Here are some highlights of what is happening in each grade:
First grade has been learning different ways of creative/critical thinking. We have focused on convergent thinking/deductive logic where you use clues/information to come up with one logical answer. We've done picture and word analogies and a variety of logic problems. We are currently solving the "Mystery of the Missing Ribbon". Second Grade has been studying and coming up with solutions to improve our current student sorting of waste in the cafeteria. We have the opportunity to recycle and compost after lunch at school but the student population is unfortunately not using this opportunity effectively. The second graders have researched facts about landfill contents and problems, benefits of recycling and composting, and how to do the 3 properly. We hope to have a presentation ready to present to the students during morning assembly next Friday. Third Grade has been learning and exploring about bridges; types, structures, strength of design, etc. See more detail and pictures in my previous post below. Fourth Grade has been learning about ancient cultures. We learned about cultural universals; commonalities that exist in any culture but varies from culture to culture (family structure, clothing, economy, government, etc). We created a timeline that we will use to record each culture that we study. We began with the land of Mesopotamia and learned mainly about the Ancient Sumerians. The students learned how to write their name/initials in cuneiform on a clay tablet. Yesterday we began learning about Ancient Egypt starting with a Nearpod. Fifth Grade has been developing "Think Tank" companies. They chose their employees, created logos and slogans, and have been creating commercials to advertise their companies. We have watched some short videos about IDEO, a company that uses the design thinking model to design products and other services for companies. The students have earned start up money through "Showdowns" where they are given a topic to brainstorm for several minutes. Money is earned for any ideas that are original from all other teams. Each team has a company and individual earnings sheet. They will begin using their company assets to purchase problems to solve next week. Their earnings from each problem will be based on the creative effort they demonstrate in solving each problem. Our end goal is still TBD and will be announced next week. We have been doing a lot of reading, simulating and building around the topic of bridges. We began by noticing what bridges have in common and listed our known uses/purposes for bridges. We've learned about beam bridges, tested how shape affects the strength of the deck and which shape makes the strongest pier. We learned that beam bridges are the most common and basic bridge type. Below are the beam bridges made from the K'Nex kits. Once their beam bridge was complete they were allowed to embellish and add their own creations hence the super long. This week we are focusing on the Truss bridge design and forces that act on a bridge. Thursday afternoon we have a group of engineering students from UT coming to present to us. |
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May 2019
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