Week 6

As the term progresses, the activities that the different classes are doing start to diverge a bit.  Part of this is due to the age of the students in each class, and part of this has to do with the morning classes being longer than the afternoon classes.

General Schedule

For all of the classes we follow the same general schedule.

• Social Time.  As students arrive they take out games, toys, puzzles, or books.  It is an opportunity to reconnect with students from other schools, whom they probably haven't seen since last week.  Some popular activities during social time lately have been:
• the magnetic construction kit -- there have been some amazing structures built and we've all been learning a lot about magnetic force
• the robotic set -- it was rediscovered at the end of October and has been very popular!
• Lego (of course!)
• Maze books
• and the wooden cube puzzle

• Circle.  During circle I outline what we will be doing for the class.  Then we go around the circle and everyone has an opportunity to speak on a specific topic or to pass if they wish.  This week students were asked to mention either something interesting that happened to them since we last met, or something they were looking forward to. 
• Game / Brain Teaser.  Many of the games that we do involve some or all of the following; presentation skills, creative thinking, and/or working as a group. This week, depending on the class, students
• played Concentration
• were challenged to line up by height... without talking
• played What Are You Doing?  (very popular with the Weds afternoon class!)
• played Wink Murder

• Challenge Activity.  We don't do a challenge activity every class.  This week the morning classes did a straw building challenge.  I don't want to say much more about is as I hope to have the afternoon classes try it out soon.
• Recess.  The morning classes have a recess break outside.  Right now we are taking our recess at a different time from Wiltse Elementary.  Part of the rationale is to encourage the students to continue to bond as a group.  For both morning classes the 'big thing' is to go on the saucer swings. 
  
• Lesson / Project.  This week the Tuesday morning class (grade 5s) started on their inventor projects.  Students are either working alone or with a partner.  They have all chosen an inventor and are doing research which they will present in one of a variety of ways (movie poster, radio interview, diorama, quiz game ...)  The other classes continued to work on their 'Hockey Cards' (mentioned here).  If you get a chance, please check out our growing gallery of hockey cards along the south wall of the classroom.  Students are enjoying checking out their peers' hockey cards and many are excited to find other students that they recognize from their home school.
• Wrap Up.  At the end of the class, once we've cleaned up, we meet again as a group and summarize what we've done and what we'll be up to next week.  During this time we've also been checking out different Rube Goldberg machines.  This week most of the classes saw the OK Go video This Too Shall Pass.