Password Protection with Grade 4

We're discussing "Rings of Responsibility" in Grade 4: ways to be responsible to yourself, to your friends and family, and to the community (both in person and online). Common Sense Media has a great lesson on building strong passwords, which connects to digital citizenship at the self level.

The number one rule is ... don't share your passwords with anyone but the grownups you live with!

After that, try and make sure nobody can guess said passwords. We talked about avoiding dictionary words, substituting symbols for letters, using phone keypad numbers instead of letters ... one student suggested using Morse code, and another converting letters to binary code!

Using a Common Sense handout, the kids came up with "weak" and "strong" passwords for famous people. The next week, the students worked in groups to devise replacements for some of the weak passwords. For example:

Person: Isaac Newton
Weak password: gravity
Ideas for stronger passwords:

• gr@v!ty4411
• @55ytivarg!
• @plscilw 

Person: Michael Jackson

Weak password: moonwalk
Ideas for stronger passwords:

• w00n52wA!k
• m0nw1!k1368
• mjma1b2c3

Person: Ms. Moore
Weak password: ollibrary
Ideas for stronger passwords:

• 0!lidr@ry
• b00ks$shelf60
• oak@libry.!
• 0!!LbeRry!

How strong are YOUR passwords? 

In Other Words ... with Grade 5

Fifth graders are practicing their paraphrasing skills. First we worked together to come up with synonyms and ways to recast a sentence.

ORIGINAL: The automobile that went by very quickly was maroon. It went through a big puddle and splashed us.

NEW: The big puddle got us really good when the dark red car flew through it.

ORIGINAL: The educator removed the unruly student from the learning environment because of the sounds he was making

NEW: Because the student was making a ruckus, the teacher made him go away.

ORIGINAL: In the metropolis, the recreation area was dilapidated. Youngsters received injuries when they attempted to utilize the equipment.

NEW: People in the city got hurt because they tried to use the playground equipment that was dangerous.

Then they worked on an individual assignment, putting the following sentences into their own words:

During my earlier years, I experienced much conflict with my male and female siblings who were born before me. Now that we are more mature, we have overcome some of our differences and have the ability to interact pleasantly.

Here are some of the new sentences the students came up with:

When I was a youngster, I experienced a lot of bad things with my older brother and sister. Now we solved our problems and have fun. - T.R.

When I was younger, I fought with my sister, but now we are older, so we don't fight. - M.J.

When I was younger, I got into a lot of fights with my brother and sister. But since we have grown up, we stopped fighting. - A.Z. 

When I was younger, I didn't always get along with my older siblings. Now that we are older, we can play and talk together without fighting. - S.D. 

A few years back, I was bullied by my older relatives, but now we're grown up, the problems fade away. - T.K.

When I was younger I argued with my older brothers and sisters. Now we are older, we have stopped arguing and we have fun. - A.J.