Welcome to the Digital Leaders Blog Page!

Meet our Digital Leaders:

Y4: Rudraksh, Ekam, Leeloo, Riaan, Harsleen, Justice

Y5: Lianna, Monika, Valluvan, Jamie, Treasure

Y6: Gurpuran, Izzah, Ishaan, Niamh

We meet weekly to add text, video and images, to show you what we have been learning in Computing, this term.

We hope you enjoy reading about the Computing skills Northgate pupils are developing!

Miss Pribelszki - Computing Teacher

YEAR 1

GROUPING OBJECTS

Year 1 are learning how to log in, open and save documents.

They are developing their mouse skills to drag and drop text and images within a PowerPoint.

Y1 are learning to group objects, label them and to say which group has more/less/most/least.

YEAR 2

PICTOGRAMS

Year 2 have been learning how to use J2Data to create pictograms. They have asked their class mates how they travelled to school and about their favourite fruit. Year 2 then created tally charts, totalled up their tallies and created pictograms. 

YEAR 3

SCRATCH DANCE

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

In Year 3 we have been using fonts to change the style and size and colour. To change it you highlight. To do it go up to 72 and for the colour you can make your own colour for the style there are over 14 styles. We were making a card all about me. It was so cool and we were learning 3 things at the same time and people can learn more about you and for this writing MV Boli it is so fun you can do a rainbow or random colour.  

By Lianna

In Year 3 we have been changing font, size and colour for our invitation. You can make it big or small and you can change the colour to the writing could be blue or any other colour. Here is my birthday invitation, made using Canva templates. We added images.

By Divjot

BRANCHING DATABASES

In  Year 3  we  have been  learning  to  ask  closed  and  open  questions on  j2data to make a branching database. We are using animals and different things like food and body parts. We use questions like are they fast or do they have 4 legs to separate them. You can use does it have fur for dogs. You need 6 animals. You need to make them go in 2 groups and sometimes you do not want to make it look stairs.

By Lianna

YEAR 4

This term in Year 4 we are learning how to do coding on scratch 2. We were using dinosaurs. We had 2 dinosaurs and 1 shark. The first dinosaurs could dance /change costumes. The second dinosaurs could jump up and down and change colour .Finaly the shark could spin left 90 degrees and right 90 degrees.

By Monika

PHOTO EDITING

we are learning to use the snipping tool to cut out our faces onto our animals to try and make an ad about our animals

jamie

In Y4 we have been learning photo editing and using THE snipping tool to cut out our faces and animals. Once you have done that go to insert and type in forest or jungle background. If you see a big A that says wordart. You get different types of writing. Pick a colour. Say how much it costs and when it opens and closes. If your face is behind, right hand click and press bring to front. After that you are finished.

By Lianna

This week we have been learning how to change a picture’s texture on a powerpoint and make it look like it is a painting or make it look like it is on glass and many others.

By Valluvan

In year 4 we have been putting our faces on animals. We cut an animal out and put our faces on the animals. There was a lion, tiger, tree frog, humming bird, jaguar, gorilla and we are going to add a background. We have been going on the power point and we are using the snipping tool. To get your background you need to go on insert then online pictures then type in the background you want. Then you can scroll down and find the picture you want when you find the picture you want click on it then press insert. To write on the background go on home and press the blue and white A. Then you can start writing what you want.

By Auguste

In Y4 we have been learning photo editing and using the snipping tool to cut out our faces and then we put them on an animal and then we needed to add a background. If your background covers your animal, then click on right hand click and it will show you bring to front. Press on it and then it will come on the background. After that you need to write how much it will cost for children and how much it will cost for the parents. You then need to write which time they can come.

By Monika

In year 4, we have been putting our faces on animals and making backgrounds with our animals on top. Before that we have been cutting out different types of things and putting them on backgrounds. We have been going on the power point, saving things and using the snipping tool to cut out stuff. The animals were called lion, tree frog, tiger, humming bird, and the jaguar. To get you’re background you need to go to insert online pictures. To put you’re animal on the background you need to press right hand click and then press bring to front. Then you do the writing and the prices.To write on it you have to go on A.

By Lyla

In Y4 we have been learning how to use the snipping tool to cut out pictures and put them on a powerpoint and we have learnt how to change the backround on a powerpoint we have changed the text and font on word art. And we have learnt how to move the picture on top of the backround if you can’t see the picture.

By Valluvan

In Year 4 we have been learning how to put our faces on an animal and using the snipping tool to cut our face out. And then we have learnt how to put our faces on the animal we chose and then insert the background and make an ad.

We are learning  how to put our animals and faces on to the background and it isnt hard because you left hand click and then we put them on our background and then we are done. We also learnt how to change our font and colour.

By Jamie

DATA LOGGING

In Year 4 we also have been learning to use a data logger and a probe. To use them you need an IPad then you need to open the data logger app. You tap on the bullets then you find one and tap the circles on that one. To turn it on there’s a white plastic button. Press it that’s how you use it.

And now the probe. There’s a button on the top of it so press it and it’s already connected. The data logger can detect lux, DB and the probe can detect heat and cold.

By Ellis

In Year 4 we have been learning about using a data logger. We took the data logger outside. We put the data logger under a bush to see how dark it was. It was really dark (not many lux). After we put the data logger in a bush we put it in sunny bit and it went very high lux. The week after we put the top of the data logger into hot water and then ice. When we looked at the temperature it was high for the hot water and for the ice it was really cold.

By Lacey-Mae

PHOTO EDITING

In Year 4 we have been learning about using the snipping tool and to insert pictures on power point by taking a picture of our self and snipping our faces. Then we chose an animal face then we cut out the animal face then inserted our faces on the animal body so our body looks like we are the animal that we chose. We used lots of filters and I chose the glow one.

By Lacey Mae

In Year 4 we did photo editing. To edit an image you select what you want and it will say FORMAT, and artistic affects will come up and click on it and 22 EFECTS will come. Choose the one that you like and you can choose how bright you like or how dark you like it. You can also stop pictures of food from looking rotten! You can do all of that by clicking a few buttons from photo editing and here is mine.  

By Gurpuran

In Year 4 we have been learning about photo editing. We have also learned about the snipping tool.

To get the snipping tool you have to go to the browse and type snipping tool and then click it and snip anything you want out.

To edit the photo you need to insert a picture into power point and then you click the picture and then go to format and then you can change the brightness and saturation and colour that’s how you use them.

You can also put a filter on any image by inserting an image then click format

By Ellis

YEAR 5

DATABASES

Y5 J2 Database by Valluvan

In year 5 we are using J2 database to find out answers to different questions like the Titanic and currencies to different countries and answer them on a PowerPoint.

               Y5 by Valluvan

In Year 5 each class has a shared google slide. Everyone in the class has one slide. On your slide you can use one subject and insert pictures from the internet.

We are learning about data bases and in them we are learning about the titanic ship. We learned about how many people were on the ship, what class they were, where they boarded and what their title was. It showed how many survived and how many were victims.

By Tommy

By Lacey

In year 5 we have been learning about the Titanic. We have also been learning about who died and who survived, how old they were, what class they were in and who they or what they worked for. We find this information out on j2data base. There were more people in 3^rd class rather than 1^st or 2^nd class. It’s sad that more people died than people survived. At least we know information about them which still helps us to understand. J2 data helps me understand and find out lots more info. Here’s some of my work:

In year 5 we’ve been doing Data bases on j2data. We are currently doing the titanic but we’ve done data bases on bugs and flags.

On the titanic data base you can see how many people have died or survived, how many people boarded and more! We have done charts here’s an example:

We have also done some questions on it to show what we’ve learnt.  We also use the AND  button. We’ve also done the OR button.  

By Niamh

In Year 5 we are learning how to use j2databases. To make a chart click on the chart button. Then click where the x is. After that click on the one that you want to see. Finally, click on the graph you want to see and it will show you how many of all the things e.g how many people are 21 years old. We used this method to answer questions.

We used the titanic and the different fields are:

Age, First name, Surname, Title, Gender, Boarded, Class (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd class), S (survivors) and v (victim)

By Zack

In Year 5, we have been learning about databases using j2data (http://j2data.com). We are learning about the Titanic. You can see how many people have died, survived, title, first names (alphabetical), surnames (alphabetical), gender, boarded, class, age.

So you have to open j2 data and go in data bases after that you have to press the examples after that you will see one more tab saying my files. You have to press titanic passengers and go on charts. Press x and choose something and it will show you something about what you pressed in x also, you can press file view to see people on the titanic more closely. If you want to see all the people you can press table view.

By Rugved

In Year 5 we have been learning how to use j2 databases. We went on j2 data ‘Titanic Passenger List.’ There were Titles, Gender, Class, Boarded, S or V (S=Survivor. V=Victim/Deceased/Dead) and Age!

 We went on the chart button once you’re on it and choose a topic like Gender, and the pie chart, vertical or horizontal bars and the biggest/tallest piece of pie chart/bar. We used the charts for questions e.g. how many people died? Etc. We used the different charts to answer the questions!

By Ahmad

YEAR 6

By Niamh

In year 6 we have been currently doing crumble. In crumble we have been we made a circuit with a sparkle (a light), 5 crocodile clips and 1 main board. While making a circuit we also would open the crumble app to make coding like this:

The purpose of the wait block is to change how long the sparkle or motor is on or off. If you have changed your coding you need to press the red square then the green play button.

Y6 are designing a web page to create using Google sites. Here is Jayden's webpage:

In year 6 we are learning results in search engines such as google and edge. Web crawlers are things which go around the internet searching for the thing you would like to know. There are lots of search engines for example google, yahoo, Swisscow, Duck Duck go and Bing.

 There are search engines that could track you and search engines that don’t engines that could track you include; google and Microsoft edge and engines that don’t include; Swisscows, Duck Duck Go and yahoo which you have a choice. Search engines also include how many results have been made, most of the time website like google, Bing and Microsoft edge has the most results and website like Swisscows, yahoo and Duck Duck Go.

 You probably don’t know all these search engines but for example if u search up hi in your search bar in google you would get about nine billion results and if you search it something like Bing (a website that isn’t that popular) you would get by typing in hi about one hundred and thirty seven million results not that much like google. So it is like that google is the winner of the most results because some search engines don’t say how many results there are.

If you don’t know there are lots of search engines you don’t know of it because no one uses it or talks about it and people use websites (that could track you) to sometimes search things up some search engines don’t and to find other search engines you don’t need to download it you only need to download it, if it is when you want to get in it faster but I would rather go into a default search engine and use that to search up other search engines to use to search up things.   

By Humza       

In year 6 we have been learning about different messaging apps and video calling apps for example FaceTime, Zoom, Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Tinder, Facebook and many more. We also look at which one is more suitable for things for example Instagram is suitable for posting stories or posting picture as FaceTime is suitable for calling someone so that  you can see them face to face and chat with them. These are some of the website that you can use:

These are all big companies but in some of these big companies there can be smaller companies and only the peoples that play it can make it come to the top for example, pretend you uploaded a game or something, if no one plays it your game can’t come to the top but pretend the whole wide world played it , your game will come to the top .You could get these games if you download it but pretend you can’t download it ,the game might be fully deleted or pretend you downloaded and played it for some time and you can’t get in, you might have to ask the companies and you might be banned. This only happens if you do something bad so don’t do it and now you know what to do!

By Tharveen

Search Engines & Social Media

In Year 6, we have been learning about Social Medias and what we can use them for. At first, we tried to think of as many Social Medias as we can think of e.g. Discord, Vine, WhatsApp, Facebook etc.  After that, we went on a separate slide and tried to paste in the social media that is best for each scenario. For the challenge, we had to choose a social media and highlight in green of what it CAN do, yellow if it can sort of do it, and red if it CANNOT do it.  We tried to do as many as we can on the challenge, I ended up doing about 4, which is not too bad and is decent.

By Ahmad

In computing we are learning about web crawlers.

But first you need to go on the search engines which are google, duck duck go, swiss cow, bing and yahoo.

All they do is when you search something it will go on all websites, find all of the ones that you searched and gives the searched thing in one area which is where you look at the searched thing.

We are also learning about different apps to talk with people. Here are some of them, like WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Zoom, G mail, Website, Blog and SMS/ short messaging system.

By Zack

In computing this year, we are learning about search engines and the amount of results we get. We searched stuff on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo etc. We tried to find the most popular results on each search engine. If we searched “Rugby” we would try to find the most popular result, we did not count ads. After we found the 3 highest results, we went to our PowerPoint to write down the results on each search engine. Also, we looked at some websites about the 4 layers of earth and gave them points for how much the word “layer” was in it and if another website mentioned it. We gave points to show how high the website would rank. It seemed most websites shared “BBC Sport” as the most popular when searched “Rugby.” We also learned that the more times the word Rugby is mentioned, the higher it ranks.

As well as that, we learnt about Social Medias like Vine, WhatsApp, and Discord etc.  We found out that blogs are like a diary where people can read it, they can do blogs on websites like Blogger.
By Ahmad Khan J

In year 6 we have been learning how to use the crumble kit to get a light turn on to any colour and a motor spinning in any direction at any speed. We can change these factors with coding. Using this we can freely have an awesome system and it was all your choice. There are many different combinations so really can get creative. The wiring is pretty simple because plug one side to plus and then the other side to plus. You would need to plug in a cable to your computer and then you want to wire everything up. You can use a tutorial or an image to wire up your cables. 

By Harry

SEARCH ENGINES

Web crawlers are robots that crawl through every website finding a website which has the word you searched for. It gives you the websites which had that word. So if you searched a word like sandwich it would find websites who sell sandwiches or facts about them or even the best sandwiches.

 Let`s say you have a family computer so a family member searches for something like adult shoes. Then you go on the computer searching for ham or something like that. The web crawler thinks you like adult shoes because your family searched for adult shoes but they don’t know you’re a different person. So it gives you ads on adult shoes because they think you need shoes.

 Sometimes different search engines end up giving you different websites. There are search engines like Swiss cows, Ecosia, Bing, Safari, Google, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go and a lot more. Some of them track your data like Google but there`s some like Swiss cows which don`t track your data.

By Aayan

In Y6, we have been learning about search engines and web browsers. In computing we learnt that Duck Duck Go is a search engine that doesn’t save the search data. Swiss Cow is a search engine that doesn’t track you and has completely private searches . Yahoo, Google and Bing are search engines that save your data and track you.

We have also been learning about web crawlers and websites . There are many different web browsers and the most popular one is Google Chrome but there are also many more which are known as  Safari, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

BY SARA

CRUMBLE

In Year 6 we`ve been using Crumble to program. We have things like crocodile clips, batteries, sparkles and a part which allows us to tell the computer what to do called a crumble controller. We connect the battery to the controller so the controller can work. Then we connect the controller to either the sparkle or motor you can even add both! Here`s an image on where the crocodile clips go if you want to make one:

Once you have done that you can code. Now you will have to open up Crumble and then do some coding! What you have to do depends on what you want to happen which part how long. It may seem a bit complicated but it`s actually not that hard. Here is a picture:

So first we have the program start box that allows us to actually start the program and make it do what tell we told it to do. Then we have the forever loop where it repeats what we told it to do, forever. If you don’t want this or only want this to happen once simply remove the forever loop. If you need this to happen an amount of times add the “do 10 times” box and select the 10 and make it as much as you need. Now let’s make the sparkle; first we have set sparkle 0 to red. If you click the colour you can make it whatever colour you want. Then add the wait 1.0 seconds you can change it to whatever amount of seconds you want. Then add the turn sparkle off box. Now that will turn the sparkle off and then it will repeat how many times you put it to with the forever loop or “do 10 times” box or if you just wanted to happen once now press the green pause button to make it work.

By Aayan

In Year 6, we are learning about Crumble, how to use the sparkle and the light sensor. You have to plug the USB cable into the computer and then the other side of it put three crocs into the crumble controller. Afterwards you have to plug the crocs into + - and D. With the same crocs, plug them into the sparkle. On the other side of the crumble controller get two crocs and plug them on the first plus and first minus on the battery. DON’T FORGET TO TURN THE BATERRY ON! You now go onto Crumble and start the programing. First put on program start, do forever loop, set sparkle 0 to any colour you want, wait as many seconds as you want, turn sparkle 0 off and you can repeat the pattern but with different colours. It is good to explore with the wait time.

TOP TIP: When you program it, use the forever loop.

BY Evie

In Y6 we have been learning how to make circuits with a crumble controller, a sparkle (RGB LED), a battery box with switch and short circuit protection, croc leads and a USB Cable. You always connect minus to minus, plus to plus and D to D when you’re connecting the croc leads to the crumble, sparkle and batteries. You connect one cable to the plus on the crumble and connect the other end to the plus on the sparkle. Then connect another cable from the minus on the crumble to the minus on the sparkle and connect the D on the sparkle to the D on the crumble. On the other side, you connect plus on the batteries onto the plus on the crumble then connect minus to minus on the batteries. To connect it to the device you use a USB cable that connects to the crumble. If the crumble glows red that means something is incorrect like the connections, coding or the batteries aren’t turned on. To make the sparkle work, you have to code it correctly. We always start with ‘program start’ then place ‘turn sparkle to (your colour)’ this will make the sparkle light up the colour you programmed it to. If you want your sparkle to stay on for a limited amount of time put ‘wait 1 seconds’ you can change it to which time you want. The last thing to do is to play the coding and the sparkle flashes one time. If you want it to flash forever, place a forever loop and put all the coding inside it.

by Leja

In Year 6, we’ve been learning about Crumble. Crumble is where you code and you make the components do something. For example this picture: I am going to label the components.

In Year 6, we have been learning how to construct and program circuits using Crumble. We have programmed and assembled lights, buzzers, buttons and we tried to program and assemble the light sensor but we found that the first time we tried to do the light sensor it was unsuccessful but the second time we did it, it worked. We used a battery pack to fuel the electricity and crocodile cables to conduct the electricity to set off the buzzer for example. The crumble controller is like our motherboard. There are 12 points where you can connect the cables and they each have a symbol. In order to program the Crumble, you use the USB cable to plug it into the computer/laptop.  You have to install the Crumble app before you can program. When you’re on the app, you drag the different coding blocks like in Scratch. It is easy to find pictures of how to assemble your circuit on the internet and you can even find it on the Crumble website.

Light (sparkle):   With the sparkle, you can assemble a circuit that lets it light up but that also depends on a certain block of coding. The coding is simple and you use an app that’s called Crumble to program. You can find the programming on browsers such as Google or Bing. The coding will cause the sparkle to flash when played. You can make it flash faster or slower or for a longer amount of time. It is possible to change the colours and ad many colours to make it flash like a rainbow.

Motor:

We learnt how to do the motor recently. The set of of programming is very simple and easy. You can put something on the rotating bit when programmed so it looks like its moving. The programming causes the motor to spin and vibrate. It vibrates more depending on the speed of the motor that it was programmed to go at. The circuit is the same as the sparkle circuit but you add the motor on.

Here are some images of the coding and structure of a sparkle, (aka a light):

By Michalina

WEB PAGE CREATION

In Year 6, we have been learning to make webpages by using Google sites. Everyone chose a subject that they knew a lot about for their webpage topic. We did a practice webpage on PowerPoint before going onto Google sites. We used our school email to log into Google chrome. We put in display boxes and added images. Some of us used Pixabay as it is a website that has loads of pictures that are copyright free. Some of us used Google sites to import the images. We divided and wrote our facts under three subheadings. Some people added more facts or more images. Everyone had to upload at least one video that explained the subject. Have a look at my guinea pig page!

-Michalina

In Year 6, we are learning how to make our own websites using Google Sites. You can add pictures to show the people what you are writing about. You can also add videos by right clicking and pressing copy link address. Then go onto Google Sites and then paste it into the embed box. That is how to add videos. We also have to add photo credit to make sure we are keeping copyright laws. From Evie-Rose­­­­­­.

This is the clarinet website I am making:

In Year 6, we are learning about how to make webpages and we are using Google Sites to make it. You can add videos by right clicking and it would say copy link address then add it where it says URL and put it in the link. We also learnt about copyright if you got a picture you have to put the name of who you burrowed the picture on and that’s called photo credit.

By Abeenash