Geocache Designs

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

GPS Scavenger Hunt

This week it was the Penticton grade 1 - 3 group and the Penticton 4s that got to do the GPS scavenger hunt.  'Landmarks' around the school were marked with waypoints on our GPS devices.  Students had to determine what each of the six landmarks were, given a few helpful hints.  The students did an excellent job!

Creating Geocaches

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE groups as well as the Penticton 5s started planning their geocaches and scoping out locations.  Small teams of students will be creating geocaches which they will hide on the school ground for the other teams to find.  We need toys to leave in the geocaches.  Students have been asked to donate any small toys (e.g. the sort you might get in a loot bag) they might have at home to their geocaches.  Please do not purchase new toys--the idea is to empty out our closets a bit!

More Project Presentations

This week in the Penticton grade 4 class Ty presented his informative powerpoint presentation on Precious Stones and Jessica presented hers on Animals and Treasure.  In the Penticton grade 5 class, students got to try out two different games using the SmartBoard; Harjas and Oscar's Treasure Jeopardy Game and Fynn's (aka Willis) Treasure Video Game Jeopardy Game.  Their peers loved playing the games, which were well constructed and full of engaging questions.

SmartBoard Jeopardy Game

Reminders

Grade 3 - 5 Field Trip:

• If grade 3 - 5 students have not turned in their field trip permission forms and money please do so as soon as possible.
• Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to join us on the trip as chaperones; much appreciated!

Week of May 4th - 7th

• Field trip for grade 3 - 5 students on May 5th
• Regular classes are cancelled (there will be no Monday or Thursday afternoon classes, nor will there be any Wednesday classes).

Last Week of Classes May 11th - 14th

• Open House in the Monday and Thursday afternoon grade 1 - 3 classes.  Both a paper and digital invitation have been sent home.
• This week is the last week of Gifted Program classes for this school year.

Thanks for checking in and seeing what we've been up to this week!
    

More GPS Adventures!

More GPS Adventures!

Students were introduced to or received more experience using the GPS units this week.  The Penticton students hid tokens around the school playground and set waypoints on the GPS units at their locations.  The GPS units were then swapped around and students had fun finding the tokens that others had hidden.  The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE students did a scavenger hunt.  Students received the GPS units with waypoints already set on them.  The goal was to try and identify the 'landmarks' that the waypoints were marking.  The GPS units aren't terribly accurate, so hints were given to help narrow things down.

Penticton grade 4s using the GPS units to search for hidden tokens.

Projects

The Summerland ASPIRE class continued their work on their Treasure projects.  Finishing touches were put on the 3D models and some students were able to finish their encrypted treasure clues or  stories.  We're in the final stretch!

Field Trip

Permission forms were given to the grade 3, 4 & 5 students for the upcoming field trip to Scandia Golf and Games on May 5th.  Please return the forms and money as soon as possible.  

Thank you for checking in and finding out about a few of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

GPS Scavenger Hunts

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

GPS Scavenger Hunts

The GPS unit the students used.

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE classes as well as the Penticton 5s learned how to use the new GPS hand held units.  In pairs or small groups students hid tokens around the playground and marked their locations on the GPS units.  Each group then swapped their GPS unit with another group and searched for the other group's hidden tokens.  We learned that the devices are sometimes off by about 3 or 4 meters, so you have to still be very observant to find the tokens.  We'll be doing more with the GPS units in the weeks to come!

Project Presentations

There were some more great presentations this week.  Maia presented her comic strip on Blackbeard and Ricki presented her and Gebrielle's magazine about ancient Egypt.  The presentations were top notch as were the questions and appreciations from their peers!  The Penticton grade 4s and 5s continued to work on projects with many students creating animations or games using the visual computer programming language Scratch.

Field Trip!

Every year the older students in the Gifted Program are invited to go on a field trip related to our theme.  This year's theme is 'X Marks the Spot!  The Search for Treasure.'  One of the things that we have explored this year is that many of the games we play involve the search for treasure of some sort.  Some examples are digital games such as MineCraft or Geometry Dash and board games such as Labyrinth or Settlers of Catan.

For our field trip we will be going to Scandia Golf and Games in Kelowna.  Students will get to be treasure hunters; winning tickets when they play games, that they can then retrieve for prizes!  This trip is for grade 3, 4 and 5 students in the Gifted Program.  Detailed information about the trip was e-mailed to families on Friday and paper copies will go home next week.