4th Grade Works on Math Scavenger Hunt

The 4th graders looked around for mathematical masterpieces in nature this week.  Unfortunately, though the weather has been recently warm, not much is blooming other than grass!  They are also still learning some of the vocabulary, so not every picture in the Pic Collages below is correctly identified.  It was certainly good practice, though!

The students also: got a glimpse at the events going on during our Saturday field trip, worked on Design Thinking, and played a little of the Prodigy math game.

3rd Grade Designs Coral

The 3rd graders worked on creating coral using the 3d modeling program Tinkercad this week.  They learned that many coral have symmetry and we talked about different types of symmetry, such as radial symmetry.  Then they worked on a Project Ignite tutorial that walked them through designing coral with linear and radial symmetries.  There were a lot of new design skills to learn, but they persevered!

The students also reviewed “systems thinking,” and we began to read a great book that teaches how to apply systems thinking in the real world called, Billibonk and the Thorn Patch.

3rd Grade Makes Character Valentines

The 3rd graders practiced using Multiple Perspectives (one of Kaplan’s Depth & Complexity icons) by making character Valentines this week.  First we brainstormed traits for each of the characters in Fish in a Tree.  Then the students each chose a sender and a recipient from the characters.  They had to design their Valentines so that we could tell which character made it and which character would receive it – without using any names 🙂  The students had a lot of fun, and did such a great job that we guessed them all correctly. (Click on image to enlarge.)

They also worked on some very challenging Valentine Sudoku puzzles, most of them showing extreme tenacity when they had to start over multiple times!

1st Grade Makes Canadian Friends

As the first graders are studying continents and countries around the world, we thought it would be fun to connect with some other classes for Valentine’s Day by participating in the Virtual Valentines Project.

First we received this awesome Animoto video from Miss Reid’s class in Kingston, Ontario.  I love their “Love has no borders,” Valentines!

I put together a short video featuring Valentines from our 1st graders that explain some of the unique features of San Antonio.

Then we Skyped with Mrs. Scrimgeour’s class in Toronto, Ontario.  Our students learned that they have a lot in common with our Canadian friends (love of recess and macaroni and cheese are two similarities). They also learned about some differences. The Canadians were shocked to see some of our class dressed in shorts since it is snowing where they live right now!  Our students were shocked to find out that some schools don’t have cafeterias, and everyone has to bring their lunch 🙂

 

2nd Grade Writes Haikus

The 2nd graders have been talking about the structures of poetry for the last couple of weeks.  Yesterday, they learned about haikus.  After brainstorming things that they love, they each chose a topic for their poems.  They wrote their rough drafts and we did a quick Writer’s Workshop to help them revise their poems.  We used a thesaurus to find some less “worn-out” words.  Once they were happy with their finished products, they published them using Haiku Deck on the iPads.  You can see the results below:

GT 1st-5th This Week

Wow – can you believe it’s February?  This school year is certainly flying by, and this week has been one of the fastest!

Since I’m a bit behind on daily blogging, here is the rundown on what the classes have been doing this week:

1st grade finished their continent stations.  Next class, they will be meeting their mystery Valentine partners, and they will begin studying the countries they chose to research.

2nd grade worked more on empathy and multiple perspectives by pretending they were the fictional clients for whom they are designing structures.  Then they did second drafts of their designs.

3rd grade finished Fish in a Tree, and worked more on their Tinkercad tutorials for 3d design.

4th and 5th grade both analyzed song playlists for their respective novels to choose the songs that best represented the books.  They gave supporting evidence using the song lyrics and passages from the books. (Tuck Everlasting and The Giver)

There will be no GT classes February 7th-9th as I will be attending a technology conference in Austin.

One of the 1st graders shows the model she made of the Eiffel Tower during our stations

1st Grade Continues Continent Studies

The 1st graders are continuing their stations on learning about the continents (we got a little off-schedule with class pictures on Tuesday).  They also practiced multiple perspectives by trying to think of what their parents might want for Valentine’s Day, and drew their ideas on augmented reality Valentines.  Next week, they will be making more Valentines to exchange with a mystery class in another country!

5th Grade Talks About Making Things Relevant

The 5th graders, like 3rd and 4th, also work on Genius Hour projects.  However, in 5th grade the students take their passions a bit further by researching things that “break their hearts.”  For one group, this is the football injuries that could be avoided by using safer equipment.  For another, this is the rise in school violence.  This week, the students and I brainstormed some people they could talk to that might benefit from their research.  We are trying to find authentic audiences so that these projects don’t just become one more assignment to get through before they can move on.

We also continued to have some very meaningful conversations about Courage, did some Hands-On-Equations, and a few of the students got to try out programming with Python on our Raspberry Pi.

Image from Flickr

4th Grade Starts Working on Genius Hour Presentations

The 4th graders have been working on research for their Genius Hour projects, and many of them are at the stage where they can now plan how they want to present what they have learned.  When they get to this phase of the process, the students must determine their intended audience(s) and mode of presenting.  They are also required to include an interactive portion, which could be a game reviewing information or any other activity which involves the audience.

Many students like to present using slides, as this is a tool most of them have used many times.  So, we went over the World’s Worst Slide Presentation to discuss some of the things a good presenter does NOT include in a slide show 😉

We also discussed some more Courage scenarios this week, as well as attempted to create Thinglinks of their hexagonal learning about Tuck Everlasting.  (We’re still working on the latter due to some technical difficulties!)

3rd Grade Works on Their Convergent Thinking

This week was a bit chaotic for 3rd grade GT due to group pictures.  We didn’t get as much work accomplished as usual, but the students did do some problem-solving.

In the book, Fish in a Tree, the teacher poses a river crossing riddle to his students which our students also endeavored to solve.  After making some manipulative pieces (and removing some of the more unrealistic answers) , they were able to determine the solution.

The students also tackled some more verbal Hands-On-Equations problems this week. Lesson 3 stymied them for a bit, so it was definitely a bigger challenge than the first couple of lessons we did.  The students persevered, though, and should be ready to try Lesson 4 next week!

image from: Wikimedia