Challenges, Trips, & Projects Wrapping Up

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

Field Trip Prep

On Monday, May 8th, the grade 3s, 4s and 5s will be coming together for our year end field trip.  Detailed information about the trip can be found in last week's post.  Thank you to everyone for returning the signed permission forms on time.  Also a big thank you to the parents and grandparents who have volunteered to chaperone on the trip!  As mentioned in the field trip information sent home, we will be meeting at Wiltse Elementary School bus zone (adjacent to the playground) at 8:45am and that is where pick up at will be at 2:30pm.  It promises to be an exciting day!

Final Schedule

Gifted Program Classes are winding down.  Here is the schedule for the rest of May:
- May 8th -- Field Trip
- May 9 - 11th -- classes cancelled (due to trip earlier in the week)
- May 16 - 18th -- Last Gifted Program Classes of the year
- End of May / beginning of June -- Year end Parent Meetings

Watercraft Challenge

It was a small class on Wednesday morning as many of the grade 5s were at the KVR orientation.  Did we mope--no we did not!  We did a design challenge.  The goal--build a watercraft that is capable of carrying 8 big metal washers without sinking using only duct tape, two 9oz paper cups, 10 straws and 20cm of plastic wrap.  A couple of students in the afternoon class, who had finished their projects, also took up the challenge.

Take a look below at the different crafts they created.  Four watercraft, four very different designs!  Maximum washers carried without sinking?  Katie aka "the Duct Tape Queen" built a craft that carried 36 washers without sinking, and almost carried 44!  Gerry's craft was able to transport 42 without sinking--amazing!  All of the students who took on the challenge did a great job designing and refining their watercraft.  Check out their work below (link).

Projects Wrapping Up

The Tuesday afternoon class all completed and presented their projects this week.  Oscar created an animated interview with Frank Lloyd Wright, programmed in Scratch.  Rhett made a 3D model and drawings of a small home on wheels.  Ezra shared his design for a castle as well some inspiring castles from around the world in a slideshow presentation.  Iain created an animation in Scratch sharing information he learned while researching the CN Tower.  More projects will be shared in the other classes on our last day.