5th Grade: Genius Hour In Progress

For the last three weeks the 5th graders have had time to work on exploring topics that they are interested in, not ones chosen by the teacher.  We are calling it Genius Hour, but in truth the kids have not had a full hour to work.  They have had anywhere from 15-50 minutes each of the three weeks.  The first two weeks were a bit of a challenge because the kids weren’t used to complete autonomy.  As they started, they realized that some of their ideas overlapped with a classmate and decided to work in teams.  This week, I really saw the kids focused, with a plan…and they are making progress.  I am happy with the direction of things…for their FIRST attempt.  The kids are studying everything from Colloids, to Space, to Important Battles in WWII, to learning Java Script, and  Baking.  Below you will see some video and pictures of the kids in action.

Liam and Nick are going to create a game.  They have sketched out a plan for their game, and are now using Hopscotch (a programming app) to create an advertisement.  Here is a video of their progress. 

Nic is interested in learning how to write code.  I introduced him to a website called Code Monster and he has been a coding monster ever since. 🙂  He is using the site to learn how the language works and is then going to teach the rest of us. 

Preston and Spencer are interested in some of the important battles in World War II.  They are researching the battles and are planning to create a model of one of the battles.  They are then going to use StopMotion to recreate if for us. The video below is of them trying StopMotion out, so they would know how it works when they have their model made.  Nothing too exciting yet, but know that it will be an awesome addition to their project. 

Here are some pictures of the kids working on their projects.  

3 thoughts on “5th Grade: Genius Hour In Progress

  1. Hearing about kids coding is very impressive! Of course, seeing everyone pursue their interests is awesome! Good job guys! Google uses the same approach for their employees — giving them their own time to come up with their own projects — and that is how the genius ideas come up.

  2. Mrs. Germadnik, Sofia has been raving about GT being fun for the past 2 weeks. Thanks for all the good work that you do!

  3. I love this idea! Nic came home so excited about Genius Hour. He has been debating what coding language he wanted to learn first over the past couple of months. It is inspiring to see all of them discover their “genius.”

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