Kinder Tackles Tangram Puzzles

The Kinder class continued to work on Magician Thinking today, and did a couple of activities in which they had to do some mental rotation of pictures to find their matches. Then I introduced them to tangram puzzles, and they used TanZen Lite on the iPads to try to solve some. It was very difficult, so I gave them a couple of Class Dojo points just for their persistence. No one gave up, which was great! I am horrible at those puzzles, myself, so I sat down and tried to do one and showed them how I handled it when I couldn’t figure it out right away. I finally was able to solve it, and challenged them to do it, too. One student was able to figure it out, and earned 3 Class Dojo points for his problem-solving skills!

I have two more books to share with you. The links are below. Friday is our last class for this year. Can you believe it?

The Trip to Spain
My First Deer

Kinder Works More on Magician Thinking

The Kinders had the challenge to re-create a drawing of a rabbit today, Max the Magician. Rather than just trying to copy the entire picture at once, they used a technique that divided the original drawing into boxes, and then tried to draw one box at a time to reproduce it.

I also introduced them to some of the fundamentals of Chess. Using a game called Tic-Tac-Chec, I showed them 4 different pieces, and discussed how they move and capture other pieces. I began a game with one of the students to see how it is done (the object is to get four of your own color in a row.) We weren’t able to finish it, so our competition continues on Monday!

Kinder Works on Magician Thinking

Kinder started their Magician Thinking unit today. This is also known as visual/spatial thinking, and in Kinder the focus is on looking for patterns and on being able to visualize shapes based on certain clues. The students practiced this with a few websites on our interactive board and an app on the iPad. The app is called Tricet, but I would not recommend downloading it, unless you will be supervising its use, as the free version has ads at the top. The app is based on a card game called “Set”, which can be purchased online and at some retail stores. There is also a “Set” app that is $4.99. It definitely is a challenging game that the whole family might enjoy!

Kinder Works on Visual/Spatial Logic Puzzles

We still had a couple of students who were finishing up their books on Scribble Press, so I had the remaining students “play” with two activities – “Zoologic” and “GoGetter 1”. Both of these require you to use logic and visual thinking to solve the puzzles, which get increasingly harder. Although I haven’t formally introduced our Magician Thinking unit, these would fall under that category. They seem to be just the right level of challenge for these students, so I think we will continue with them next week – as well as some others.

If you are interested in other challenging games and puzzles, feel free to visit my Pinterest board for some suggestions: http://pinterest.com/terrieichholz/games-and-toys-for-gifted-students/

Kinder Publishes a Couple of Books

Two out of five books have been completed in Kinder GT. Below are links to the two we have so far. I think the others will finish on Friday so that we can continue on to Magician Thinking.

Speaking of Magician Thinking (which is also known as Visual/Spatial Thinking), I downloaded an app today called Patterns Match Basic, which you might want to try at home. It is free today, but it is usually $1.99. It seems to be good practice for our next unit.

The Time that I Got a New Puppy
Brody’s Carnival

Kinder Works on their “That’s Good, That’s Bad” Books

The Kinders made great progress on their new books that they are writing. They all finished their rough drafts, and are working on creating their final products using the Scribble Press app on the iPads. We just got some new iPads for GT, so they are now each able to work on one without me supplementing with my personal one! Since we have a longer class on Monday, I anticipate that some of them will be completed next class.

Kinder Finds New Uses for Umbrellas and Soccer Balls

I thought I would give the Kinders a chance to use their Inventor Thinking skills today by asking them to think of a different use for an umbrella other than the obvious. However, I guess I did not make the instructions clear because a couple of the students thought that they would design a different use for soccer balls. That’s okay, because they came up with some creative ideas, and that’s what it’s all about, right?

We also worked some more on their new stories, and I love the interesting words that they are adding. Most are done with their rough drafts, and will be ready to start creating their virtual books on Friday (correction – Monday. Friday is a holiday!).

Kinder Learns About a “Thesaurus”

They loved picking interesting words from this book!

We had a short class today, due to the Kinder field trip. We continued with Yarnspinner thinking, and I read a story to the students called, That’s Good, That’s Bad. They will be writing their own stories based on that pattern. To get started, they brainstormed places for settings, and I gave them Class Dojo points if they could think of one that wasn’t one of the original examples. Then, I showed them how they could find some interesting words using a thesaurus, and they chose some to include in their stories. We will continue with that on Monday. After that, the students will think of some good and bad events that could happen in those settings, and hopefully begin their rough drafts.

Kinder Publishes Their Books!

Well, I decided to do this the old-fashioned way since our iPads are still not cooperating, and refuse to send e-mail. All of the Kinders finished their first books in the Scribble Press app, and they are eager to share.

For these books, the students chose from templates within the app, and filled in the blanks. Then they illustrated them. Their next pieces will be completely their own.

Brody – My Babysitter is a Zombie
Eliza – Me and the Mermaid
Caleb – All About Me
Jackson – My Dog Ate My Homework
Audrey – The First Mermaid I Ever Saw

Please let me know if your links don’t work, and I will see what I can do.

Also, for some reason my browser is not showing their pictures that should be on the “back cover”. I am not sure why, but will look into it.

Kinder Works on Yarnspinner Thinking

Yarnspinner Thinking, the ability to tell interesting stories, has been our focus this week. The students practiced adding details to boring sentences, and then we made a class book using the Scribble Press app. Now, the students are working on their own Scribble Press books. As soon as I solve some technical problems on the district’s part, I will share the books they have created.