Enrich, Extend, Excite!

Mann & ICCSD OLP ELP- Trimester 2, 2021

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What Happened in ELP During Trimester 1?

Students in third grade at Mann (onsite) completed a paper engineering unit called Flip, Fold, Pull, and Pop. After learning some of the mathematics behind pop-ups, students learned to make several types of pop-up mechanisms (parallel folds and angle folds). Then, they created their own pop-up creation using 3 pop-up mechanisms they learned.


Fourth-grade students at Mann (onsite) completed an architecture unit. During this unit, students learned about base plans/outlines, one-point and two-point perspectives, mapping a room, Planner 5-D design, and Tinkercad 3D design. Local architect, Sanjay Jani, from AKAR ARchiTecture visited the classroom, via Zoom, to share about architecture with the students.


Fifth and sixth-grade students at Mann (onsite) completed a biomimicry unit called Engineering with Nature. Students kept track of challenges and opportunities along with nature's talents throughout the trimester. After several investigations which taught students about how we can learn from nature's talents and invent new things humans can use that mimic these talents, students chose one of their nature's talents and an opportunity or challenge to create/design their own invention.


All online students (3rd - 6th grade) completed a Who Are You unit of study throughout the first trimester of school. This unit was differentiated slightly amongst each grade level with additional writing/language/research, and creativity work.

Students identified and wrote about the "best part of them", learned about their love language (Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Touch, Quality Time, or Gifts), explored the gripes and benefits of being "gifted," identified their creative type (Artist, Thinker, Adventurer, Maker, Producer, Dreamer, Innovator, Visionary) and conducted several creative activities, discovered their personality type (Analyst, Diplomat, Sentinel, or Explorer), and explored the meaning of their names.

As students finished this unit, third and fourth graders went on to a CS-First coding project with Google Doodles. Fifth and sixth graders went on to a Perseverance and Goal setting project learning about Famous Failures and using Easel.ly.

6th Grader- Emma H. - Students wrote about the "Best Part" of them in our first lesson of the Who Are You unit

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Flipgrid Visit with Rick Riordan for Online Students in October

Those who attended this online event were able to learn more about how Rick Riordan came to be an author and about his new book Daughter of the Deep. This book was inspired by Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This book is told first-person solely from the point of view of Ana Dakkar, a high school freshman who learns her parentage is every bit as complicated as Percy Jackson’s, though it has to do with science, not Greek gods . . .
What Should We Expect in Trimester 2 ELP?

What Should We Expect in Trimester 2 ELP?

Mann Elementary

3rd Grade- meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-9:40 AM

Trimester 2: Stop Motion Animation- is an incredible mechanism that allows students to develop essential 21st Century skills. Students will be immersed throughout the project in creativity, teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and technology learning.

Stop-motion innately brings a myriad of problem-solving opportunities. Throughout the project, students are challenged to work together, share ideas from different perspectives, revise original content, and ultimately, choose strategies and methods to succinctly create and share their creative ideas. Students will also experience challenges with technologies, both hardware, and software that must be overcome. Capturing, importing, and editing all come with a distinct learning curve. Finally, students will experience many practical problems and issues that must be addressed in order to create their vision. Shaky cameras, lighting issues, camera angles, and a host of unexpected problems naturally arise during the stop-motion process.


4th Grade- meets on Mondays from 10:10-11:00 AM and Thursdays from 8:10-9:00 AM

Trimester 2: Stop Motion Animation- see description above...


5th/6th Grade- meets on Tuesdays from 10:00-10:50 AM and Fridays from 9:00-9:50 AM

Trimester 2: Mystery Investigations- Who doesn’t love a mystery? This unit will have students investigating, exploring, and conducting forensic science experiments. The students will hone their sleuthing skills through reading mysteries and detecting hard evidence vs. red herrings before encountering the make-believe crime scene. They must rely on their observation and note-taking skills for future reference. Students will be engaged in ten crime scene labs that will help them solve the mystery. Piecing together the data the students are to write a mystery from a detective, suspect, or newspaper reporter’s point-of-view.


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ICCSD Online Program

ELP Zoom Link- https://iowacityschools-org.zoom.us/j/91305950261


3rd Grade - CHANGE- Ms. Abbott's & Mr. Feldmann's classes will join Ms. Lyon's class on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:00-2:50 PM

Trimester 2: Imagineering in a Box - Part 1- Have you ever wondered how theme parks come to life? Disney Imagineers from hundreds of career disciplines around the world share how they use a wide range of skills – from story development and conceptual design to math, physics, and engineering – that all come together to create immersive experiences. Imagineering in a Box allows students to explore different aspects of theme park design, from characters to ride development, as they design a theme park of their very own.


4th Grade - meets on Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00-2:50 PM

Trimester 2: Architecture Unit- This unit will provide students a general understanding of architecture as well as the skills and abilities often needed by practicing members of this exciting field. Students will learn how to identify various building plans, draw in 1-point and 2-point perspective, develop an understanding of scale and proportion, learn about and design a front elevation and floor plans in order to design in Planner 5-D (3-D home design software) and Tinkercad (3-D coding program). **Please, pick up materials for this unit**


5th Grade - meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-1:50 PM

Trimester 2: Economics- As students grow older and more mature, they will face a vast array of economic concepts, principles, and issues. From personal income and budgeting, saving and investing, taxes and insurance, automobile and home loans and retirement, students will need to apply basic economic concepts such as supply and demand, opportunity cost, recession, the business cycle, resources, scarcity, and economic growth. This will enable students to have a better understanding of the operation of the interdependent global economy and the various roles played by consumers, workers, producers, investors, voters, and political leaders. In this unit, students will learn about these concepts along with hypothetically invest in the stock market and create their own business.


6th Grade -CHANGE- Ms. Cabrera's class will join Mr. Kurtz's & Mr. Scheffert's classes on Mondays and Wednesdays 1:00-1:50 PM

Trimester 2: INQUIRY Unit- Question Formulation (QFT) & Problem Based Learning (PBL)- The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a structured method for generating and improving questions. The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential — yet often overlooked — lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life. After learning to use the QFT, students will be guided through Problem Based Learning (PBL) options. It will begin with Controlled Inquiry in which the teacher chooses topics and identifies the resources students will use to answer questions to a gradual release of control where students have Free Inquiry and students choose their topics without reference to any prescribed outcome.

The pillars of inquiry are to 1) Explore a Passion; 2) Aim for a Goal; 3) Delve in to Your Curiosities; and, 4) Take on a New Challenge!

What Should We Expect in Trimester 2 ELP?

1st and 2nd Grade Enrichment- Trimester 1

First and second graders worked on building their visual and spatial creativity skills. Students participated in activities that helped them build their fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.

First graders listened to Rosie Revere Engineer, learned about the importance of question asking, and participated in several activities related to the book (prototypes, learning about simple machines, biomimicry).

Second graders learned S.C.A.M.P.E.R. (Substitute, Combine, Adjust, Min/Max, Put to another use, Eliminate, Rearrange/Reverse)- a brainstorming technique. They, also, practiced their originality and elaboration with storytelling, Mathigon (tangrams), and Shapegrams (Google drawings).

Students, at Mann, worked for the "Everybody Loves Pasta Company" designing a new pasta all kids would love. They created prototypes of the pasta and designed the boxes this pasta would come in.

2nd Grader, Abby L., Shares her Zigglewort Creation from Online Enrichment!

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Zigglewort by Abby L.

This is a very interesting insect called a Zigglewort. A Zigglewort is a microscopic insect that can help the environment. It helps the environment by eating the legs of invasive species such as: Japanese beetles, Ash borers and pine beetles. Since the Zigglewort is eating these invasive insects, the trees will be healthier. Fewer trees will die. Trees filter the air so our air will be cleaner. The Zigglewort is light grey and has dark stripes. When it is not eating the legs of an invasive species, it is eating strawberries!!! It has 20 legs, two compound eyes and a pair of antennae.

Trimester 2- Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade Enrichment

The ELP teachers will be visiting the kindergarten, first, and second-grade classrooms between the dates of November 29th - December 17th to screen students with a math activity for the next round of enrichment. The next trimester of enrichment will focus on building math reasoning and problem-solving skills.

If your child is in an onsite program (in school), the ELP teacher will go to your child's classroom and conduct the activities. You will not need to do anything futher.

If your child is in the online program, Mrs. Bradford will visit your child's classroom online (via Zoom) and discuss the activity (K has one activity; 1st and 2nd grade have two activities to complete). The classroom teacher will post the Seesaw Activity (or activities- for 1st and 2nd grade) to Seesaw for students to complete. These activities MUST be completed by 4pm on Friday, December 17th for your child to be considered for math enrichment.


If you have any questions, please, email Mrs. Bradford at bradford.diane@iowacityschools.org


If your child qualifies for math enrichment services, you will be notified during the winter break and services will begin as soon as students return from break - the week of January 3rd. Services will last 10 weeks and run through March 11th (ending right before spring break).


Kindergarteners will meet on Thursdays from 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

First graders will meet on Wednesdays from 11:30 AM-12:00 PM

Second graders will meet on Wednesdays from 8:00-8:30 AM

Optional ELP Assignments


  • Explore Poetry and Write your Own!


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1XNqnGAbXdcmGq1ANNEv2Ix7u6fOgt3ORrUQ3VGicA/edit



  • Optional Writing Assignment

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A-fW2lz1DB0J9wSMFBRyjhsnr6CR0rcrNBiMOJPXGMk/copy




  • Math Extension Project

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1R0jJ0TkBI82KuQpIT8VvZJ31sVINbmrEGR_wQdkpl7I/copy

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One Book, Two Book Writing Opportunity


Students in grades 1-8 in Iowa City-Cedar Rapids Corridor area school districts, or home school students in those equivalent grades, are encouraged to submit one page of writing for the 2022 One Book Two Book festival from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature. This can be any type of writing: story, essay, poem, song lyric, graphic novel page, etc. The piece must be an original work, written this school year, and in polished form – ready for publication. It should be on one side of an 8.5x11 page. It can be single-spaced but must be at least 12-pt. and in Times or equivalent font. The page should have margins of 1”on each side. Submissions that are longer than one page will not be considered. The link with all necessary information is below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yJssDdWEDLeDDliSBj1RDSEMQdfliB6j/view?usp=sharing

Student work, including the cover sheet, must be submitted to the City of Literature by Monday, Dec.13, 2021.

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Online Program (OLP) Expectations

Our mission at ICCSD Online is to create a supportive learning environment that allows students the opportunity to actively engage in their academic progress. To do this successfully we believe students need to do the following:

O-Online and On Time-students shall be logged into class at the start of class. Students shall also attend each period with an assigned class every day.

W-With materials needed for success. Students will begin class with all needed materials (i.e. chromebook charged, schedules, link, books etc)

L- Learner Ready (awake, aware, and ready to share)

S- Supportive, respectful, and kind to teachers and peers.


Upcoming Dates to Be Aware Of...

November

18th- Trimester 2 Begins

23rd, 24th, 25th- NO SCHOOL- Thanksgiving Break


December-

19th-31st - NO SCHOOL- Winter Break


January-

3rd- Classes Resume; Enrichment services for K-2 begin this week

17th- District Closed- NO SCHOOL


February-

16th-22nd- I will be on vacation with my family (there will be a substitute during this time)

24th- Trimester 2 Parent-Teacher Conferences (2:10-7:10 PM)

28th- End of Trimester 2


March-

1st- NO SCHOOL- Trimester 2 Parent-Teacher Conferences All Day (7:40 AM- 7:10 PM)

2nd- Trimester 3 Begins

11th- Enrichment services for K-2 end

ELP Skills on 3rd-5th Grade Progress Reports

ICCSD Extended Learning Program Site

Mrs. Diane Bradford

Mrs. Diane Bradford

Mrs. Diane Bradford
ELP Teacher

Mann Elementary School & ICCSD OLP

Zoom Link- https://iowacityschools-org.zoom.us/j/91305950261

521 North Dodge Street, Iowa City, IA, USA (319) 688-1145 iowacityschools.org/Domain/2948