Pre-break Wrap-Up

Spontaneous Problem:  Name things that work upside down.
Boundary Breaker:  What does the author of this quote mean?

Today we did a lot of wrapping up to get ready for our winter break.  Students finished their Roman mosaics and were able to use any early finisher time to explore some of their interest sparks assigned to them on Thrively.  

For research, we worked on using our sources to write notes highlighting our discoveries about our cultural universals in the civilization of our choice.  These notes were recorded in our interactive notebooks in our own words to lay the foundation for our research placards we will begin after break.

We wrapped up our base 3 lesson in the Land of Treble as students practiced communicating their ideas and understandings by writing their responses to some problem solving prompts brought up in the lesson.

We also had some fun playing brain games for indoor recess.

The Land of Treble

Spontaneous Problem:  Name things that turn.
Boundary Breaker: You are being sent back in time to the ancient civilization that you chose to research.  You can only take one item with you.  What would you take with you and why?

Starting off, we practiced our questioning skills to discover the hidden item in our mystery box. We found a postcard from the Roman Colosseum from our friend Mrs. Clarkson! You can check out her recent travels to the area here! Next we looked at a project exemplar featuring Roman art and created our own Roman mosaic artifacts.

For research today, we focused on the "I" of our F.I.N.D.S. method and students investigated different online and text sources for their research. We practice correct citations and began our preliminary note taking.

For math, 3rd graders kicked off Chapter 2 on grouping. We visited the alien land of Treble where they use a base 3 number system. Students practiced making trades among their place values and played a dice game to be the first player to reach 1 Trickle!

FINDS Research

Spontaneous Problem: Come up with as many words as you can that have numbers hidden in them...Ex: Tue(2)sday, Fore(4)cast
Boundary Breaker:  Humpty Dumpty was pushed!  Who did it and why?

Today was quite the mix!  Students were challenged to build a paper illusion by only looking at a model.  As they worked on the challenging task, I  took notes on the language I heard and strategies used and we discussed my notes in our debrief about maintaining a growth mindset even while struggling.

We also learned to play the code breaking game, Mastermind, as we focused on using information to make a logical decision as critical thinkers.  They really enjoyed this and were getting pretty good at using their clues to eliminate possibilities!  We played the old fashioned way but to play at home, you can use this link!

Our ancient civilizations project focus today was looking at the FINDS model of research.  We are using the FINDS checklist to help students address the task in a step by step manor.  They were able to explore sources helpful to their topic on our Symbaloo Site and begin to use their digital notebooks for citing sources and note taking.

Research checklist: FINDS

Focus

_____ Civilization you will research ______________

_____ Topic (Cultural Universal ) you will research ________________

Investigate and choose resources

_____ Explore Symbaloo web site and choose web sites

_____ Explore books and choose books to use for research

_____ Site the sources that were used in taking notes

Notes

_____ Type notes in the digital notebook about your cultural universal from the resources  chosen

_____ Describe at least 3 artifacts that are part of your cultural universal

Develop notes into project

_____ Write a research paragraph on your topic from your notes

_____ Create an artifact, model or visual about your topic

Score work

_____ Complete check list

_____ Rubric

_____ Reflection

We wrapped up the day by taking a second look at our math check-ups to make corrections and review some of the errors and misunderstandings that we had.  In general students did very well!

Interactive Notebooks

Spontaneous Problem:  What could this be?

  

Boundary Breaker: Which is more valuable to an archaeologist-a copper coin or a gold brick?  Why?

Today we took a look at our upcoming research project which focuses on a cultural universal of one of our four ancient civilizations.  Students seemed excited to select their civilization and discover more about life inthe past.  From their study, they will be creating an artifact model that they will be able to display along with a museum style placard.  The placard will show off their research and highlight the archaeological find and what it reveals about the culture from which it came.

We also learned about primary and secondary sources and source citation as we warmed up with some research practice.  Students took a deeper look into our timeline study from last week and defined the terms chronology, era, period, century, and decade.  We got to explore our interactive notebook tool that we will use for note taking and to help us organize our research findings.  You can take a look at the project rubric here.

I am proud to share our completed Where I'm From poems for your reading pleasure!

George Ella Lyon's Where I'm From poem
Kamari's Where I'm From poem
Elijah's Where I'm From poem
McCrary's Where I'm From poem
Emerson's Where I'm From poem
Kiley's Where I'm From poem
Kate's Where I'm From poem

Ancient Civilizations World Tour

Spontaneous Problem: Name things that shine.
Boundary Breaker: Which smells better, a rotten egg, or a sweet skunk?

Springing from the cultural universals we discovered last week, students were able to act as time travelers stopping off at Ancient Egypt for a view of the pyramids, and then on to Ancient China to see the making of the terracotta warriors.  Our next stop was Ancient Greece to walk through the columns of the Parthenon, and finally to Rome for a contest of gladiators in the Colosseum.  Students rotated through our civilization stations to get a glimpse of each culture.  They collected facts and stamped their passports as they selected the civilization that they would like to dig deeper into in their upcoming research project.  As a class we looked at the where and when of each civilization and added them to our timeline.  Students also got to explore online resources to help them make their final choice.  Here are some links if they are interested in further exploration at home.

Ancient Civilizations Maps http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/imaps/

Ancient Egypt: http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

Discover Ancient Egypt: http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/games/discover-ancient-egypt/

Discover Ancient Egypt: http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/games/discover-ancient-egypt/

Exploring Ancient China: http://www.historyforkids.net/ancient-china.html

Ancient Greece: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/z87tn39

Guide to Ancient Greece: http://www.historyforkids.net/ancient-greece.html

Discover Ancient Rome: http://www.historyforkids.net/ancient-rome.html

Roman Empire: http://www.historyforkids.net/ancient-rome.html

Discover the Romans: http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/games/discover-the-romans/

We also spent some time completing our Chapter 1 math Check-up and completing our first quarter self-assessments.  You will see both of those coming home soon!

Cultural Universals

Spontaneous Problem:  Name things that have an end.
Boundary Breaker: If you could change one thing about our school, what would it be?  How would it help everyone?

In math today we put a twist on our Some Sum game and turned it into Some Difference.  Students were asked to build a subtraction problem with the largest difference from four randomly chosen digit cards.  We added the terms minuend and subtrahend to our math vocabulary and used math talk to explain our strategies.  Students considered if there was more than one way to land on the biggest difference and how the place value of each digit came into play.  We were having such fun that we extended the game one step further to consider the best strategy for landing on a difference that came closest to 20.

As we head into our study of ancient civilizations, we took time today to complete our Shipwrecked game.  Students chose the necessary items for survival and considered basic needs to live and how those needs develop as a society becomes more established.  They saw the progress from finding food, water, and shelter, to creating laws, division of labor, and even recreation.  We read the book Westlandia, by Paul Fleischman to look at Wesley and his journey of creating his own civilization.  This brought to light our nine cultural universals: geography, family, economics, communication, government, recreation, beliefs, education, and resources (food. clothing, shelter).

Some Sum

Spontaneous Problem:  Your feet have become triangles!! What now??
Boundary Breaker: Which is softer- a whisper or a kitten's fur?

Today we had some fun extending our digit game from last week.  Students drew 4 numbers and considered strategies to place them in two addends and build the biggest sum to win.  We got to consider place value, the commutative property, and look at how many different ways we could build the largest sum.  Next week we'll play the game in reverse with subtraction!

Our work this far has lead us through the exploration of our own past, the exploration of South Carolina's past (that we will engage with more at our upcoming field study), and now to the exploration of ancient past- all through the lens of archaeology. We began the kick-off to our study of ancient civilizations by looking at cultural universals in our game Shipwrecked.  Students had to distinguish the most important things for survival in a new society, and how nine basic elements become evident in every culture.  Next week we will finish our game and see how well we did at building our own civilization!

Digit Dilema

Spontaneous Problem:  Animal Rhymes

Boundary Breaker:  Make a simile to complete the sentence...The Past is like _____ because ______.

In our math unit, students competed to build the largest two digit number in our game Card Capers. Students had a tens space and ones space to fill as well as a discard space. When a 0-9 card was turned, they placed the digits one at a time in the space of their choice. without being able to switch and not knowing what the next flip would reveal.  We talked about strategies and the place value of digits affecting their magnitude.  Students were tasked with finding out how many two digit numbers could be created, considering there was only one of each number and zero could not be used in the tens place without resulting in a single digit number.  There was lots of great idea sharing and discussion!  We are continuing to work on expressing our thinking and problem solving in writing that is clear and uses mathematical language.  

We got to finish our archaeology Nearpod project to learn the order of events at a dig site, how it is chosen, and the tools that are used.  We also got to identify some artifacts of our own by playing Arctic Artifacts online.

Students also had a chance to finish their "Where I'm From" poems and complete their Thrively strength assessments!

Archaeology

Spontaneous Problem: Name things you can catch.

Boundary Breaker: After watching the You Can Learn Anything Video, students responded with the idea about learning that struck them the most.

We also added a new element to our morning Morphic Thinking Routine by learning to hunt out patterns in our Set Game tutorial.

Today may have been the best yet!  Our big focus was on Archaeology.  We read the book Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke.  That gave us insights into how archaeology is done. Then students were able to model the organized process by simulating a dig site, dividing it into coordinate squares, excavating, and recording the location of artifacts that were discovered.  Our "dig site" just happened to be a pan of cosmic brownies. 

Here are the key takeaways:

• Archaeologist don't just dig holes, but carefully organized and measured grid squares.
• Most excavated finds look more like trash than treasure.
• Archaeologist work slowly and carefully with small tools that won't damage their finds.
• Careful record keeping is a must.  Knowing where something was found can help explain why it was there and what it was used for.
• An artifact is anything that has been made by man.  
• Midden is ordinary waste from archaic life.
• A feature is archaeological evidence of a place or dwelling.
• All artifacts are carefully bagged and numbered to be taken to the laboratory.
• Carefully mapping your findings in an area helps give a bigger picture of what the space looked like years ago.
• In the lab, artifacts are carefully measured, examined, and tested.  Archaeologists spend more time in a lab than at a dig site.

We also were able to prepare further for our upcoming field study by doing some research and activities using our chromebooks and Nearpod software.  Students build their archaeology vocabulary and knowledge of tools of the trade.  We also took a sneak peek at our field study guides and expectations for the trip.  

Exploration and Critical Thinking

Spontaneous Problem of the day: Name things that are hidden.
Boundary Breaker of the day: Is being gifted right side-up or upside-down?
Brain stretch practice: Analogies

We focused today on qualities of critical thinkers.  We discovered that a critical thinker needs to...

• Be fair
• Be accurate
• Be clear
• Be relevant
• Be logical

We used videos from the Children's Guide to Critical Thinking to highlight different types of thinkers...

• Naive Nancy- Doesn't care about thinking, follows the crowd, takes the easy road
• Selfish Sam- Uses thinking to manipulate others and get his way
• Fair-minded Fran- Thinks to understand and solve problems, considers others

Students were able to take some notes and share examples that helped them realize the benefits of practicing critical thinking.

We also engaged more with our year-long theme, Exploration.  We read the book, Why Explore by Susan Lendroth and students brainstormed and discussed reasons why people explore and how there is an innate explorer in all of us.

Students got to use our new Nearpod accounts to participate in our interactive lesson that got them started on their "Where I'm From" poems.  They are modeling their writing off the poem of the same name by George Ella Lyon.  I am hoping to be able to share some completed poems on our blog next week!

Lastly, students took their strength assessments as a prerequisite for beginning to interact with our Thrively online content.

Maneki Neko and Managing Impulsivity

This morning we warmed up with the Spontaneous problem, "What do you need to Explore?"  and shared about some of our own recent discoveries.  Students were able to share their personal artifacts and think about assumptions future archaeologists might make if they uncovered their item 3,00 years from now.

Next we got to crack open our M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) text in order to begin unraveling the case of the Moli Stone.  This ficticious stone was just uncovered in an archaeological dig in China.  Throughout the unit, students will build on their knowledge of place value and number systems in order to decode the symbols and unravel their hidden meaning.  Today we counted the change in a Maneki Neko bank and explored the different combinations we could use to total the 47 cents we found using only dimes and pennies.  Ask your student about the rule they discovered.  I am already impressed with their ability to problem solve, identify patterns, and communicate their thinking!

Our Habit of Mind focus was on Managing Impulsivity.  We read My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook.  Students then practiced managing their impulsivity as they participated in a relay race to come up with the biggest list of good and bad examples of the skill.

ALERT 101

     This week we kicked off our morning routine of Morphic Thinking where students warm-up with a spontaneous problem and boundary breaker.  We will be including these weekly.

Spontaneous Problem: A spontaneous problem is a brainstorming type problem to be solved in a specific amount of time and scored according to the number and creativity of responses generated. The point is to challenge students to be flexible thinkers, to elaborate on original ideas and to think fluently and creatively about a specific topic.

Today's Spontaneous Problem: What could you find on the imaginary planet, Twinkle?

Boundary Breaker:  A boundary breaker is a group experience which works toward creating a sense of community. Students gain an awareness of and respect for the opinion of others by the use of questions that go beyond superficial depth and have no right/wrong answers.

Today's Boundary Breaker: What is thinking? Why is thinking important?

     One big part of our day was devoted to introducing Art Costa's Habits of Mind.  We discussed habits, good and bad, and discussed these as those identified in the most successful leaders.  Students played Bingo to match the description to the positive character trait.  What a bunch of Smarties!

     Also on our agenda was a team challenge with some problems that required a second look.  I want students to view failure as part of the learning process.  Maybe they shared some at home with you!  We read My Fantastic Elastic Brain and talked about how trying new and difficult things can help stretch and grow your brain.

     We finished by looking at the four components of creativity and our mascots, The Nerds, who encourage you to "feed your imagination".  We used flexibility to look at a doodle from many perspectives.  We used fluency as we brainstormed many ideas the doodle could become.  Then we narrowed it down to our most original idea.  Finally students added detail to elaborate on their picture.

   
Another great day is in the books!

First Day Fun!

I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone today!  We went over some ALERT staples, talked a little about why we are here and rights as a gifted learner, and did a pre-assessment for our numeration math unit.  Students had some creative answers for the This or That get to know you game.  Hopefully it prompts some entertaining dinner conversation when it comes home next week. Finally we searched the room for clues leading us to the "Key to Success"  this year in ALERT. Student solved codes and puzzles highlighting some of the things they will experience in our classroom through the course of the year.  They managed to beat the clock and uncover the hidden key: Curiosity!  Next week we will look more into our year-long theme of exploration.

Our ALERT banner

Pouring over a clue.

Cracking the lock code.

Revealing the Key to Success!