What We Did in Genius Hour

Photo Feb 12, 1 30 43 PM

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.

4th Grade “Hangs Out” with a Google Doodler

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.

4th Grade Does a Little Doodling

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.

4th Grade Meets the Genius Hour Villains

Today’s post was written by Mahli and Athasi.

Today in GT we continued to work on our Genius hour projects and  were introduced to the “villains” of genius hour projects, such as pop up penelope, who distracts you with pop up ads. Today for Genius Hour we did a lot of research on are topics so next Wednesday we can create.

Also we read more of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. We discussed if it was ever ok to use violence even when you are protecting someone. Most of us said only in some situations others said no. After that we went through some tough scenarios to help us decide if violence is ever the answer .  At the end of the day we got a fun Valentines Day sudoku puzzle. Everyday in G.T is always a new adventure. Today was definitely an exciting day for the fourth grade G.T at Hidden Forest Elementary.

 

B.O.S.S. HQ is Now Open!

This post was co-authored by Mahli and Athasi.

Today in G.T we read “Tuck Everlasting “by: Natalie Babbitt and took a vote to see how many people would still drink the magic water that makes you live forever, and very few of us raised our hands . After that, we did some hands on equations which is  pre algebra. Also we revised our Genius Hour projects to meet the criteria that we talked about last time and many of us started our projects. Then, students who were on level three got to choose either to paint the sign to our maker studio, which  is called  B.O.S.S. HQ  (Building Of Super Stuff) or create hands on programs with little things called Little Bits. For those of us who were not on level three, tried some challenges on the iPad using the programming app “Hopscotch”.  Also, report cards went home today, along with our G.T folders, full of the cool stuff we do in G.T.At the end of the day Emmett showed us some things under the microscopes at the Genius Bar. There was also a question on the Genius Bar that said,” Should you always listen to the opinions of others?” A lot of us said no, but a few of us said yes.Today in G.T was a good day to show the creative side of yourself.

4th Completes Parallel Poetry

Today’s blog post was c0-authored by Mahli and Athasi.  Click on the images below to see full-size samples of some of the students’ work.

Today in GT we learned fun creative things you can do with Google Drive to make your documents or slideshows stand out and then shared them with Mrs. Eichholz. When we all finished, Mrs. Eichholz reminded us of the acronym, T.M.I., which stands for Think, Make, Improve, and asked us if we could improve the way our poem looked, and many of us added a bunch of things to it. We also went over criteria for genius hour. Some of the criteria was that it had to be able to be researched, and be completed in a reasonable amount of time. We all got time to improve our project and then other people voted to see if it was a good project or not. Today was a fun day in GT.

4th Grade Gets to Try Out Google Glass

Today’s post was written by Athasi, and the photographs were taken by the students:

Today in GT we used Google Drive to type and share our parallel and found poems. For many of us it was our first time using Google Drive. I think that a lot of us will use Google drive a lot more now. Speaking of Google, we had a special guest in the classroom today! One of our student’s dads is the proud owner of a pair of Google glasses! He showed us what you can do with it and how it works. We learned that you can record video and take pictures with it. We also compared it to the water in Tuck Everlasting, which makes you live forever. We said that they both have bad and good things about them and that it is not a good idea for everyone to know about them.Mrs. Eichholz was very disappointed when she learned that it only works with Android phones!

4th Grade Writes Parallel Poetry

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Athasi:

Today in GT, we got the first look at the green anole! We think it might be a female, since males have red dewlaps,and ours doesn’t. We also got to use the microscopes,and look at different things under it, including scully’s shedded skin. also, we went more in depth with our genius hour projects. We told who was participating in it, how long it would take,and what we would need.

One last thing we did was we wrote parallel poems. First we chose a completely different topic than our found poem. We used the same structure from our found poems, but changed some of the words.

 

4th Grade Brainstorms Genius Hour Ideas

I am so thrilled to introduce our first student blogger, Athasi!  The following post was authored by her.  The accompanying photos are examples of some of the student Haiku Deck slides, as well as pictures taken by our student photographers. (Click on each thumbnail to see a larger version.)

Today we used the app Haiku Deck and had a contest of who could create the best example of personification. The top two that we voted on were “The ice cream was calling my name” and “The train screamed in the night”. We also read some more of Tuck Everlasting and worked on hands on equations. Additionally we started to  brainstorm ideas for things we want to research or make during our genius hour time. We also used websites to come up with ideas. one more thing we did was brainstorm and vote for the name of our maker studio in the classroom next door. Some of the names we came up with were The outside of the box, Creativity HQ and Creation Station.

Saturday’s SparkFun Class

Wow! I was blown away to see so many people I know at the SparkFun class this past Saturday! I’m sure that Hidden Forest had the most representatives (if you include former students). Thanks to everyone who was able to participate. For those of you who were unable to come, I think we will definitely be incorporating some of what was learned into class – at least for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.

The class was about using the free programming language, Scratch. Scratch can be downloaded for free to your computer, or you can use it online. It is very “child-friendly.” Depending on your child’s interest level, it could probably used from age 7 and up.

The class also provided the students with PicoBoards. These boards can be plugged into your computer through the USB port, and they have sensors. With a little bit of programming knowledge, you can get them to interact with your Scratch program. However, my daughter and I learned that it seems to only work with the downloaded Scratch 1.4 version (not 2.0 or the online version).

I learned a lot, and the kids seemed very engaged. My daughter spent a couple of hours on Sunday writing a new program, so I was happy to see her applying what she had learned. The combination of creativity and logic involved in writing programs really makes this a great activity for learners!