Today’s blog post is brought to you by Athasi.
Today in GT we learned about what our brains think is beautiful. We think that patterns and symmetry are beautiful. We also tried number tricks with the Fibonacci sequence. Next, we did Genius Hour. Finally, we did Maker Studio, and some of us got to try out the Cubelets Lego adapters.
This post has been brought to you by Athasi.
Today in GT we had our first two Genius Hour presentations. The first one was a game show about photography, and the second one was a play about Mars. Also, we tested a new version of Hopscotch, a programming app. We were given challenges like “draw a circle” and “create a dance routine”. We also went more in depth with Multiple Intelligences. Finally, we started centers.We could choose from a lot of different things including the brand new Makey Makey graciously donated by Mr. Hoffstadt.
The following post is from Mahli. It is rather short, I think, because we forgot to take the time to help her summarize the day at the end of class. Also, we missed out on our planned centers near the end of the day because of unplanned technical difficulties. The text connections did take a lot of time, but resulted in some really great connections – particularly to world events. We used a video called, “This Week in Rap” from Flocabulary to go over some current events. We also took some time to vote on the most wanted items on our “Class Wish List” and watched a short video about the M.I.T. Media Lab.
Today in G.T we wrote text-to-self, text-to-text,and text to world, connections to Tuck Everlasting. Then we had Genius Hour and finished up our projects and research . Today was short but it was a great day.
Here are some of the pictures taken by the students on our field trip this week to the Witte Museum. (You can click on each picture to see a larger version.)
Today’s blog post is by Mahli. I have not had a chance to go through all of the pictures the students took during our field trip, yet, so I will try to post them in the next couple of days. The students were all very well-behaved, and seemed to really enjoy their time at the Witte. If you try not to blink, you can even catch a few of our students in the KSAT news video below! (Thanks, Mrs. Borden, for passing that on!)
If the embedded video does not show, try clicking on this link.
Today’s blog post is by Mahli:
Today in G.T we had a half day getting out at 12:00! In the time that we had we finished up our research and or project for Genius Hour. Also we did our Google Doodle drafts! We watched half of our Doodle for Google video and learned the creative thinking process of a Google Doodler. Everyone came up with some rocking designs! Even though today was only half a day we still learned lots of new things.
This blog post was written by Mahli:
Today in G.T we reviewed Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. We used Plickers to make our own ABC questions, and answer other groups questions. Then before we finished with Tuck Everlasting we played the Whatzit game. The Whatzit game is where there is a tic tac toe board and someone moves a square from it and behind each square is a question. Later we did Google Doodlers Hangout which is where we talk to a Google Doodler about his or her job. We learned that being a Doodler takes a lot of synergizing and putting 1st things 1st . Then for a challenge we drew imaginative doodles that we were assigned to. At the end of the day people who were in level 3 played and explored the world of Cubelets. Others who weren’t in level 3 looked for inspiration for our Google doodle “ If you could make something to make the world a better place what would it be?” Altogether today in G.T was super fun.
This is a “special edition” blog post from Keaton, Emmett, and Aiden. Their Genius Hour challenge was to write a blog post about what they did yesterday!
Keaton Emmett and I learned how to switch levels. We made drawings and sketches to put into the video game. We looked around the room for inspiration. We learned that there is no gravity setting in the game. I added a new sprite to our game. We also figured out how to move the monkey up and down. Finally, Emmett, Keaton and I made our second level.
Today’s blog post is brought to you by Mahli:
Today in G.T we finished Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. We also had a discussion about was Winnie right to take Maes place in the jail. Then during the book a poem was in the book by Richard Lovelace that said “Stone walls do not make a prison nor bars a cage”. After we discovered what that meant we realized your imagination can make anything whatever you want. After we watched doodle for google hang out. In this session we learned what its like to work at google in their doodle department. We learned that it takes about 1 month to make a regular google doodle, also that you go back multiple times to revise and edit. We discovered that just like in writing you get stuck and the google doodler gave us some tips like just look out for inspiration while your hanging out with your friends. Then it was time to create! We got into groups and made a valentines theme google sign! Later we got some inspiration from the one and only Kid President. Last we did genius hour! It was full of twist and turns but in the end it was a great day.
Today’s blog post was written by Mahli.
Today in G.T we read more of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. We also talked more about the question “ Is violence ever right?”. Still most of us said in some situations, but others said no. Later,we worked on our genius hour project and practiced a lot. Then at the end of the day we went over rules for the B.O.S.S.HQ ( Building of super stuff). People in level 3 got to go in B.O.S.S HQ and played with things like 3D Doodler, Little Bits, and got to draw. While level 3 students were in B.O.S.S HQ others not in level 3 were on a programing app called Hopscotch. Their mission on Hopscotch was to make a program that would spell their name, some succeeded while others didn’t. Today in G.T. was very fun.
Note from Mrs. Eichholz: Another activity that we tried today was “Newspaper Blackout Poetry.” It was very challenging, but some of the students created some great “Found” poems using newspaper articles, and I wanted to feature them here. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
