Friday, 22 May 2020

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.



Friday, 15 May 2020

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. 

  



Wednesday, 6 May 2020

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!

 
 


Saturday, 11 April 2020

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.

Friday, 3 April 2020

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. 


Thursday, 12 March 2020

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.

Monday, 9 March 2020

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!

Wednesday, 26 February 2020

Presentations -- Wednesday Morning Group

All of the classes have been working on presentations focusing on one of the creatures they created for their underwater scene.

Here are the slideshows that the Wednesday morning group created.  Students presented their slideshows to their peers so that we could all learn more about these different creatures.

Kraken, The Mythical Beast by Skyler and Benjamin (link) (they also created an interactive website!  You can view it here, but have to be signed into your child's SD67 Google account)



The Colossal Squid by Ellis (link)



The Basket Star by Meghan (link)



Green Sea Turtle by Sienna (link)



Sunday, 9 February 2020

Presentations and Amusing a Goldfish

Thanks for checking the TWIG blog to see what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Presentations 

All of the students in the Wednesday morning class have presented their slide shows featuring the underwater creature that they made for our underwater scene.  The students did a great job presenting their work.  As the audience, students were encouraged to ask good questions and to let their peers know what they did well in their presentations.

Here is a short video showing the underwater scene the Wednesday morning class created (link).  In it you can see; a brittle star, a colossal squid, a mythical kraken seizing a ship, a sea cucumber, and a sea tortoise. 


The Wednesday afternoon class has started doing their presentations.  This week we learned about the Angler Fish from London.  We look forward to learning from the rest of the students about the creatures they chose.

The Thursday afternoon class just got started on their slide shows this week -- I look forward to sharing their work in future posts!

Amusing a Goldfish

The Wednesday morning and the Thursday afternoon groups each participated in an activity called Ready Set Design.  In this activity students are given a problem to solve and asked to make a prototype using specific materials.  They have a short amount of time to come up with their design.  Once they have created it, they explain the design to their peers.  This week's problem was:   “I need a way to amuse my goldfish while I am at school - she seems to miss me when I’m away”.  The materials available were:
- 1 small paper plate
- 3 pipe cleaners
- 3 popsicle sticks
- 1 medium balloon
Students were not allowed to use scissors or tape.
The range of designs was truly incredible!  Some students created a bit of a playground for the fish, complete with a punching bag.  Others drew a likeness of themselves on the paper plate so the fish didn't feel abandoned.  One student created a helium balloon filled transportation system so the fish could explore the house!  The Thursday group was intent on not just amusing the fish, but giving it a bit of a scare with images of scary cats and dogs.  Lots of creative, out of the "tank" thinking ;-) 


Sunday, 26 January 2020

Underwater Scene

Here's what we've been up to in the past couple of weeks!

Underwater Scene Update

The Wednesday afternoon group have finished making their models of underwater creatures.  They are now working on making short slide shows, using Google Slides, to highlight the key features of their creatures.

Check out their creatures in the video below.

The Wednesday morning group have finished the models for their underwater scene; we're just putting it all together and adding some finishing touches.  The Thursday afternoon group is making a diorama and it is coming along nicely!  See future posts for a look at both of these projects.

Deep Sea Fun

All of the classes checked out the interactive website The Deep Sea, where we explored to the very depths of the ocean!

Watersheds and the Water Cycle

The Wednesday morning group learned more about watersheds and the water cycle.  We also discussed water conservation.

These are just a few of the things we've been doing for the past couple of weeks.  Thanks for checking in! 


Sunday, 12 January 2020

Watercraft Design Challenge

And we're back!  Take a look at how we started 2020.

The Watercraft Design Challenge

Students were given the following challenge; build a boat with limited materials (see below) that is able to float for at least 10 seconds while carrying 8 heavy washers.  The boat is floated empty, and then the washers are added one at a time.

The materials they were allowed to use were:
  • two 8oz paper cups
  • 10 skinny straws
  • a 25cm long piece of Saran Wrap
  • duct tape
Before building their boats, we discussed the design process:
 
A key part of the process is it is iterative -- after you test your design you evaluate it and then tweak it, coming up with an improved design.

The students did an amazing job and the variety of boat designs was truly wonderful!  As they tested their designs they had to deal with making their boats more stable or more waterproof.  The best part of the challenge was that once each student or pair of students came up with a successful design, they were willing to do more: either make it capable of carrying more washers, or trying a different design or challenging themselves to make a boat with less materials.

Check out the slides below (link) to see the students in action:



This design challenge came from the PBS Kids Design Squad Activity Guide.

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to!

Friday, 6 December 2019

Water Olympics

Here is what we've been up to... This Week (and last!) in Gifted.

H2O Olympics

This week students participated in the H2O Olympics!  Seven events which allowed them to explore different aspects of water.  Check out the events in the slideshow below (link).



After each of the events we discussed the properties of water that contributed to the students' observations.

5 Card Photo Story

Last week the Wednesday morning class exercised their creativity with a 5 Card Photo Story.  The students were presented with 5 photos (shown below).  With only 5 minutes to brainstorm, they needed to come up with an engaging story that included each of the photographs.  The resulting stories were funny with unexpected twists and turns!  When students were participating as audience members, they were asked to give appreciations -- what did each storyteller do well?




Underwater Scene

Students continued to work on the creatures for our underwater scene.  Some students have started to create short slideshows with information on the sea creatures they made for our scene.  Benjamin and Skyler have also created a website to share what they have learned!  We'll be sharing that in a future post.  Check out the progress below (link).



Classes wrapped up for December

We've had our last class for 2019.  Classes will start up again in January when school resumes.

Someone asked me the other day what I see myself doing in the new year.  I said: "How would I know?  I don't have 2020 vision!"  (Bud doom boomp!)  Happy Holidays everyone :-)

Friday, 22 November 2019

Creating an Underwater Scene


For the past couple of weeks students have been working on creating models of aquatic creatures.  The models will be incorporated into a number of different underwater scenes.  Students are working on; tube coral, a colossal squid,  a brittle star, angler fish, salmon, deep sea dragon fish, puffer fish, star fish, a manta ray and more.  Check out the progress that is being made in the slides below (link).



Cholera Mystery

The Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon groups worked on solving a mystery!  They looked at evidence similar to what Dr. John Snow had access to when he solved the mystery of the cause of the 1854 London cholera outbreak.  Students used maps and information about the victims movements (where they worked, where they lived, places they frequented) to hone in on the source of the cholera outbreak.  Great detective work was demonstrated, and yes, they solved the mystery!

Update on Art in the Style of Roy Henry Vickers

In a previous post I described the work that students were doing to create images with the visual themes seen in the art of Roy Henry Vickers.  All of the students have now completed their pieces and so I've updated the slideshow (link).  Each student incorporated three key elements into their work; bands of colour to represent sunrise/sunset, silhouettes of landscape in the background and silhouettes of people or animals in the foreground, and a single block of blue water.  Although the pieces share these three elements, there is also a a great deal of diversity in the images. 





Thank you for checking in to see what we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Saturday, 9 November 2019

Art in the Style of Roy Henry Vickers

For the past couple of classes, students have been learning about the work of visual artist Roy Henry Vickers.  Roy Henry Vickers is a BC artist who currently spends his time between Hazelton and Tofino.  Much of his artistic work focuses on scenes involving water.  We did a concept attainment lesson to explore the visual themes in a selection of Vickers's work.  Students then created pieces with the same visual themes.  Some students are still finishing their pieces, but you can see the process and some of the completed works in the slideshow below (link).




Water Fun Facts

This week the Wednesday classes did a fun activity to learn some more facts about water.  We started off with a quick multiple choice quiz (link) where students were asked to give their best guesses.  Then they did some research to find out what the correct answers to the questions were.  Then it was showdown time!  Kids pitted their wits against each other in a game of 'Kahoot!', an online quiz where students race to be the first to enter their answer.  Points are awarded not just for being correct, but for answering quickly.  It was tense at times, but lots of fun!  Now we know:
  • how much of the world's freshwater is found in Canada
  • the name of the longest river entirely located in Canada
  • which province's name means "river that flows swiftly" in Cree
  • how much of the earth is covered in water
  • where Canada ranks in terms of our per person water use (hint: it's not great)
  • and much, much more!

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Saturday, 2 November 2019

October Round Up!

Here's what we've been up to in the first few weeks of classes!

Back Into the Swing of Things

Students were keen to get back into things and the classes are really gelling.  Great conversations are happening during social time and during our class discussions.  See the photos taken during social time (slides below) to get a sense of this.

This Year's Theme 

As most students guessed, this year's theme deals with Water!  In our first class we talked about what we know about water and all the different ways that it impacts our lives.  Over the coming months we will be:
  • creating an underwater scene
  • looking at water in the art of Roy Henry Vickers
  • researching underwater life

Sticky Water

Our first exploration of water was to look at water from the molecular level.  We learned that each water molecule is made of 1 oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms.  We also learned that water is 'sticky'.  The hydrogen atoms have slight positive charges and the oxygen atom has a slight negative charge.  This means that water molecules are attracted to each other by these weak hydrogen bonds.

3D model hydrogen bonds in water


We explored the sticky nature of water by doing a little experiment with water and nickles.  You can see the results in the slides below.
 

October In Pictures 

Below are photos from October (link).  Enjoy and thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to!

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Breaking News!

Breaking News About This Year's Theme!

Step 1.  Listen to the audio clip below for breaking news about this year's theme.




Step 2.  Go here.


Step 3.  Do you think you know what the theme is?  Put your guess below.



Classes start up soon!  Penticton / Kaleden grade 3s begin on Wednesday, October 16th.  Summerland / Trout Creek students begin on Thursday, October 17th and Penticton / Kaleden grade 4s and 5s begin on Wednesday, October 23rd. 


Tuesday, 21 May 2019

It's A Wrap!

Gifted Program classes wrapped up last week.  Here are some of the activities we did in the final classes.

Design Challenge

In our second to last class, the Tuesday afternoon group and the Wednesday morning groups were given rubber bands, sheets of paper and tin foil and asked to use them to design something to solve the problem "I need to create a safe light source for a home with no electricity."  The solutions students came up with were creative and varied.  Many involved using the reflective properties of the tin foil to reflect sunlight into the home.  Check out the construction process in the slides below (link).




Name That Noise

Students from the Tuesday class, as well as a small group from the Wednesday morning class, took the field recorders and recorded some sounds from around the school.  The sounds were played back to the class to see if they could... name that noise!

Mustache Ceremony

Wait, what?  Mustaches?  All I can tell you is that on the final class for the grade 5s, we do the Mustache Ceremony.  It involves mustaches.  It also involves highlighting the accomplishments of each grade 5 student for the years they have been in the Gifted Program.  It may also include some funny dancing and waving of objects by Ms. Thompson.  Pictures of mustachioed grade 5s are in the slide show.

Party

On the last class you definitely have to have a party!  Depending on which class we're talking about there was; cake, muffins, cookies, watermelon, chips, pretzels, cheezies, pickles, doughnuts, juice...  Thank you to everyone who brought something to share.  We had an abundance of food!  See the slides for some party pics. 

Reports and Parent Meetings

At the beginning of June year end progress reports will be sent out.  I will also be scheduling parent meetings  to review how the year went and to plan for next year.  Information will be sent out in a week or so. 

Monday, 6 May 2019

Field Trip

On April 30th the grade 3s, 4s and 5s, along with four wonderful chaperones toured Global Okanagan and CBC Radio in Kelowna.  Our hosts were wonderful, we learned a lot, and the students were keen and asked great questions!  Please check out the slides below to see what we got up to.
Link to slides.  To see full screen click on the full screen icon (next to the gear) in the embedded slides below, or click on this link.




Sunday, 28 April 2019

CFUZ Visit and Zip Line Challenge

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

CFUZ Station Visit

The students in the Tuesday afternoon class from Summerland hopped in Ms. Thompson's van for a visit to the CFUZ Peach City Radio Station.  We toured the small station and got to sit in the studio with the headsets on and speak into the microphones.  It was a small taste of what we'll see on our field trip to CBC Radio and Global Okanagan. 
We were not actually on air at the time, but we were using the microphones.

Radio Production

In all of the classes students are in the process of finishing up recording and editing their radio segments.  The segments will be aired later in May and early June.  More info to come!

Zip Line Design Challenge

Students in the Wednesday morning class were given the challenge of designing a carrier that could transport a ping pong ball down a 4 foot long zip line made of fishing line.  They were allowed to use the following materials:
  • bamboo skewers
  • plastic straws
  • metal washers
  • small paper Dixie cups
  • masking tape
Prior to starting their designs we discussed how the design process involves:
Some students were lucky enough to come up with a design that worked well right off the bat, but everyone, regardless of how successful their initial design was, went back to the drawing board to improve their design.  Some went over and above -- designing carriers to transport 2, 4, 8, 10 and even 22(!!!!!) ping pong balls!  Check out some of their handiwork in the slides below (link):




Monday, 22 April 2019

5 Card Photo Story

Here are a few things that students got up to last week in the Gifted Program:

5 Card Photo Story

The Wednesday afternoon class exercised their creative storytelling chops by playing 5 Card Photo Story.  Students were shown 5 photos and given 5 minutes to come up with an interesting story involving all of the photos.  The stories were presented orally to the class.  Students worked individually or in groups of two or three.  Here are the photos they had to work with (link):



We ended up with some very outlandish, and very funny, stories!  Some stories were even acted out.  After each story the audience was asked for their appreciations -- letting the storytellers know what they did well.  The students did a great job, both as storytellers and audience members. 

Radio Production

All the classes continued to work on their radio segments.  We now have the following segments:
  • Animal Fun Facts episodes 1, 2 and 3
  • Cinderella Fractured Fairy Tale
  • Humpty Dumpty Fractured Nursery Rhyme
  • Fake Ads
    • Noah's Mechanical
    • Smart Jacket
    • Jam Ad
    • Cheat Chip
    • Polly's Perfect Popcorn
    • Auction Ad
  • Marlowe's World of Ice
  • Iain's House of Jokes
  • Pancakes vs Waffles Debate
  • Name that Sound 
  • Roberto Baggio story
  • Rose Angevin story
These segments, as well as others that are just wrapping up production, will be stitched together into a number of half hour episodes that will air on CFUZ - Peach City Community Radio.  Students and their families will all be informed prior to the episodes airing.  The episodes will also be archived and a link to the archive will be sent out once the episodes air.

Coming Up...

This week the Tuesday afternoon class will be heading over to the CFUZ - Peach City Community Radio Station in Penticton.  Students will get a chance to sit down in a bona-fide radio studio and see how the magic happens.

Next week on Tuesday April 30th all of the grade 3, 4 and 5s will be going on a field trip to Kelowna to tour the Global Okanagan television studios as well as the CBC Radio station!  Regular gifted program classes on Tuesday April 30th and Wednesday May 1st are cancelled.

Gifted Program classes wrap up in mid-May; the Tuesday afternoon group has their last class on May 14th and the Wednesday groups have their last class on May 15th.  Shortly after that progress reports will be sent out and parent meetings will take place.  The goal of the meetings is to review how the year went for your child and to plan for next year.