May 19th and 20th

Here are a few of the things we did... This Week In Gifted!

Hands Up!

The big excitement this week (ok maybe it wasn't THAT exciting) was that you can now raise your hand in a Teams meeting!  When students want to add to the discussion, it can be hard because we can't see everybody at once.  Now there is a 'hand' icon that you can select which allows everyone to see that your hand is up.  Neat.  We were also able to see more than 4 people at one time, which was great.

Getting Creative

Each week in our Teams classes we do a short game.  This week we played 'When Suddenly...', a storytelling activity where we each take turns adding to the story.  You have to listen well to what others have already said, and carry the story forward.  We had some very interesting and fun stories! 

Scratch

The students have all been creating in Scratch and picking up new coding skills.  Please check out our Studio here.  Click on any of the projects to try them out.  You can go full screen and you can also select the 'See Inside' button to see the computer programming that went into creating each project.  Many of the projects make great use of audio, so don't mute your mics!  Some of the projects are complete and others are still in progress. 

During our Teams classes students have sought help on how accomplish different tasks in their programs and they've shared successes.  Some resources that were shared this week:

• Tutorials -- the Scratch site has tutorials on how to animate a sprite, make your own Pong game and much more.  You can access the tutorials here.
• The question was asked: how do I end a game when a specific number of points is reached?  This page offers some ways to approach the problem.

Lesson Slides

Below are the lesson slides for this week, in case there is anything students or parents would like to refer to (link).

For Next Week

I've asked the students to continue to explore Scratch.  If they have a larger project they've been working on, great, they can continue to add to it.  If they would like to try some of the other activities that I've loaded in CS First they can do that, or they can check out the Scratch tutorials mentioned above and try something from there.  The key is to learn some more coding skills and have fun :-)

Next week we will have our last class for this year.  Normally we'd have an in class celebration with goodies, but alas, not this year.  I've suggested the students celebrate though by wearing something 'suitable' -- a crazy costume, goofy wig or glasses.  If dressing up is not their thing, how about bringing along a favourite stuffy or item to add to the celebratory vibe.

May 12th and 13th, 2020

Here are some of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

Lesson Slides

Each week now I will be posting the lesson slides that I've gone over with students in class, so that students can refer back to them if need be and that parents can check out if they have questions.  Below are this week's slides (link).

Scratch Projects

It has been great to see the class studio in Scratch fill up with the projects students have been working on.  You can check out the studio here. 

If students encounter issues with Scratch, please let me know as soon as possible.  Some students have reached out to me directly in Teams with their questions and so have some parents.  You can also e-mail me.  In some cases, using Teams, I've been able to have students share their screens with me which has allowed me to see what they see and then problem solve the issue.

Students are encouraged to continue their learning in Scratch this week.  They can add to a project they've started, or explore some of the other coding activities on the CS First site.  Based on student feedback, I've added a section on CS First on Game Design.  Students are not required to do all of the activities on the CS First site.  They are available for students to explore, to hopefully learn some more coding skills and to have fun.

Looking Ahead

I plan to wrap up our online classes at the end of May.  Normally this week would have been the wrap up week and today I would be recovering from eating too many cupcakes and other goodies from the wrap up celebrations!  In June I will be sending home year end progress reports and arranging to meet, likely virtually, with parents for the year end inclusive education plan (IEP) meetings.  

Thank you for checking in to see what we've been up to.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

  

Lesson Slides

Here are some of the things that we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Wow, this whole learning and teaching from home has been interesting!  Thank you to students and parents for being patient as I've worked on different ways of engaging with the students.

Weekly Class Meetings
Moving forward my plan is to continue meeting with students once a week on Teams.

• Giant's Head Group: Tuesdays at 1pm
• Penticton Morning Group: Wednesdays at 10am
• Penticton Afternoon Group: Wednesdays at 1pm  

 I will aim to keep the sessions to 30 - 40 minutes in length.  In the sessions I have been:

• providing the opportunity for students to share any updates on what they are doing
• we've met family pets and we can't wait wait to meet a new puppy next week :-)
•  going over the Scratch projects students have been working on
• playing a short game -- this week it was "What's the Difference".  Students were on camera, then went off camera to change one thing about their appearance.  When they came back we had to guess what was different.  Usually it was something subtle, but one student came back looking similar to this guy!

Guy in an Air Dancer Costume -- Amazon

Lesson Slideshows
Starting this week, my goal will be to create a slideshow for each class in Teams, that I can then share here.  That way the information and links that I've shared with students are also available to parents.

This week's Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes (link):


This week's Wednesday morning class (link):


I am also continually updating this document with links to "How To" videos for what we've been doing in Scratch.  Students (and parents) are encouraged to get in touch with me if they have any questions.  Questions can be e-mailed to me, or posted in Teams.  I will try to respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to, and I look forward to seeing the students again next week!

 
 

April 11th, 2020

April 11th, 2020

I was able to touch base with all of the families in the Gifted Program this week.  It was great talking to everyone and to hear how families are adjusting to school from home.  Next week I look forward to starting up virtual classes with students.  An e-mail will be coming out shortly with info on how to join the sessions.

Math Enrichment

I wanted to highlight a resource that may be of interested to families who are looking for enrichment opportunities in math.  Thank you to parent Lindsay for bringing it to my attention.  The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC), out of the University of Waterloo, has lots of great activities.  Of particular interest is CEMC at Home.  It is described on their website as follows:

CEMC at Home has been developed to support teachers, students and parents during these challenging times. Most weekdays, we will post something for each of four grade levels: Grade 4 to 6, Grade 7/8, Grade 9/10 and Grade 11/12. The goal is to provide a wide variety of fun and educational ways to do mathematics and computer science while at home practicing social distancing. The resources will include games, new problems to solve, applications, videos, pointers to existing materials and more.

The resources are for kids in grades 4 and up, but many of the grade 2s and 3s would be able to handle the questions.  The CEMC resources that I have used in the past have been really well written, and they provide detailed solutions.  Some of the parents may remember writing math contests back when they were in high school (the Gauss, Pascal, Cayley, Fermat, Euclid contests); these are run by the CEMC.

Brain Teasers

Now for everyone who needs to have their brains teased...
Answers to the brain teasers are at the end of this post.

Three Lightbulbs and Three Switches
There are three light switches outside of a room– labeled number one, number two, and number three. The door to the room is closed and you can’t see in. All three switches are off.

You need to figure out which switch belongs to which bulb. You can use the switches however you want to, but can only enter the room once. How do you do it? 





Riddles:

1. A clerk at the butcher shop is six feet tall and wears size 10 shoes. What does he weigh?  
2. A farmer has 19 sheep on his land. One day, a big storm hits and all but seven run away. How many sheep does the farmer have left? 
3. Your sock drawer only contains 18 white socks and 18 blue socks. How many times do you need to reach inside the drawer and take out a sock to guarantee a matching pair?

Matchstick Puzzle - Spot the Twins

 How long does it take you to spot the two identical triangles?
















Answers are below.  

Thanks for checking out this post, and I look forward to seeing the students online in a couple of days!
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"Are you sure you're ready?"

                          










                              
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Answers
Three Lightbulbs
- First a hint: if we were doing this in person I could let you know if your were getting warmer or colder with your answers

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Now the light bulbs and switches answer
- turn on switch #1 and leave it on for about10 minutes
- turn off switch #1 and turn on switch #2 and then enter the room
- the light that is on, is controlled by switch #2
- the light that is warm or hot to the touch is controlled by switch #1
- the remaining light (it should be cool to the touch) is controlled by switch #3

Riddles

1. The butcher weighs meat!
2. Seven  (the riddle says that "all but seven run away", meaning that the rest ran away and 7 are still there)
3. Three times.  By the third time you will select a sock that will match one of the two socks you already have.

Spot the Twins
Triangles #3 and #8 are identical.

April 3rd 2020

Normally I start off by saying "here's what we've done This Week In Gifted", however, this was not a normal week!  Instead, I've posted a short video below -- just me saying hi and letting you know what I've been up to.  I've also posted a couple of brain teasers if you feel like your brain needs some teasing.
Cheers,
Ms. Thompson

Brain Teasers

Here are a few Brain Teasers that you might enjoy.

The Impossible Paper Puzzle Trick

The video below shows how to make a fun and easy hands on optical illusion (link).

Rebus Puzzles

A REBUS is a picture representation of a name, work, or phrase. Each "rebus" puzzle box below portrays a common word or phrase. Can you guess what it is?  The first one is 'Head over heels'.  The last one is my favourite!

The River Crossing Problem

A farmer is traveling with a fox, a chicken, and a bag of beans. During his journey, he comes across a river with a boat to cross it.

The farmer can only fit one thing in the boat with him at a time. If left alone together, the fox will eat the chicken or the chicken will eat the beans. How does the farmer get everything across the river safely?

The answers to the puzzles are below.  

















Don't peak until you've tried the puzzles.





















This cute hamster would like to remind you: "Try the puzzles before peaking at the answers!"
  

OK, here you go. 

Answers to the puzzles: 

Rebus Puzzles: Head over Heels, Top Secret, You are full of baloney (you are full of below-knee -- get it!) 

The River Crossing: You have to think outside the box!  To make things easier I am going to call the sides of the river side A and side B.  He's trying to get them all from A to B.

• the farmer has to take the chicken across to side B first -- this leaves the fox with the beans which is not a problem as the fox won't eat the beans
• the farmer comes back to side A with an empty boat
• this time he takes the fox over to side B and quickly grabs the chicken!
• the farmer comes back so side A with the chicken 
• he drops the chicken off on side A and quickly picks up the beans
• he drops the beans off at side B.  The fox is there too, but no problemo -- he doesn't eat beans!
• the farmer comes back to side A with an empty boat
• he picks up the chicken and takes it over to side B -- Viola!  They are all on side B and nobody has been eaten.  Personally, if I were the farmer I would question why I am keeping foxes and chickens. 

Presentations: Thursday Afternoon Group

All of the classes have been working on presentations, focusing on one of the creatures they created for their underwater scene.  This week was the Thursday afternoon class's turn to present their work.  The students were inspired by the quiz that the Kraken folks had on their website, so they asked to learn how to make quizzes that they could include in their presentations.  We hope you try out their quizzes and test your skills!

Octopus by Silas (link)




Acropora humilis by Thomas (link)



Parrot Fish by Marlowe (link).  Marlowe will be adding her quiz a little later.



Thank you for checking out the presentations!  You can see the other classes's presentations here and here.

Presentations -- Wednesday Afternoon Group

All of the classes have been working on presentations, focusing on one of the creatures they created for their underwater scene.  Presentations from the Wednesday morning group can be found here.

Below are the slideshows that the Wednesday afternoon group created.  Students presented their slideshows to their peers so that we could learn more about these different creatures.  The students in this group were learning a lot about making a presentation in Google Slides.  Part of their time was spent researching their creature, but an even larger part was learning how to insert images, make text stand out, and how to incorporate slide transitions.

Angler Fish by London (link)




Salmon by Lagos (link)




Seahorses by Julian (link).




Northern Spotlight Loosejaw by Wyatt (link)




Deep Sea Dragonfish by Ronon (link).  Ronon had a lot of fun with text and image animations on this one -- it's not for the queasy!




Corals by Damon (link)



Sea cucumbers by Zach (link)




Presentations from the Thursday afternoon group will be posted soon, so stay tuned!