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| Wow! Look how blank this poster was when we first started! Lots of thinking has definitely been taking place! AWESOME!!! |
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Turning 1st Graders into Egyptologist
My 1st grade Study Group is up and running! In order to get them
thinking like Egyptologist, we started with some synthesizing activities
and Post-It notes. Basically, Post-Its make any activity super amazing
and special! Before any information was presented, I had my little
ones complete the sentence "In my mind Egypt is..." by writing or
drawing it. As we have gathered more information, we have added to our
poster. Here is how our thinking currently looks!
WANTED!
To help us in picking the fairy tale we put on trial, each student represented a different fairy tale and chose three different characters we could charge. They put their information on wanted posters that I adapted from a cute lower grades one I discovered on Pinterest! Check out how wonderfully they turned out! I loooooove the great thought that went into them! Also, I get so excited to see these kids looking at the characters through different perspectives and finding charges for "those seemingly innocent" characters!
A Little Buoyancy
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Moving Over the Old - Interesting Enigmas
Interesting Enigmas
11/16/11 These kids are amazing workers. Once given a task, they set to and work diligently! It truly is a joy to work with such a group! That being said, they are in the process of wrapping up their historical fiction pieces. Be looking for them to be featured right here next week!
11/9/11 We are wrapping up our discovery on who invented the alphabet by writing stories to explain this enigma. The kids are working on historical fiction pieces which we will be sharing right here when they are finished!
11/2/11 I really missed this group today. The Challenge Lab was closed. I'm always sad to miss a group!
10/26/11 Sometimes gathering and organizing facts and information does not appear to be that fun, but it tends to lead to some pretty fun activities! So, in other words, today was mostly about organizing facts and information. Check out this picture of the group working together to make a timeline with different ideas leading to who invented the alphabet.
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| The camera (not the operator, right) was either taking really dark or very blurry pictures. None the less, here is one of the ladies playing secretary while others pour over information for the timeline! |
10/19/11 Today's update is quick...We have moved on to our second enigma, "Who invented the alphabet?" Stay tuned!
10/12/11 The documentaries, well, err, the plays are complete! Enjoy, and then follow the link on the bottom to vote on who YOU think discovered the Americas!
Click HERE to Vote!
9/28/11 and 10/5/11 This is serious! Everyone is so into working on their documentaries, that partitions were built to keep work top secret! Next week we will film these masterpieces, so stay tuned!
9/21/11 We are now officially in three groups and working on documentaries! Stay tuned! They will air right here! Each group represents someone who can claim the discovery of the Americas!
9/14/11 We officially have our first Socratic Seminar under our belts! The good news? The kids did great! The bad news? I was pulled for a meeting and had to miss it! Not to worry though, "The Faze" took over - that would be our wonderful fourth grade writing teachers Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Hayes! Combine their super powers (and their names) and you get "The Faze!"
The kids did three rounds each with a different question. Round 1: What do you know about the discovery of the Americas? Round 2: Can you explain what the word "discovered" means? Round 3: Who discovered the Americas?
The WHOLE group now believes the Chinese discovered the Americas! Enjoy the pictures from today! Hopefully you visualize the deep thinking taking place!
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| About to make a wise statement! |
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| Looks like he is not ready to play his cards. Each student had three per question. When they spoke, they threw one in! No cards = silent thoughts! |
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| About to play a card! |
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| Backing it up with facts! |
9/7/11 Things sure can take a different spin in an hour. The hot debate is between the Vikings or the Chinese discovering the Americas! These conclusions were arrived at through intelligent conversation. There was a quick lesson on "intelligent conversation" that included etiquette and backing all statements with a fact. When studying enigmas, it is cool to disagree - you just have to do so with many, many facts. We are on the road to making short documentaries on "Who Really Discovered the Americas?" Our next step in getting there? We will attempt a Socratic Seminar next week! Hopefully I can get some great pics or short clip of this!
8/31/11 We jumped right into study group by trying to figure out what the word "enigma" means and why I chose that study group topic. After some massive brainstorming on the board the kids were able to see we will be looking closer at some mysteries in history. Our first enigma: "Who Really Discovered the Americas?" Right now they are thinking the Indians, the Vikings, Christopher Columbus or no one! Hmm....let's see how this progresses!
Moving Over the Old - Fairy Tales on Trial
Fairy Tales on Trial
11/16/11 Cha-cha-cha-check it out! A picture of your kids hard at work! I was going for candid, but a few caught on.
11/9/11 Ah - the plague of the pictures (or lack thereof) has taken over! That being said, we had a fabulous study group today. We read more of Pinocchio and then finished our "Coaster Caper." Would you believe that Benny Berleine was guilty? Shocking, I know! Let me tell you though, that was not nearly the most exciting thing that happened today! The fun really started when we begin compiling our own suspect list! That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are starting to look at who might be innocent and, more importantly, who might be guilty in the good ol' tale of Pinocchio! Stay tuned. I will share some details, but others will be kept secret to make the trial that much more exciting!
11/2/11 I really missed this group today. The Challenge Lab was closed. I'm always sad to miss a group! However, at least I did not fail on my "promise" to take pictures. Let's see how it goes next time!
10/26/11 Do I dare promise to take pictures next week? Hopefully, I'll get my act together so you can see the kids in action!
Today we read more of Pinocchio. They are soaking it up and completely captivated. Take a moment and ask your kiddo all about Pinocchio's block head. We have a long ways to go still, but we're making progress in the book.
Afterwards, we began "The Coaster Caper" from One Hour Mysteries. Everyone was having a blast, but we ran out of time. Next week we will discover who sabotaged The Serpentine Roller Coaster; and along the way we will be learning all about suspect lists, alibis, substantiating alibis and evidence.
10/19/11 I have this "horrible" habit of getting so into the lesson that I forget to take any pictures! Deep, deep down I know pictures make this whole blog more interesting! Anyways, on with the update...
Our lesson began with a discussion on the history of Pinocchio followed by the fact that outside of the Disney's "Pinocchio" there is really only one other version - the REAL one! We made a group decision to read Pinocchio, and read it we did! We spent the rest of the class reading Pinocchio and every other minute these guys and gals were in the lab. In fact, the group voted to read Pinocchio during lunch bunch for awhile!
I love, love, love seeing how into the book they are! The REAL Pinocchio differs greatly from what Mr. Disney introduced in the 1940s. Some parts are shocking, some sad, some the same, and a bunch are just out there! Stay tuned because this is sure to enhance our fairy tale on trial!!!
10/12/11 Mrs. Stern made the mistake of walking into our room during a heated debate. She was mesmerized and stuck around for a few more minutes! The debate? Which fairy tale would be better to put on trial - Pinocchio or Hansel and Gretel! These guys and gals were into it! The hardest part was taking turns! Everyone had wonderful, amazing, fantastic things to say! (Oh yeah, and for the soft spoken ones their was a quick lesson on growling and telling others, "Sit down! It's my turn!" Ask your kids all about it! Just please remember, 99.9% of the time the Challenge Lab is a super nice place!)
Now, what fairy tale will we be putting on trial? Let me check with the kids next week and see if they mind me sharing! Otherwise, we will keep it a super secret!
10/5/11 Things are getting serious in here! Each student has a fairy tale they are now representing! This is the start of choosing one fairy tale to go on trial! The kids spent their time picking suspects and pinning them with possible crimes! Next week, they will represent their fairy tale and convince others why it MUST go on trial! If I don't get too wrapped up in everything, I will try to get a short video of this!
9/28/11 Our warm-up was to rewrite "Little Red Riding Hood" using the five sense and little known details! Everyone was so into it, that they kept going and going and going! Here they are reading their stories to the class!
9/21/11 Multiple perspectives is the name of the game right now! And let me tell you, it is amazing when two groups read the EXACT SAME story from two different perspectives! What's important might be the same but for entirely different reasons! Both groups read a boring ol' story about a house! I'm sure they were wondering why I was torturing them so! Afterwards they received a card and reread the story as either a real estate agent or a robber. So many of the same facts seemed important to both sides!
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| Catching the rowdy robbers at the scene of the crime! |
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| Super professional realtors! Well, all but one who was caught sleeping on the job! |
9/14/11 We are doing quite a few creativity and perspective activities to build the type of "think tanks" these little lawyers need in order to put a fairy tale on trial! Enjoy Audrey's Little Red Riding Hood story from the view of a dust bunny under Granny's bed!
9/7/11 There is no shortage of creativity in this bunch! Zip, zero, nada! That being said, after exploring The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as told to Jon Scieszka last week, we took the good ol' fashion "Three Little Pigs" and told it, retold it, twisted it around and turned it inside out! Next, we looked at the pig who built his house from straw, the pig who built his house from sticks, the big bad wolf and who is the smartest! After some funny discussions and moving from table to table, the pig who built his house from straw received the winning vote! Why, you ask? Apparently, if you live in a place where there is any possibility of a wolf blowing your house down, you should build it out of a light material that will not injure you yet will make a great cloud of dust when it falls! This assists in your escape! Makes perfect sense to me!
8/31/11 This week we got things off to a fabulous start by looking at life through multiple perspectives. Let me tell you, this group had me laughing quite a bit! They were to take on the roll of elderly people in a nursing home learning about technology. And boy did they! When they returned to the lab later in the day for lunch bunch these crazy kids were still at it!
Moving Over the Old - Excellent Economist
Excellent Economist
Things were surprisingly quiet during study group today. Of course, it was the kids first day back, and I was their first stop! Normally, they can be a wee bit chatty! Well, maybe more than a wee bit!
The last few weeks we have looked at traditional toys from a variety of countries. Today the students got to choose which country they wanted to immigrate from and what traditional toy they want to sell in their store. We started our business proposal books, and are getting closer to starting our own businesses. I am sure when they are more awake next week they will realize how close we are to the one thing they have waited all year on! With that, I bet they will be more talkative!
11/15/11 Your little economist is learning some very big things, such as what a free market economy is! We will be finishing up this lesson in one of the next study groups, but go on and ask them. Let's see what they remember!
11/8/11 We had a great lesson on taxes today. The lesson started with THE Queen from THE Queendom visiting and taxing students for any and everything. Most of the kids were even frightened to breathe for fear they might get taxed. Two students did not have enough money to pay their taxes and were sent to jail. Checkout their mugshots below. We even had a pretty heated discussion on how people should be taxed. The kids had very strong and different viewpoints which helped them understand why taxes are such a hot issue in our country. I just love, love, love seeing these kids able to grasp the beginnings of economics that even baffles some adults!
11/1/11 Producers and consumers are really cool science words. All these guys and gals know what they mean too! Now, throw in the twist - they are also economic words! Luckily, with a little team work and a few guesses, the kids were able to figure out how these words relate to business. Afterwards, the fun began.
We had a group of producers and a group of consumers. The producers made paper chains (high quality, of course) while the consumers rolled dice. Each time the consumers rolled enough to tally up 100 they earned $5. When time ran out, the shopping started. Third graders go bonkers over paper chains! There was haggling and lowering of prices and, of course, purchasing. Then we flip-flopped rolls and started again.
During our discussion we learned Ian was the most successful at selling chains. He made $9. We also learned quite a few students sold their chains for less than it cost them to make them. Many lost money today.
The important lesson learned besides what producers and consumers do was when selling something you have to price it right. You have to think about how much it cost to make it and how much the people you are selling to might be able to afford.
Be on the lookout for paper chains making it to a home near you! Bonkers, I'm telling you, bonkers!
10/25/11 Today was all about risks in business. The students had a chance to toss a ball into a trashcan and earn a profit. Of course, they had to pay me for every toss! The bigger the risk they took, the bigger the profit! Someone even paid me $50 multiple times to try to earn $100! I was rooting for him, but it just didn't work out!
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| A little celebration after making it in! |
10/18/11 We worked on understanding our "Allowance Ledgers" better. Teaching third graders to keep a balance sheet takes a little practice, but we are definitely getting there! Afterwards, we played Lemonade Stand. (Find it here - trust me, your kids will be begging to play it!) My main goal was to introduce everyone to this game since we will use it in a lesson later in the year, however they loved it so much they begged to play it at Lunch Bunch!
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| Here is a screenshot of Lemonade Stand. This is how it is sitting on my computer until the kids return for lunch! Successful lesson? I'd say so! |
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