Happy New Year! I didn't take quite as many pictures as normal, but we sure did accomplish enough for documentation in Jan. 2022.
Critical Thinking and Literature: We are breaking out of digital breakouts each class with some success and a handful of failures. It is a great brain workout to start our day! Middle school students have read about the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park. They read two different articles about the fires and watched a video before blogging about this topic through student websites. Elementary student read to learn more about Everglades National Park and completed a mini report. Elementary gifted students had also previous finished reading a novel and composed an email to send to the author of the book which included title suggestions for each of the 13 chapters. We sent the email to her and she responded! The students were thrilled to correspond with a real author!
National Park Study: Our focus the entire month of Jan. has been Yellowstone National Park. We went on a virtual tour discovering some of the famous places in the park, including several hydrothermal features (Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Geyser Basin, etc.) We discussed the fascinating history about the extermination and reintroduction of the gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park and we completed a lesson in which we worked in small groups to consider management issues specific to Yellowstone National Park. We learned that park rangers must forever struggle with the dual mandate to both preserve and use our national parks and resources. Each group was given a dilemma card and asked to read, discuss, and record the problem in their own words. Elementary students are taking on a HUGE task. They are in the middle of building a model of Glacier National Park. They are going to be our GNP experts. They read an entire novel which included Glacier National Park as the setting and completed extensive research about the park itself. I let them help me come up with the criteria for these student created models. Please come back later in the year to see finished products.
STEM Projects: Elementary TAG students read a book titled "Learn to Ski with Mr. MaGee" and discussed the sport of skiing in general. Students were then given aluminum foil, tape and craft sticks and asked to plan and design a statue skier that could stand up on skis. Then we extended the design by designing and measuring ski slopes then plan and design a skier that can race down! After my original planned test, each student had to use the scientific process to come up with a different test (adding speed bumps, varying the height of slopes, adding additional gear, etc). It was fun and neat to listen to everyone's different ideas on variables and ideas to try and test. It was a great STEM activity! Middle school TAG students are learning about the Seattle Space Needle. They started with general research and a 5 slide Google presentation to tell us what they learned. After a better understanding of the needle itself, its history, design, and architecture students were asked to begin plans to build a model of this landmark. All teams have turned in rough draft sketches and materials list. They also learned about the constraints (time and money) tied to this project. They are given time each class to work on this project (5 min to get settled and collect thoughts, 30 minutes for working, and 5 minutes to reflect on what was accomplished and make plans for the next meeting). I can't wait to see the final products.
ART: Our latest art project will include a study of the artist Frida Kahlo and include a student-self-portrait. In order to prepare for this experience all students were asked to practice two art skills: using guide marks and creating value. This helps students see proportions, scale more complex images, and learn to create value and include shade/shading in their artwork. We are in the middle of this study and project. More to come in Feb!
STEM Careers: We have spent the month of January learning about the titles and job descriptions of the following STEM related jobs: Aerospace Engineer, Astronomer, Sports Engineer, Biochemist, Biomedical Engineer, Cardiovascular Technologist, Chemical Engineer, Commercial Designer, and Cytotechnologist. We use Quizlet to help us study these careers and play STEM BINGO to help us stay acquainted with these careers and what each entails.
Critical Thinking and Literature: We are breaking out of digital breakouts each class with some success and a handful of failures. It is a great brain workout to start our day! Middle school students have read about the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park. They read two different articles about the fires and watched a video before blogging about this topic through student websites. Elementary student read to learn more about Everglades National Park and completed a mini report. Elementary gifted students had also previous finished reading a novel and composed an email to send to the author of the book which included title suggestions for each of the 13 chapters. We sent the email to her and she responded! The students were thrilled to correspond with a real author!
National Park Study: Our focus the entire month of Jan. has been Yellowstone National Park. We went on a virtual tour discovering some of the famous places in the park, including several hydrothermal features (Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Geyser Basin, etc.) We discussed the fascinating history about the extermination and reintroduction of the gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park and we completed a lesson in which we worked in small groups to consider management issues specific to Yellowstone National Park. We learned that park rangers must forever struggle with the dual mandate to both preserve and use our national parks and resources. Each group was given a dilemma card and asked to read, discuss, and record the problem in their own words. Elementary students are taking on a HUGE task. They are in the middle of building a model of Glacier National Park. They are going to be our GNP experts. They read an entire novel which included Glacier National Park as the setting and completed extensive research about the park itself. I let them help me come up with the criteria for these student created models. Please come back later in the year to see finished products.
STEM Projects: Elementary TAG students read a book titled "Learn to Ski with Mr. MaGee" and discussed the sport of skiing in general. Students were then given aluminum foil, tape and craft sticks and asked to plan and design a statue skier that could stand up on skis. Then we extended the design by designing and measuring ski slopes then plan and design a skier that can race down! After my original planned test, each student had to use the scientific process to come up with a different test (adding speed bumps, varying the height of slopes, adding additional gear, etc). It was fun and neat to listen to everyone's different ideas on variables and ideas to try and test. It was a great STEM activity! Middle school TAG students are learning about the Seattle Space Needle. They started with general research and a 5 slide Google presentation to tell us what they learned. After a better understanding of the needle itself, its history, design, and architecture students were asked to begin plans to build a model of this landmark. All teams have turned in rough draft sketches and materials list. They also learned about the constraints (time and money) tied to this project. They are given time each class to work on this project (5 min to get settled and collect thoughts, 30 minutes for working, and 5 minutes to reflect on what was accomplished and make plans for the next meeting). I can't wait to see the final products.
ART: Our latest art project will include a study of the artist Frida Kahlo and include a student-self-portrait. In order to prepare for this experience all students were asked to practice two art skills: using guide marks and creating value. This helps students see proportions, scale more complex images, and learn to create value and include shade/shading in their artwork. We are in the middle of this study and project. More to come in Feb!
STEM Careers: We have spent the month of January learning about the titles and job descriptions of the following STEM related jobs: Aerospace Engineer, Astronomer, Sports Engineer, Biochemist, Biomedical Engineer, Cardiovascular Technologist, Chemical Engineer, Commercial Designer, and Cytotechnologist. We use Quizlet to help us study these careers and play STEM BINGO to help us stay acquainted with these careers and what each entails.