Little DJs

Little DJs on Go Okanagan

In November Wayne McDougall from Shaw TV visited the Penticton grade 5 group to do a story on the radio project all of the gifted classes worked on last year.  We had a great time being interviewed and learning about how television is made.  The resulting piece, called Little DJs, has now aired on Shaw's Go Okanagan and can be viewed below (link).

5 Card Photo Story

This week it was the Summerland AIM and the Penticton grade 5 groups turn to do the 5 card photo story.  The Penticton grade 1-3s also finished up their 5 card photo stories from last week.  The students came up with some great stories!  We heard about royal bunnies, vampire bunnies, ducks, quests for carrots and so much more.   Here are the slides they had to work with (link):

Projects

The grade 4s and 5s continued to work on their projects.  The Summerland ASPIRE group started building the 3D models of their booby trapped treasure caches.

The Penticton grade 4s and 5s continued working on their treasure research projects.  Some students are almost ready to present their work to their peers.  In fact one of the grade 4s, Jonas (pictured below), presented his project on dragons this week.

 

Body Spell

The Penticton grade 4s played Body Spell.  Students were placed in groups of 4 or 5 people each.  Each person had 3 - 4 letters written on their hands and feet.  Then the class was given a word to spell.  It was chaotic, it was crazy, and it was fun!  The students did a great job of using their hands and feet to spell.

SHRED

SHRED

THIRSTY

THIRSTY

More MaKey MaKey

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE groups continued to work with the MaKey MaKey invention kits.  They experimented with making foot pads, banana keys and drum kits.  Plans for giant piano keys are in the works!

Keys made out of play dough.

Tin foil footpads.

Banana key!

 Thanks for stopping by to see a few of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

A Better Mousetrap

Here is some of what we worked on, This Week In Gifted!

Building a Better Mousetrap

In the Tuesday classes and the Thursday morning classes we imagined that we worked for the company Pest-B-Gone.  Our task was to try to come up with a better mouse trap than the traditional snap trap.  In small groups students went through the process of brainstorming ideas.  We've been working on brainstorming the past few weeks and the students are really getting to be pros!  Then each group went through the difficult process of narrowing down the choices until they were left with their top choice.  We discussed different ways to narrow the choices and the problems that can arise (eg feeling like not everyone's voice is being heard, everyone choosing their own ideas).  In general the groups did a great job of compromising, discussing and trying to come up with good solutions.  Oh, and some of their mouse trap ideas sounded like real winners!

Inventor Projects

This week Eli shared his Inventor and Invention themed Jeopardy game with the Tuesday morning class.  He did a great job of following the Jeopardy format and he was able to involve all of the class in playing the game. 

In the Thursday morning class we were treated to comic strips from Zach, Tyler and Jordan.  All three boys demonstrated that they can spin a good story in comic book form!  Zach had some fun hiding a chicken in almost every frame, Jordan included a classmate as a character in his strip and used some neat special effects and Tyler broke out of the mold and had a not so happy ending. 

Also in the Thursday morning class, Gina shared her diorama with us.  She created a scene with the inventor of the light sphere, Gary Fong, at home with his family and his invention.  Her peers liked her attention to detail; she crafted miniature teddy bears for Gary Fong's twin babies and she also had little milk bottles with spilled milk.

More MaKey MaKey

The Wednesday afternoon class got another opportunity to work with the MaKey MaKeys.  These grade K - 2 students continue to impress me with their independence and ability to deal with challenging tasks!  

Scratch

Scratch logo

Students in the Thursday afternoon class got the opportunity to try out Scratch.  Here is how Scratch is described on the Scratch website:

"Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. "

Students quickly figured out how to:

• import characters and backgrounds
• record sounds and include them in their program
• make characters move around, change colours and even dance to music

It was an afternoon of exploration and I am looking forward to seeing what students create in the classes to come.  And as one of the students pointed out, Scratch integrates well with the MaKey MaKey.  Hmm, it appears that my master plan is no longer a secret ;-)

Brainstorming

Here are some of the things we worked on, This Week In Gifted.

Brainstorming and SCAMPER

Last week the Tuesday pm class learned the SCAMPER technique for brainstorming (described here) and this week it was the Tues am and Thurs pm classes turn.  All three classes also reviewed the DOVE technique for brainstorming:

D efer judgement
O ddball and Original ideas are encourage
V ast number -- the more ideas the merrier
E xpand and elaborate on other ideas

They were then challenged to brainstorm as many uses as possible for a brick.  I don't know if it was because the Tues pm class had a week to fully absorb the SCAMPER technique, but they got almost double the number of uses, at 81, than the other two classes.  We will put these brainstorming techniques to use as we start to design our own inventions in the weeks ahead.  

Being Good Listeners

In the elementary gifted class it is usually not hard to get students talking.  Being good listeners though, that's where we need some work!  This week we discussed how to let a person know, with your body and with what you say, that you are listening to them.  Some of the things students suggested were:

• turn your body towards the person who is talking to you
• nod occasionally to indicate that you agree with what the person is saying
• keep your body still
• ask questions
• think about what the person is saying 

We then partnered up and put these ideas into practice.  The students did a great job!  Apparently Hemingway once said; "I like to listen.  I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.  Most people never listen."
 

Inventor Projects

Brody and Evan from the Tuesday class presented their Pivot Stickfigure animation.  Their animation depicted what it would be like if an evil scientist from today went back in time and kidnapped Leonardo da Vinci.  The boys included some neat effects in their animation and they also added audio.

A number of students from the Thursday morning class presented their projects.  Tristan created a comic strip.  He also chose to have an evil scientist go back in time to kidnap a fictitious inventor.  Tristan did a great job incorporating realistic comic strip effects.  Brandon shared his comic strip on what Leonardo da Vinci may have invented as a child.  Chloe and Nicola showed the class the diorama that they created depicting Albert Einstein's home.  They also acted out an interview with Einstein in which they shared a number of facts about the inventor's life.

Chloe and Nicola's diorama

Over the next few weeks the rest of the students will be presenting their projects.

MaKey MaKey and the Wednesday Class

The Wednesday class gave the MaKey MaKeys a try for the first time.  It can be challenging at first to get the MaKey MaKeys set up correctly, but these grade K, 1, and 2s did an excellent job!  We only have 5 MaKey MaKeys so not everyone got a chance to work with them, but we will rectify that situation next week!