Recent Announcements 2018-2019
Students Building Strong Structures out of Paper
Students were given up to 30 pieces of paper and tape. Their challenge was to build a structure that could support a pile of books.   |
Creating A Virtual Toy Store- Counting and Representing Money
Students created their own virtual toy store in Google Slides! First students explored the toy section of Walmart. The section they explored was already filtered for toys for ages 8 to 11 years old as well as prices that were less than $10.00.  Next, students picked 6 toys from Walmart to include in their Google Slides toy store. Students copied and pasted the image into the slide. They then decided on a price for the toy (they could use the Walmart price as a guideline but ultimately it was their decision). They were told the price needed to be less than $10.00 and could not end in a 0. Then students copied and pasted coins into the slide to show the coins needed to make the price of the toy.  Later on in the day we revisited the activity. This time I printed off a variety of student generated toy price pages from the above activity. I spread the sheets around the classroom and we created a Class Holiday Store. Students needed to purchase 6 items. To purchase an item, students counted the coins on the toy sheet to make sure it matched the price. Then they made the price using a different combination of coins.  Below are examples from our math activity:  |
What I Like About Me
Today we read the picture book What I Like About Me. We discussed accepting and being respectful of each other's differences.  |
Coding a Catapult!
Today students participated in another coding activity with our robot Dash. This time, a ball launcher was mounted on top of Dash. Dash and the launcher can both be coded on the iPad using the Blocky App. The goal was to code Dash to navigate around obstacles on a hundred's mat and then fire the launcher towards a stack of cups.
 Students were given the task below:
 Students were also given a grid to help plan out their code. They were told that each square corresponded to 20 cm of movement in the Blocky Coding App. Students then tested their code using Dash and the launcher. They were given up to 3 attempts to try their code. Between each attempt students modified their code based on their observations from the previous test.
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Rapping Poetry with Chrome Music Maker
Today in library, students were using Google Music Maker to make music to rap poetry to! What a terrific idea from our librarian Mrs. Swift!   |
Perimeter Using Math Rods
Students were challenged to make a rectangle out of 2 blue rods (worth 9) and 2 yellow rods (worth 5) and then find the perimeter.  Students made a variety of rectangles. They quickly discover that they couldn't just add the math rods together (9+9+5+5) to find the perimeter. For example, in the first picture below, the sides are 9 + 7 (yellow plus the equivalent of 2 whites) + 9 + 7.  We consolidated the activity by looking at some of the samples below. We discussed the reason why the 3rd sample has the greatest perimeter of all of the rectangles.  |
The Power to Visualize: Reading Strategy
 RecentlyI introduced the second reading power to help with comprehension: The Power to Visualize. Students practiced visualizing different objects in their head such as rainbows, dogs and ice cream cones. We called these picture words since they were a lot easier to picture then say a word like at.
Afterwards I read them the following story:
I want you to visualize a lollipop. This lollipop is on a white stick and it has a wrapper on it. Visualize yourself holding this lollipop. I want you to notice the color and shape and size of this lollipop. Some lollipops are big, and some are small, some are round and some are flat —what does yours look like? Now I want you to visualize yourself taking off the wrapper. Listen to the sound as you take the wrapper off. Put the wrapper in the garbage. Now I would like you to visualize yourself taking a lick of the lollipop. What flavor is your lollipop? Take another lick. Now put the lollipop, if it’s not too big, in your mouth. Suck on it for a while. Listen to the sound it makes when it hits your teeth. Now take a bite. Listen to the sound the bite makes. Now crunch your lollipop and really get the flavor in your mouth. Some of the candy sticks in your teeth. Now visualize yourself as you take the lollipop out of your mouth. Look at what is left on your stick. Open your eyes. Students then discussed the following questions about their lollipop with a partner:
1. What color was your lollipop? 2. What size? 3. What shape? 4. What flavor? 5. After you took a bite, what did your lollipop look like? We concluded the lesson by discussing that people's lollipops are all different because they have different experiences.
The follow-up to the lesson was reading a book called Swimmy by Leo Lionni. Students listened to the story without seeing the pictures. Together, we drew some of the pictures we visualized in our heads and labelled them with words. Afterwards, we compared the pictures we drew from the actual pictures from the story.  |
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