October was a full month for us and we knocked out a few items on our checklist! Look at what we have accomplished:
- We calculated points from logic link challenges (purple level)....some students scoring as high as 130 points!
- Elementary students have read 5-6 chapters from our novel study and 6th-8th graders continue to read non-fiction articles and blog about what they are reading and learning. We have covered topics such as: brief history of the national park system, a very famous camping trip, overcrowding and other park problems, the power of a picture and one person's journey to help save endangered animals on the red list, and spooky national park sites. Please continue to check out student blogs to learn with them and let them know how they are doing!
-Our educational journey so far has taken us to Haleakala National Park in Maui, Hawaii, Acadia Park in Maine, and Joshua Tree National Park in California. Three of my five classes were able to virtually meet with a park ranger from Joshua Tree National Park. Students were given the opportunity to come up to the computer to ask student created questions during our live meeting!! Check out the "Meet the Explorers" page to learn more about the parks we covered from a students' perspective.
- Georgia O'Keeffe was the artist we have studied during these first few weeks of school. We read about her, her life, her work, her inspiration. We talked, discussed, shared, and compared interpretations of art to another's interpretation. Then, students were asked to complete a landscape art project. They were asked to create a composition that included a foreground, a middle ground, and a background. They should have tried tinting and mixing colors in the background as well as highlight a specific flower or plant (we know O'Keeffe loved to enlarge flowers so we can truly appreciate their beauty) in the foreground. Each student wrote an artist statement to post next to their completed artwork.
We hope that at the end of each class we have enough time for KEVA challenges or Geo challenges...but TIME ITSELF is a challenge. We haven't completed nearly as many creative thinking activities at the end of the day as I would like....but we will not give up. We have tried building a throne (21 blocks) and an airplane (15 blocks) and played a GEOchallenge game or two simply locating the 50 states on a map. Hopefully we have time for more in November.
Last, but not least....every October I make sure my students know who won the NOBEL Prizes because the announcements are made the first full week of October each year. We re-visited the purpose and importance of the NOBEL prizes and spent time specifically discussing who won the NOBEL prize in Medicine for 2021. If you see one of my students they should be able to give you a brief overview! I also directed them to other resources to learn more about the winners in physics, chemistry, literature, economic sciences, and peace.
- We calculated points from logic link challenges (purple level)....some students scoring as high as 130 points!
- Elementary students have read 5-6 chapters from our novel study and 6th-8th graders continue to read non-fiction articles and blog about what they are reading and learning. We have covered topics such as: brief history of the national park system, a very famous camping trip, overcrowding and other park problems, the power of a picture and one person's journey to help save endangered animals on the red list, and spooky national park sites. Please continue to check out student blogs to learn with them and let them know how they are doing!
-Our educational journey so far has taken us to Haleakala National Park in Maui, Hawaii, Acadia Park in Maine, and Joshua Tree National Park in California. Three of my five classes were able to virtually meet with a park ranger from Joshua Tree National Park. Students were given the opportunity to come up to the computer to ask student created questions during our live meeting!! Check out the "Meet the Explorers" page to learn more about the parks we covered from a students' perspective.
- Georgia O'Keeffe was the artist we have studied during these first few weeks of school. We read about her, her life, her work, her inspiration. We talked, discussed, shared, and compared interpretations of art to another's interpretation. Then, students were asked to complete a landscape art project. They were asked to create a composition that included a foreground, a middle ground, and a background. They should have tried tinting and mixing colors in the background as well as highlight a specific flower or plant (we know O'Keeffe loved to enlarge flowers so we can truly appreciate their beauty) in the foreground. Each student wrote an artist statement to post next to their completed artwork.
We hope that at the end of each class we have enough time for KEVA challenges or Geo challenges...but TIME ITSELF is a challenge. We haven't completed nearly as many creative thinking activities at the end of the day as I would like....but we will not give up. We have tried building a throne (21 blocks) and an airplane (15 blocks) and played a GEOchallenge game or two simply locating the 50 states on a map. Hopefully we have time for more in November.
Last, but not least....every October I make sure my students know who won the NOBEL Prizes because the announcements are made the first full week of October each year. We re-visited the purpose and importance of the NOBEL prizes and spent time specifically discussing who won the NOBEL prize in Medicine for 2021. If you see one of my students they should be able to give you a brief overview! I also directed them to other resources to learn more about the winners in physics, chemistry, literature, economic sciences, and peace.