GT Update
April 10-13, 2017
Kinder
1st Grade
We spent the rest of our time together working on Chromebooks. I recently found a fabulous website for triple Venn diagrams. This was our first time on the Chromebooks, so they learned how to log in to Seesaw and access our class page. I linked the website on our class feed. Students then chose three categories and sorted the shapes accordingly. For some students, using the touchpad was a new experience and took some getting used to. This site also has a feature in which students have to determine the categories based on how the shapes are able to be sorted. This requires deductive thinking, and is a great way to add a level of difficulty. They did a wonderful job.
Triple Venn Diagrams
Triple Venn Diagrams
Triple Venn Diagrams
2nd Grade
After working on our city, we finished The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Before we reached the ending, we reviewed the timeline of the story and it's major events. I was extremely impressed with their ability to remember characters and events that we haven't discussed in months. Once we finished the book, students chose their favorite scene to illustrate. These will be hung on the bulletin boards downstairs.
3rd Grade
The #techademy field trip was amazing. Students were given a schedule for the day, based on the sessions they chose to participate in. Each session was taught/facilitated by GT teachers. The most popular sessions were Makey Makey and Bloxels. Makey Makey is a circuit board that allows us to control keyboard functions using conductive materials. For instance, students were able to play a piano app using apple slices instead of keyboard keys. Bloxels allows students to create their own video game background and challenges using small blocks on a grid. Once they build the scene, they are able to scan their grid and play their newly created video game. My goal is to add these two activities to our classroom next year. We also had an amazing speaker who spoke to our students about his work with drone photography. Students were able to see examples of how drones are used in many different fields, including forestry, construction, entertainment and with animal conservation. Due to the weather, we were not able to watch it fly outside, but they did get to see a small demonstration in the gym. I was very impressed with the variety of questions asked by the students in attendance. Their GT minds were definitely at work. The entire event was hosted by Encino Park Elementary, and they did a fabulous job organizing.
4th Grade
In between presentations, students did some basic research on The Vietnam War. They used Kaplan Depth and Complexity icons to guide their note taking. In Wednesday Wars, Holling's sister is a "flower child", so we also viewed a few photos from The National Archives of the war resistence. As you can imagine, these topics sparked a lot of discussion and my fourth graders always impress me with their deep thinking. Our fifth grade GT curriculum is philosophy, and they are definitely ready for the challenge.
5th Grade
After the presentations, we did a new lesson of Hands on Equations. We introduced the green cube, which represents negative numbers. Some of our students are developing algebraic rules based on the legal moves and strategies they have learned. I will not teach the rules for adding and subtracting integers, but will help guide them as they discover them on their own.
At the end of the day, students broke into their civilization groups, discussed opinions on their preferred form of government, and came to a consensus. We then read more of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.