Thursday, October 28, 2021

5th Grade -  Students started class by solving a Stories With Holes mystery. The affective lesson focused on Concentration. The discussion centered around noticing details and how leaders should pay attention to changes in those under them. Students then completed week 2 of the MEE competition which included: watching a video about the difference between needs and wants, working in teams to put common economics terms with their definitions, and finally completing an assessment about finances as a team. The final activity today was to research a career that centered around trees (part of our Rooted In Wisdom theme) and write a brief description about it.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

4th Grade - Students started class by solving a Stories With Holes mystery. The affective lesson focused on Gripe #4 of Eight Great Gripes of Gifted Kids: The stuff we do in school is too easy and it's boring. Students discussed productive ways to overcome the boredom. The final activity involved the MEE contest. Students watched a video about the difference between needs and wants. They then worked in teams to put common economics terms with their definitions. The final part of today's MEE contest was to complete an assessment about finances as a team.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

3rd Grade - Students started class by solving a Stories With Holes mystery. The affective lesson focused on Courage (one of the five traits of successful people). Each student had to give a one minute impromptu speech. The final activity involved the MEE contest. Students watched a video about the difference between needs and wants. They then worked in teams to put common economics terms with their definitions. The final part of today's MEE contest was to complete an assessment about finances as a team.

Monday, October 25, 2021

2nd Grade - These students started the day by completing the Surprise in the Middle drawing. Their affective lesson focused on goal setting and that successful people demonstrate task commitment. 

In Crystal Pond Woods, students used manipulatives to solve six different logic puzzles. Students had to follow the clues which became progressively more challenging as they worked through the activity.

The Rooted in Wisdom lesson had students understanding that it is from our values that we accomplish our goals.

Friday, October 22, 2021

3rd Grade - Students listened to directions to complete a Surprise in the Middle drawing for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on Task Commitment. Students were to complete a task in a short amount of time for a positive or negative reward. We then discussed positive/negative and extrinsic/intrinsic motivators. Students started the MEE competition today. This contest will last for three weeks with students developing a product as an entrepreneur. The weekly trip to Crystal Pond Woods had students learning how to complete logic elimination grid puzzles.

Thursday, October 21, 2021

5th Grade - These students missed the Cryptograms last week due to fall break so that is where we started today. The affective lesson focused on communication as an important part of leadership. The MEE (Meaningful Economics and Entrepreneurship Contest was introduced today. Students learned some trivial facts about trees. The final activity was color their 8 foot Munracks.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

 4th Grade - Students started the day with a Surprise in the Middle drawing for the warm up activity. This is an activity in following the directions and creativity. The Eight Great Gripes of Gifted Kids focused on #3 - Other kids ask us for too much help. The MEE (Meaningful Economics and Entrepreneurship Contest was introduced today. The final activity was to learn/search for some trivia about trees.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

 I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful Fall Break. Here are the activities we did today:

3rd Grade - Students listened to directions to complete a Surprise in the Middle drawing for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on Task Commitment. Students were to complete a task in a short amount of time for a positive or negative reward. We then discussed positive/negative and extrinsic/intrinsic motivators. Students started the MEE competition today. This contest will last for three weeks with students developing a product as an entrepreneur. We were able to start our weekly trip to Crystal Pond Woods, but will have to finish this activity at a later date. 

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

 4th Grade - Students worked together to solve a Cryptogram for the warm up activity. The focus for the affective lesson was grip #2 of gifted kids: We have to do extra work in school. Our discussion focused on ways to talk to teachers and some suggestions for what to say when something like that happens. The Rooted in Wisdom activity had students drawing a tree and writing their values in the roots and their goals in the canopy. The analogy is that students grow from the values they learn.

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

 3rd Grade - Students worked together to complete a Cryptogram for the warm up activity. For the affective growth lesson we focused on creativity. Each student was given a four inch black circle and a white sheet of paper and had to create something. It is always interesting to see how each student uses the materials and comes up with something unique. That is creativity. In Crystal Pond Woods, students completed three logic grid puzzles. The final activity was to draw a tree and put their goals in the canopy and their values in the roots. It is from our roots that we develop our goals.

Monday, October 11, 2021

2nd Grade - Our warm up activity was a Cryptogram. We will continue to work on this type of puzzle with our friend Max the Magician. The affective lesson focused on all the things we are good at doing. In Crystal Pond Woods we continued convergent thinking. Students had to analyze items and determine what they had in common then complete a logic elimination grid puzzle. For the Rooted In Wisdom activity, students watched The Giving Tree and Our Tree Named Steve. Then they created a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two stories.

Friday, October 8, 2021

 3rd Grade - Students played 20 Questions to solve the Mystery Object for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on the above average abilities and that we are all different. In Crystal Pond Woods, students finished the different puzzles we started last week. Our theme activity was to watch two videos where two books about trees were read. Students then compared the two books.

Since we will be enjoying a short break next week, we took the opportunity to cover the creative aspect of successful people. Students were given a white sheet of paper and a black circle and had to create something from those two items. It is always interesting how each student is given the same materials but each creation is different.

Thursday, October 7, 2021

5th Grade - Students played 20 Questions to solve the Mystery Object for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on building vocabulary to describe leaders. Students created acrostics using the word leader for the start of each line. For the Rooted In Wisdom activity, students drew trees. They wrote their top ten values in the roots and wrote their goals in the leaves. The final activity was to design a Munrack from the planet Veltzar. We will do more with these creatures in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

4th Grade - Students played 20 Questions to solve the Mystery Object for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on the #1 complaint of gifted students - that they sometimes miss activities in class because they go to GATE. Students reflected and designed a new tree they would make if they could using the improvements from their reflection. The final activity was to watch two videos where two books about trees were read. Students then compared the two books.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

 3rd Grade - Students played 20 Questions to solve the Mystery Object for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on the above average abilities and that we are all different. In Crystal Pond Woods, students finished the different puzzles we started last week. The final activity was to watch two videos where two books about trees were read. Students then compared the two books.

Monday, October 4, 2021

 2nd Grade - Students played 20 Questions to solve the Mystery Object for the warm up activity. The affective lesson focused on the generalization that we are all different. In Crystal Pond Woods, students sorted shapes based on their attributes into Venn diagrams.

Friday, October 1, 2021

 Chisholm 3rd Grade - Since Miss Horn has been on bereavement leave, I have taken her third grade classes along with mine. Here is what we did today:

These students started their learning with a Loosen Up drawing. The drawing was to be a self portrait using only straight lines to draw. Students were introduced to the Take 5 program which focuses on the five traits of competent/successful kids. We will spend a week learning each trait. We then took our weekly trip to Crystal Pond Woods where students learned to solve a variety of Convergent Thinking puzzles. The final activity was to build their "tree" from the design they had developed last week. Those who built their tree last week had an opportunity to evaluate their work and determine how they could improve their tree if they had the chance to build it again.