What Is All This New Technology in the Classroom?

You may have heard from your children that we have recently acquired a class set of iPads, or you may have heard rumblings that self-contained suddenly has some new technology. Where did it come from? Who paid for it? Who gets to use it?

Earlier this year, the self-contained team created a technology proposal. Mrs. Woodard (3rd grade s-c) spearheaded a phenomenal written proposal which outlined exactly what the team felt would benefit the s-c students most. I created a movie, demonstrating the rapidly changing world of elementary school and the unique needs of highly gifted learners. We are incredibly lucky that our proposal was accepted and we have been granted MacBook Pros, iPads, iPod touches and iMacs.  As you can imagine, this is an incredible opportunity and a huge undertaking. We are absolutely thrilled! I actually feel like we are technology pioneers and am looking forward to designing a curriculum around this amazing new equipment.

Many of you have recently asked how you can help with resources since the 2010 tax year is coming to a close.  If you are looking to assist us with technology needs we would appreciate any monetary donations to the classroom or to the PVUSD Self-Contained Gifted Program. If you are making a donation specifically to the classroom, there is a Request for Acceptance of Donation and Gifts form in the front office.  You can also donate at the Gifted Ed Website and you may specify Sonoran Sky in your donation.     

Watch the movie below and you may see some very familiar faces...

Barnes & Noble Night - Tomorrow!

December

Wow, it's nearly December! We have only 15 more days of school before Winter Break. My focus these next three weeks will to be to keep the class in as much of their usual routine as possible. There are many special events coming up so it will be a challenge!

Scholastic Book Orders will be sent home tomorrow and are due back Friday. I will have these orders expedited so the books will be here prior to Winter Break. 

In Language Arts we are starting to prepare for the WordMasters Challenge. The WordMasters Challenge is a fun and mind-stretching classroom competition for Language Arts students in grades 3 - 12. My class is involved because we work at least two grade levels beyond. Over 4,200 school teams, from 50 states, participated last year. Unlike other language-arts contests, which emphasize grammar and punctuation, this competition addresses higher-level word-comprehension and logical abilities and helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. 

Tomorrow we will review what we know about analogies and will continue exercises and strategies. The test will be given in the classroom during the school day and even though no one in my class is in 3rd grade yet, all students will be participating. I will follow up with more information about this closer to the meet. 

In math, the students are very much differentiated but we are continuing to learn about units of measure and geometry as a whole group and are also on the road to wrapping up the subtraction challenge. We will start the multiplication challenge after the New Year. 

As part of Social Studies we will be talking about customs and traditions of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa but if your family celebrates a different holiday I would be glad to incorporate it into the unit. Please let me know! Also, you are welcome and invited to bring in an activity that shares a special holiday or tradition that your family celebrates. Learning about other families and cultures is important in our classroom.  The kids are always very excited about the holiday season and would be thrilled to have a visitor come in and share some knowledge. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or if you are interesting in doing a holiday project with the class. 

Virtual Field Trip

Did you know we visited Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts earlier this week?

During this virtual trip, we learned why Plimoth Plantation and Plymouth, Massachusetts are spelled differently, what was (probably) eaten at the first Thanksgiving and details about the treacherous Mayflower journey. 

Students took notes during the webcast, marking new vocabulary. 

Blown Away

What do you get when you add...

Half of a cup of dish soap

One quarter cup of corn syrup

One and a half cups of water

And gently stir...

Stir some more

Keep stirring!

Ask your child what we did next! 

Key vocabulary we learned includes: tension, surface, flexible and elastic.

This was a very serious project and no one had any fun at all.

Bubble Window! 

Quarter 2 Book Report

Yesterday We Were In Front of the Camera...

...and today we were behind it! 

We were treated to an incredible photography lesson this afternoon. After a classroom presentation and instructions on how to use the equipment, students headed out to the school pond to practice their new skills. Click below to see a brief slideshow of our adventures in photography.

And through the eyes of a child... here are a few actual photos taken by one of the students this afternoon. Pretty great!  Thank you, Mrs. Kolker, for an incredible experience!

Five Minutes of Fame

I captured a few of the students being interviewed regarding their recipes. It was fun and exciting for us and I will let you know as soon as the finished product is complete.

Weekly Update

We learned about fractions using Legos. What fraction of this Lego tower is blue?

In Language Arts we will be starting our first Literature Study of the year. We will be reading Thanksgiving on Thursday and doing many higher level thinking activities based on this historical fiction. At some point this week or next week, we will be doing a readers theater of Arthur's Thanksgiving. 

In Math we started the Three Minute Subtraction Challenge and students have been flying through the facts! In class this week we will also be discussing, reviewing and practicing some problem solving strategies for CML word problems.

I have a fun, hands-on Science experiment planned for this week. We will be creating bubble soap and making and observing "bubble windows". Students will learn about surface tension and flexibility. This project is sure to be good, clean fun. Ha! :)

In Social Studies we will continue discussing and learning about the first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag people, the Mayflower, etc. Much of this unit has been self-directed student research, which the class has really enjoyed.

As a very special treat this week, we have a professional photographer coming in to teach us about digital photography. Mrs. Kolker taught several digital photography after school enrichment classes, which garnered rave reviews from participating students. I am really excited about this 21st century learning opportunity!

Monday morning students with permission will be interviewed regarding their turkey recipes. When the project is finished I will be sure to post a link.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a super week!

Apple Action

Fun Is In Session!

Our Apple Store field trip today was a huge success! Thanks so much to all the wonderful parent helpers who were part of this exciting experience. Students learned how to create a soundtrack using Garage Band.  At the end of the lesson their project(s) were burned to a CD for them to keep. Possibly the most exciting part of the trip was when we received lots of applause and loud cheering as we filed out of the store. (I don't think it because we were leaving.) Students kept mentioning their "standing ovation" for the rest of the day.

Click the slideshow below to see a few photos that I snapped.

Another slideshow by Smilebox

November

This will be a very busy and quick month! We have this Thursday, November 11th off from school in honor of Veterans Day and Thanksgiving recess is November 25 - 26.

Pilgrim mosaics from math class.

This Friday, November 12th is "Friendly Friday". Parents are welcome to join us in the classroom from 9:15am - 9:45am. I will be off site this Friday at a school leadership meeting all day, but the guest teacher will still facilitate "Friendly Friday".

Students researched the history of Thanksgiving online and wrote down interesting facts.

This week we will be learning about Garage Band, the history of Thanksgiving and geometry and measurement. In accordance with Arizona State Standards we have been doing some functional writing and started writing some Thanksgiving recipes which will will revise and illustrate this week.

A little bit later this month we will be taking a virtual field trip to Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns! :)