Lewis and Clark Learns

I love how MaKey MaKey requires my students to seriously problem-solve issues.  We start by learning about circuits, conductive materials, and just what a MaKey MaKey is.  Following a few days of learning, we embark on a few challenges using different conductive materials and the piano app from the MaKey MaKey website.  So much collaboration is needed in our groups to be successful.  Of course, we have some problems working together so we stop, talk, and model how to work together when necessary.  

So, as a celebration of reading, the Missouri Mark Twain nominee readers were going to be attending the movie Wonder based on the book by the same title.  Unfortunately, the movie release date was moved from April to November so our plan fell flat.  To replace that event, Mrs. Haynes and I put our heads together to create an afternoon of book love!  Our 4th and 5th grade teachers made arrangements to allow those kids to spend the entire afternoon in the library and Dr. Palmer ok'd a sub for my classes.  We started at 11:45 with lunch for 42 kids...hot dogs, nacho chips, apples, grapes, and drinks.  We then made duct tape bookmarks, enjoyed a quiz bowl of Mark Twain nominee questions, had a book tasting session of 2017-2018 Mark Twain and Truman nominees, and engaged in great character analysis session created by Mrs. Haynes.  This involved answering questions about last year or the upcoming Mark Twain nominees such as, what character made you think differ...

My fourth graders have spent several weeks working on our Bloxel video game development.  It was time to let others play our game and give us valuable feedback on improving our games. The feedback sheet had a column for strengths, a place to share improvements desired, and a reflection on if the game was too hard, too easy or just right.  Taking the time to do this in my very limited time with kids was so valuable to them in the final steps to developing their game for public play.  Since this was the first time using Bloxels for me and my students, I let them design a game of choice.  I am already thinking ahead to next year and what changes need to be made based on my experiences as the teacher and the upcoming final reflection from the students.

Four Friday mornings |  7:45am |  Many first and second grade makers |  Excitement | Choice | Friends | Creativity | Fun !

Our fifth graders have worked for the past couple of months learning Tinkercad and designing a 3D item that they wanted to print.  Recently we have been working on a design that is needed in our library.  We need a few additional ipad stands to use with stop-motion animation.  The kids started by drafting several ideas on paper, taking into account the size of our ipads.  They then created a prototype of their best design, built it in Tinkercad, and finally we voted on the best stand in each 5th grade class.  One of the four will be selected and printed to be used by our students. Next year we will not be doing a 3D printing unit together.  Rather, students will learn Tinkercad when necessary and needed for individual genius hour projects.  I finally feel comfortable enough with printing and Tinkercad to go this route.  It has taken me a while to learn also!

Our LCTV Broadcast Club set up a display at the LPS TEN 1.0 night held at Liberty North High School.  Seven of our eight members were in attendance [one was in Florida] to share our broadcast club with others.  The kids answered questions, showed past broadcasts, and taught adults and kids how a green screen works.  The kids were very professional when sharing their knowledge, hard working, and had fun at the same time.  

By the time my kindergarten kiddos "graduate" to first grade they are amazing at jotting down notes about what they want to remember about their learning.  Thanks to a list of consistent guidelines that great researchers and notetakers do [used K-5], we are experts!  We start the year taking picture notes, then move onto modeling whole group note-taking, and then to taking notes all on our own.  Each kindergarten student "adopts" a beanie baby animal to learn about.  [We also read to and with our animal]  I developed a new way to organize our notes this year that has worked fabulously...finally!  The kids LOVE this process and feel so good about their success.  We use PebbleGo for our research. We spread out so the kids can listen to the info first before deciding the important information to jot down.  Kids worked at their own pace.  Some kids like the floor and some opt for tables.

getting lost in a book!