1st/2nd/3rd Grade Gifted

1st, 2nd and 3rd grade friends practiced their readers theater several times today preparing for their presentation next week for some 1st grade friends. They also worked on their spider book research project. Some completed their writing and have been able to begin their drawing on each page. 3rd grade presented their brochures to one another and introduced their civilization. I introduced our upcoming unit on space by reading a book about stars. We are looking forward to our field trip  in a couple of weeks.

1st/2nd/3rd Grade Gifted

The students were given a Thanksgiving themed dictionary skills packet that required them to look up certain words in the dictionary, make note of the guide words and page number the word was found on. They were also given a list of words to alphabetize using the first letter of each word and another list to alphabetize using the 2nd or 3rd letter of each word. The activity proved to challenge some of the students but I think they all had fun in the learning process.

The first and second grade students were assigned spiders to research and write a spider book on. The spider book will be completed in the coming weeks. Third grade finished up their Weslandia brochures and should be ready to start presenting them to the class next week. I love seeing their creativity.

5th Grade Gifted

The best part of our day today consisted of our Iggy Peck Architect STEM Activity. We read the book Iggy Peck Architect, viewed a power point of some of the worlds tallest buildlings and watched a short video of the process architects go through when designing and building a building. After some discussion the students were placed in groups, planned their design and were given 15 minutes to build the tallest free standing structure. After our first round the students met with their partner and discussed what went well and what did not go well. They reevaluated their design and made a new plan. Once their new plan was mad,e they were given another 10 minutes to build the tallest free standing structure. This round proved to be much more successful. After lunch, the students worked on a funny Thanksgiving Math Glyph! :)

1st/2nd/3rd Gifted

The students worked hard today! After our normal morning routine, 1st and 2nd grade got busy working on their spider webs. They traced their spider webs in black marker and then made spider models and identified each body part. The spider has two main body parts, the cephalothorax (smaller) and the abdomen. The legs are attached to the cephalothorax so it was very important to make sure the legs were coming from that part of the body. Most spiders have 8 eyes, some have none. The students make sure their spinnerets were extending from their abdomen.

3rd grade is all on the final copy of their Weslandia brochure and some have begun working on their map skills packet. Once we have worked through the map skills packet, the students will find a place on earth to "build" their civilization. :)

1st/2nd/3rd Gifted

Since tomorrow is election day, we discussed the election process and watched a quick video snippet explaining that process and how the electoral college works. We read the books Grace for President and Duck for President. We discussed both candidates character qualities and then each student cast their vote. As you can see, Grace won the presidency in our class. ;)

Since Veterans Day is later this week, the students completed a puzzle. They were each given a sheet and told which parts to color what. They did not know how it would work until later. They each colored their page and then cut the square out. Each square was identified by a letter and number. We moved to the library and learned that a grid system would be the best way to put our puzzle in order since we had no clue what we were making. ;) The ending result is below. On this Veterans Day, we say "thank you" to all our veterans! Thanks for keeping us safe!

I worked with 1st and 2nd grade on note taking for a spider research book. I modeled note taking and then we practiced it together. We will finish this lesson and they will work on their own research in the coming weeks.

3rd grade is working on finishing their rough draft of their Weslandia brochure and beginning their final copy! Jack worked hard and completed his final copy today! I can't wait for him to present it to the class and tell us all about his civilization!