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