Two More Winter Poems

Bring on the Heat- Hallie Heat that is....

So for me, blogging and preparing for the holidays are not tremendously compatible. My posts for the past two weeks and probably the next two will be a bit less elaborative. Hopefully things will settle down after break.

This past week, the students finished their snowman cards and wrote the final draft of their winter poems. They made a second copy of their poem for you. I will send them home right before winter break. Today, each student made a micro-podcast of their poem that you will find in the previous post. They did a great job on their poems and their first audio presentation!

Next, the students worked at their individual Exploratory areas.  A couple of students have moved on to their second center.  Ask your child about their center work and current task.

At recess today, I introduced the students to the game, Blokus.  It is a strategy board game that challenges spatial thinking and it a lot of fun for all ages.   If your family likes board games, it is a great one!

  

The students were introduced to our newest Quirkle, Hallie Heat.  In our experiment, we learned the warmer water (and air) rise, while colder water (and air) sink.  Your child has their experiment log to share their hypothesis, observations and results with you.

All of our cards were mailed out last week. We ended up making and mailing 62 cards. Thank you so much for your donations of stamps to assist us with the postage costs. We have received 43 cards so far. It is kind of exciting to check my box in the office now.

Today, we opened some of the cards we have received from other schools including ones in North Carolina, Hawaii, Arizona, New York and New Jersey.  We used a map of North America to locate the states and their relative direction and distance from Kansas City.   

We discussed the grade levels, number of students in each class and the average high temperature for December 15th in each town/city.   A couple of weeks ago, in the computer lab, the students were introduced to Google Earth and the features that allow us to zoom into a map to the point of virtually standing in front of the schools.  They were very observant and noted differences and similarities in each town/cities geographical location, proximity to the ocean, lakes or rivers, rural and urban areas, the physical size of the schools and even surrounding plant life.  As we were discussing the average high temperatures today, by looking at the map of North America, the students realized the colder temperatures were to the north while the souther locations were warmer.  

We had a fun day!

Our Winter Poems

Discovering Our Global Citizenship

We had a really busy day today, (hmmmmm  I think I say that a lot, but it's true!)

This morning, we finished our snowman cards and wrote the final draft of our winter poems.  The students made a second copy of their poem for you.  I will send them home right before winter break.  We also met our newest Quirkle, Gilbert Gas.

We explored carbon dioxide is both gas and solid forms.  The students wrote their hypothesis and recorded their observations as we added salt to a bottle of soda pop with a balloon covering the top of the bottle.  Ask your child to show you their science log sheet to find out their conclusion.

Next, we explored carbon dioxide in solid form, dry ice.  There are few things that are quite as exciting as dry ice....

except maybe, dry ice and dish soap...

Bubbles and strange, cold gas.... does it get any better than this?

In the afternoon, we had a chance to meet some of our "pen pals."  Mrs. Lee's kindergarten class in Honolulu, Hawaii joined us via Skype.  

We found out our schools are about the same size and they have art, music and PE class too.  It is warmer there, (75 degrees today) and they never get snow!

Their school has it's own swimming pool and they get swimming lessons at school!  They also have a drama class and put on a play in the spring of the year.

We learned some of the students have banana trees and mango trees in their yard and that it does not get cold enough for apples to grow there.  We also found out we have a lot in common with the Hawaiian kids.  We are all losing or beginning to lose teeth.  We all like to sing songs.  We love field trips and chicken nugget days at school.

We are learning that through technology, our world is not such a big place.  We are within reach of others around the globe and we have many things in common with them and many things we can learn from them.  This is the beginning of digital citizenship.

Next we opened some of the cards we have received from other schools including ones in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kansas, Arizona, Florida and Ontario, Canada.  We used a USA atlas and located Hawaii and the other states on the map of North America.  Many more will arrive in the days ahead.

Like I said, it was a busy day!  :-)

Wishing You Wet, Wonderful Snowman Snow!

Experimenting with Friction

This week, the students were introduced to our newest Quirkle scientist, Friction Fred.  In our lesson, the students learned about friction and how this resistance helps us to keep our footing on slick ground.  The students also conducted an experiment with friction.  After recording their hypothesis, they cleaned the tip of their nose with a paper towel, breathed on the bowl of a spoon, rubbed the spoon on their nose and let go of it.  Check out your child's science log sheet to read their observations and conclusion.

Next, they began writing the rough draft of their winter poem that will be included in their snowman cards.  A second copy will also be made for them to bring home.  The students were given a choice of the style of the poem they wrote- acrostic, cinquain or free verse.   Next week, they will write the final draft of their winter poem and finish up their card.  We need to mail them by December 9th.  So far, we have received five cards from other schools.  We will display them on the bulletin board in our classroom and plot the locations on our map.  You are welcome to stop by and see the cards.

The students also worked at their Exploratory centers.   The newer students selected their first center, filled out their contract and started the Knowledge level task.  The rest of the students continued their individualized tasks.  Ask your child about their center choice and/or current task.

Our Hair Raising Experiments!

It is getting colder each week.  Please remind your child to bring appropriate outerwear as we will be out for recess as often as possible.  As chance would have it, Briarcliff has not only a great view of the river and city, but also gets every gale force wind that sweeps through the area. LOL! 

We started our day by meeting our newest Quirkle, Ellie Electricity.

In this week's experiment, the students explored static electricity and learned when objects have the same charge, the repel each other and when they have an opposite charge, they attract each other.  Ask your child about their observations during our experiment.

 We also discussed other forms of energy and spent some time looking at how magnet poles react to one another.

Next, we discussed our Global Snowman Card Exchange.  I show the students the map from the previous blog post and told them about the cards we will be designing.  Next we learned to use this map and Google Earth to explore the locations of the schools.  In the lab, the students learned to "fly in" and in many cases, were able to see the front of the school building and the houses in and around the area of the school.  The students noticed that some schools are smaller than others, some are in rural areas or very small towns, while others are in the center of metropolitan areas.  Some schools are along the coast, near the ocean or great lakes and some are in desert areas with palm trees.  It will be even more interesting when we have made a personal connection with a class.

In the afternoon, the students worked on their mathematical problem solving skills in the TOPS Math or Math Rules Programs.

We ended our day by beginning to create the individual snowman cards that we will send on December 9th to our exchange partners.  I know we will have some exciting conversations and learning that come about from this project.  I have encouraged the students to explore the maps at home as our lab time is very short.

Have a wonderful weekend!

2011 Global Snowman Card Exchange

UPDATE!  We Get to Participate in Two Groups!  (Remind me of how excited I was when we get closer to December 9th and I start to panic...)

I am very excited to share information with you on our newest project.  All five rotations of students are going to work together to participate in a global card exchange between 59 classes from across the United States and Canada.   Over 750 classrooms have registered and been organized in groups of 30 for this project.  This collaboration was organized by a teacher in California named Jennifer Wagner.  She has successfully encouraged teachers since 1999 to use online projects in their Pre K-6 classrooms.  This is the first time I have participated in one of her projects and I am very excited about having an opportunity to connect our students to others from across our country and around the world.  

Through this real world platform, we will be working on our research, problems solving, writing and technology skills.  We are responsible for making one, snowman themed, card for each of the fifty-eight other classrooms.  Below is a Google Map I made in Batch Geo to show the locations of all of our partners.

View 2011 Global Snowman Holiday Card Exchange in a full screen map

Our 2nd grade SAGE students are learning to use a traditional USA and World Atlas and coordinates on a grid this week so the skills tied nicely to this new adventure.  We will be working with Google Maps and Google Earth to learn more about the locations of each school. 

Both K/1st and 2nd grade SAGE students will be introduced to using a Thesaurus in the next week or so.  We will use the synonyms we find to help us write winter swirl poems  for the cards.  The cards we create must be mailed by December 9th.  Once we receive all of the cards from the other schools, we will be graphing some of the information we learn about the other students, schools and locations.  I am hoping we can Skype with one or two of our partners so the students have a chance to connect face-to-face.  We will have to see! 

A Moment of Outrage Leads to a Little Clarity & Understanding

We started our day by working on our math problem solving skills.The students completed their first full page "Squiggle" as a part of our creative problem solving.  As they combine the squiggle marks to create a single, cohesive picture, they learn the necessity of taking their time, being flexible in their thinking and to be elaborative in their projects.

Next the students were introduced to Density Dan, our new Quirkle.  We learned that another way to say something is "dense" is to say that it is "heavy."

We made a simple hydrometer with a straw and a ball of clay.  The students predicted which liquid they believed to be heaviest; salt water or fresh water and then we tested to find out.  Ask you child to tell you about their observations and conclusion.

Our day ended with more than a little outrage.  I asked Mrs. Webb to hang the students' "Squiggle" designs up on the bulletin board along with a name tag at the base of their illustration-- but I asked her to mix up the names and papers and to be sure none of the names matched with he appropriate student work.  It took a little while or them to notice, but when they did, they let me know- in no uncertain terms, that a grave error had been made and they didn't like having someone else's name on their own work.

After leading the conversation in a few circles, I pointed out that I believe this must be how authors, illustrators and photographers feel when someone takes their ideas, designs or photographs and uses them in their projects without giving them proper credit by citing sources.  "Plagiarism" is an academic vocabulary word for our second grade SAGE students. I think the students gained an understanding of the importance of crediting our sources.


Have a good week!

Surviving Frustrations & Celebrating the Challenges

We started our day by working on our mathematical problem solving skills with our individualized programming in Math Rules.   

Next, we completed our first "hands-on" problem solving challenge. Using only one pair scissors, a one inch cube of clay, an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, two drinking straws, two folder labels and six popsicle sticks the students had to create the tallest, free standing structure possible. The base of the structure also had to fit within a five inch square.

To be successful, students must be fluent, flexible thinkers. They need a steady stream of ideas and they must be able to adapt and change direction or strategy as new problems arise. We started with five minutes to brainstorming designs on their planning form and they then were given twelve minutes to actually construct their tower.

This task is very similar to the one my junior in high school did this summer at an engineering camp at Missouri S & T.  Gifted classrooms have been doing this kind of problems solving exercise for as long as I have been teaching gifted-- and certainly before that.  I was a little surprised, but very excited to see that an engineering school teaches college students some of their problem solving skills in ways very similar to our own. I told our students about it.  How cool is it to be a K-2nd grade student and be able to say you are learning and doing the same thing as an engineering major in college!

It is fun to see the room go completely silent as each student's brain is fully engaged in the task. The students used a variety of designs for their towers and most were successful. Our tallest tower, for this first attempt, was 48 cm!  (In most cases, students nearly double the height of their structure when given a second chance to accomplish this problem on another day.

Before we ever began, I told the students we rarely get through a structure problem without at least one person in tears.  I always clearly explain the task and my expectations because I don't want any student to be caught off guard by their feelings of frustration and disappointment.  Sometimes, just having the conversation first is enough to survive the task with our confidence and composure still intact.  So today, my pep talk wasn't enough.  A couple of students pretty much emotionally washed out with the final minute or two on the clock.  The reason I put a time limit on the stages of the task is:

1. The task would never end because there would always be someone that "had to have more time to finish."
2. I am intentionally raising the pressure to test the frustration level of the kids.--I need to see how they handle frustration and they need opportunities to experience it.

This task may be based on creativity, science and engineering, but the most valuable lessons for elementary children are affective.  It may sound bad at first, but from my perspective and experience, the frustration and even the tears are a positive outcome of the lesson.  Hands-on problem solving tasks develop the skills needed to solve real world problems and provide the students an opportunity to experience challenge, frustration and even failure in a "simulation" type of environment.  The pressure feels real, the students are highly motivated, a successful outcome is desired, but a failed solution comes with no real penalty. 

In this teachable moment, we can (and did) discuss how individuals positively and negatively handle frustration, stress and challenge, why some students quit and others persevere and the feelings their classmates that struggle academically might have on a regular basis. For some students, it is the "Ah Ha!" moment that enables them to empathize with their peers and avoid hurtful bragging.  Having said that, it takes a great deal of maturity and wisdom for an individual to celebrate their academic success in a way that does not make someone else feel less and so, the conversation continues...

They ended the task by evaluating their designs, construction and finished structure on their hands-on planning form.  Have your child share their planning sheet with you and let them discuss what they learned from it all.

Growing up in a culture where athletic, theatrical, musical and artistic "winners" are hailed with attention, applause, trophies and recognition it is only natural that students with academic gifts will initially seek that same response when they achieve a level of success. Although I find it to be hypocritical that is how the world is. I think it is our job as parents, teachers and advocates for bright children to guide them, model an appropriate level of humility and provide them opportunities to celebrate their success and receive genuine praise.

Next, the students met our newest Quirkle, Colorful Caroline.  We learned about primary and secondary colors and had a lot of fun with an experiment where the students

discovered black marker ink is made from a combination of several different colored inks.  Have your child tell you about their hypothesis and observations.  I also sent the materials with the students to conduct and share the experiment with you too!

Have a great weekend!

Flexible Thinkers Rise with Their Towers

See Our Possibilities

Botanist Bert's Baffling Blossoms

Botanist Bert Studies Blossoms

Boys and Girls,

Please tell me something you are learning about botanists and the study of botany.  You could also post your comment about our Quirkles' experiment and your observations.

Mrs. Koch

What Clever Children You Have!

The students continued their individual work in the TOPS Math and Math Rules programs. We also completed a creative thinking exercise to work on our flexible thinking, originality and elaboration skills. The students were each given a paper with four circles. They had to use each circle to create a very different picture. I challenged them to see if they could come up with something no one else in their class created and to be as elaborative as possible.  These drawing exercises strengthen the skills (fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration) the children will need to do real problem solving..

We went to the library to begin work on our research skills. We discussed how the Briarcliff library is arranged, the difference between fiction and non-fiction books, how to read the call number on the spine of a fictional book, what the letters mean in the call number, how the books are arranged on the shelves and the importance of being sure we put books back in their correct location and order. It is empowering to students to learn to locate books on their own. Mastery of these skills frees them to select books on topics of interest and locate specific books without having to wait for adult assistance. This is monumental for early readers and for students interested in unusual or "hard to locate" topics and information. Next week we will focus on how non-fiction books are organized. We will continue to focus on research skills over the next several weeks.

This afternoon, we met our second "Quirkle" of the year - Andy Acid!


The Quirkle's series, written by Missouri authors, is a science exploration and phonetic program. When we have Quirkle time, we will first read a story featuring one of the 26 (each letter of the alphabet) Quirkle characters and follow up with a hands-on experiment or demonstration. Each book is full of words that begin with the letter sound of the character, has rich vocabulary words, and focuses on a science topic that we may or may not be familiar with. Some of the concepts are pretty complex, but exposure to the topic is our goal! Today, Andy Acid helped us learn about acids and bases and we found out what happens when we eat too much acidic food. We made a magic formula to test for acids and bases. Ask your child to tell you about our demonstration and show you their Andy Acid science log.

Have a great week!

Quirkles Science: My First Grade Detectives

Inquisitive Inman - make slideshow

Creative Thinkers & Fledgling Bloggers

The boys and girls worked so hard today!  We started our day with a discussion on our class Blogging Guidelines.  These can be found in a new tab on our main page.  Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with them.  


We also learned how to post a comment on our blog and reviewed what makes for a quality comment (from the video by Mrs. Yollis' 3rd grade students from Los Angeles, California:  How to Compose a Quality Comment, http://vimeo.com/15695021about.)  The students then wrote a rough draft of their own comment and posted it on our Rotation D blog.  They did a wonderful job!  If you have a moment, check out their thoughts.


I explained that our blog is an academic blog and should not be used as a social network.  I want to avoid students spending large amounts of time just socializing here.  I want them to post comments on their learning and "Ah Ha!" moments.  The source of their learning and revelations can be from within or outside of school.  Ideally, I would like to see students post a comment from home once or twice a week.  In the beginning, their comments may not be very sophisticated.  With instruction, practice and encouragement, your child will gain a desire to share their ideas and opinions with others and the skills to do it through our blog.  Blogging provides a real world platform for students to improve not only their reading and writing skills, but also the technology skills 21st Century Learners will need.  


Please encourage your child to share their enthusiasm and experiences from rich learning moments.  At this age, they will need your support and assistance with proof reading their comments prior to clicking that "publish" button.  In the next week or so, I will try to get a screen cast tutorial made on how to post a comment to our blog for those parents and grandparents that would like directions.  By all means, encourage your child's grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested adults to post their thoughts on our blog!     I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

We have struggled with problems between Internet Explorer and Blogger.  From my research, Safari and FireFox seem to be a good match to Blogger, but IE has had problems working with it.  Many of you may have tried to post a comment only to have it erased, without your post going through.  Thanks to our IT department, I think we have finally found a "fix."  Please let me know if you are ever having difficulties with the blog.  A lot of this is new for me too, so in some cases, the kids and I are learning together.  (I hope you don't mind being dragged along with us!)  If you have a working knowledge of blogs and have any suggestions or ideas, please pass them along to me!

The students continued their individual work in Math Rules, TOPS Math and Exploratory today.  Ask your child about their current task.  I continue to encourage them to take their time for their personal best effort.  In the afternoon, they learned/reviewed the rules for brainstorming.  They individually "things you might find in a pocket."  They were very fluent and original in their ideas!


We ended our day with a Quirkles Science lesson on Inquisitive Inman.  Check out our new vocabulary words and our experiment in the slide show I am posting today.


Have a great week!

Our First Commenting Challenge

Boys and Girls,
 Today we talked about posting a quality comment. Remembering the tips we discussed, try posting your first comment here. I would like for you to share a fact or two that you have learned at your Exploratory Center. What project are you working on? Which projects are you hoping to do at this center?

If you would like to view the video again, click on the link below: Mrs. Yollis' video,  How to Compose a Quality Comment, 

http://vimeo.com/15695021

Capsela Exploratory- First Grade Classmate

Exploratory Capsela from Julie Koch on Vimeo.

Exploring Tagxedo

As a part of our affective investigation to learn more about ourselves and our classmates, we spent some time this morning reflecting on our interests, influences and personality traits.  We used our afternoon computer lab time to create an electronic word cloud that tells others about us.  These will also be on display at our Open House this Thursday, October 6th.  Although the students are anxious to share their work with you, you will have to wait until Open House.  To give you an idea of what a word cloud is, and to give you some more information about me, my personal word cloud is below.  I'm sure you will enjoy what your child created! 

The students continued their individual work in TOPS Math problem solving and Exploratory.  Ask your child about their current task and progress. 

The students were also introduced to the Components of Creativity:

• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration

Some questions have only one answer:  Who was our 16th President of the the United States?

Some questions have many answers:  What are all of the ways you might have gotten to school today?

When I asked our students this second question, they jumped straight to creative, unusual, and original ideas.  The first response to my question was, "by sky diving"- Great idea Caleb!  This set the foundation for divergent thinking!  Abigayle then suggested, "by zip-line!"  (I am so loving this group!)  A portion of the rest of their list included:

1. submarine
2. rocket
3. skateboard
4. secret passageway 
5. blimp
6. elephant
7. magic carpet
8. piggy-back-ride
9. mining tunnel
10. zebra

...and about 20 more!  This is a pretty impressive and certainly creative list generated by 1st graders.  Especially considering this was our first brainstorming exercise of the year!  Ask your child to brainstorm more ideas for you.

I hope to see you all at our Open House this Thursday evening!  Also, be sure you have gone to our Google Doc to sign up for a parent conference.  If you need the link, please email me and I will resend it.

Have a wonderful week!

Our First Day of Exploratory Centers

We got a lot of work done today!

We started our day working in the Math Rules problem solving program.  We are focusing on finding the important information in the word problem and in the illustration.  We also discussed the key words that tell us if we need to add or subtract and ways we can show our thinking.

Next, using Microsoft Word as our tool, the students worked to type their paragraph.  Along the way, we learned to use the "tab" key to indent, the space bar to space appropriately between words and after punctuation, right-click to correct spelling errors and to save and print our documents.  When they completed typing their paragraph, they we able to format their font for style.  Their paragraphs look great!

After recess and lunch, the students began working in their Exploratory area.  The students who were present were able to complete the Knowledge and Comprehension level tasks.  They are now able to select any of the remaining tasks to complete.  Ask your child to tell you about their center work and a fact or two they learned about their topic. 

Monet

 Color

 Capsela Robotics

Next the students reviewed our procedures for using the TOPS Math Problems Solving Program and began their individualized work.   We ended our day working on an open-ended critical thinking exercise that focused on flexible thinking.  It takes time and practice but everyone can improve their divergent to thinking abilities.

One area in which almost all of my students need to work is "doing their very best!"  It takes time to adjust to the expectations in our class.  Many of the students tend to rush through their work.  This results in careless mistakes, less elaboration, messier work and a general reduction in the quality of their projects/assignments.  Please remind your child I am looking for their personal best effort, especially on final draft projects, Exploratory tasks and problem solving exercises.  With patience and attention to detail they will be surprised by the quality of work with which they can achieve.

SAGE: Day 2 and we are getting closer to knowing what we are doing...

Rotation D students had a great second day/week of SAGE.  They worked really hard today!  I was really impressed with their efforts and accomplishments!

At the start of our day, we discussed our SAGE class rules and expectations. I shared with the students that SAGE is somewhat like brain aerobics class (minus the sweat- LOL.) The work they do here should challenge them and hopefully, frustrate them from time to time. It is not supposed to be painful, but it is intended to stretch their abilities, take them out of their comfort zone and test the way they handle frustration. The safety net is close, although sometimes camouflaged. I need to know what they can handle and so do they.

Each week, the work they do in our room should be hard enough that they are missing at least one or two problems/questions. If they are getting everything correct, I will bump up the level of difficulty until they are missing some. I want to get them to their individual, instructional levels. All of our work (particularly in math and critical thinking) is done over until it is correct. I give small hints if they ask. If I feel like they are becoming too frustrated, I will set down with them and work through the problem. I've told them our classroom is a safe place to try something new and a safe place to fail. I try very hard to watch that a student is not getting too stressed, but I sometimes miss the signs. If your child expresses that SAGE is too hard, please contact me so we can talk about it with him or her.

This week, the students began the rough draft paragraph about their aspirations for the future. We discussed indenting, the position and purpose of a topic sentence, supporting details and a conclusion sentence. All of the students finished this draft. They also finished their picture of what they would like to be when they grow up as well as their construction paper head.  (Yes, that sounds weird, but they are oh so cute!)  Next week, they will begin typing the written explanation of their goals. We hope to have this completed by our October 6th Open House.

Next, we discussed Bloom's Levels of Thinking and what each level might look like. I introduced our Exploratory centers and the students had an opportunity to look through the choices and list their top three picks. Each student met with me to be sure their first choice center is a good fit for them. Ask your child which center he/she will be beginning on our next SAGE day?

Our time flies by, but I feel like they accomplished a lot.

First Grade First Day!

Our First SAGE Day of the Year!

I was excited to begin our year with this K/1st grade SAGE class! It is a tiny group with only five students. (This is very typical for the start of school as these little guys have hardly been in school long enough to be noticed, tested and identified. Fear not, by November their numbers will have grown enough to give me a new stress wrinkle!)

We reviewed arrival procedures and spent some time sharing about our summer and our interests with a Skittles activity. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their summer break. Some of us stayed closer to home going to water parks with friends, Royals baseball games with grandparents and the Nelson Art Gallery to see the Monet exhibit. Fishing seemed to be a vacation theme running through the group. We discussed kayaking and swimming in Minnesota, catching walleye with leeches (--"not the blood sucking kind," or so I am told,) discovering dead jellyfish, dismembered crab legs and dead gastropods along the cold beaches in Oregon (--the previous details shared with joy, enthusiasm and sense of curiosity), and boating and fishing in California. Some families ventured further from home, exploring Knob Noster, St. Louis, the Omaha Zoo, the mountains of Colorado and castles in England and Scotland. I decided I could live without the leeches and dead and dismembered animals, however, all of their summer tales sounded much more interesting than my own.

Next, the students put on their "thinking cap" and played detective to see what they could discover about me. We passed around my purse and everyone retrieved an item from the contents and tried to analyze it to see what they could learn from it. Zachary discovered my new, teeny, tiny video camera and noted I like to take pictures. They were excited to learn I bought it for them to use this year on our technology projects. Camila dissected my wallet and learned, my middle name is Anne- from my driver's license, I probably wasn't buying my lunch because I had a paltry $3.00 in the contents, and I shop at Game Stop (because I had my son's Power Up card.) LOL Caleb found out I have a Dog named Elsie who is due for some shots by reading the veterinarian's reminder postcard. Abigayle chose my checkbook and found out my husband's name and the street on which I live. Cora, an apparent digital native, pulled my iPhone from the purse and knew just how to analyze its contents. While the others were sharing, she browsed my iTunes collection, evaluated the appeal of my gaming apps, made it through most of my picture library and landed on a video of my daughter's harp recital! She drew all sorts of conclusions about me! I'd say they make pretty good first grade detectives!

Next, we went the computer lab, reviewed the parts of the computer, the related vocabulary words and how to find our way around the network. The students learned to locate their personal folders on the shared drive. They each added and named a new folder inside for future photos. Then they opened and named a blank Microsoft Word document. They typed their full name and grade and then learned to format the font for size, style (bold, underline & Italics) and color. Our thirty minute lab times fly by quickly! I am looking forward to expanding our technology skills this year, continuing our discussions on being safe and responsible on the Internet and starting down the path to becoming twenty-first century learners.

After a sunny recess and lunch, they started their individualized work. The students completed an analytical thinking worksheet as a part of our critical thinking program. They also began the Math Rules problem solving program.

Next, we began an affective project where the students will share some of their aspirations and dreams for their future. They drew a picture of what they would like to be when they grow up. Next week, they will continue working on this project and begin their written explanation of their goals. We hope to have this completed by our October 6th Open House.

We ended our day discussing what it means to have a blog and to be a blogger. The students watched the brief video on our home page to learn more. Finally, we looked over the the parts of our blog and how to navigate around the site. We also discussed ways in which they will be able to contribute to our class blog. Our day was over before we knew it!

We hope you will follow our adventures here. Feel free to share your thoughts by posting comments. You are also welcome to email me with questions and/or concerns. Please sign your child's Take Home Folder and encourage them to return it on our next SAGE day.

Have a wonderful week!