and pulleys. They built working models of a car, merry go round and a crane. They were able to design their own Lego car and race them against each other. Fun and learning was had by all!

This class will be held at the Burr Ridge Park District and the Community House in Hinsdale this summer.