Music and My Favourite Thing

Stingers, Bumpers and Music

This week we discussed the function that music plays in radio and video.  Music helps set the mood, and often in radio there are short clips of music that listeners identify with the show and that are used to help separate different segments of a radio program, these are called stingers.  If you listen to CBC radio's Daybreak South in the morning you are probably familiar with the music they use in their stinger for the start of each segment after the news breaks (it's upbeat and groovy).  The CBC radio show Q uses the intro music from the BROS' song Tell Me. 

Radio shows also use bumpers.  A bumper is a short segment of audio that is prerecorded and usually consists of a voice over music, for instance a bumper for our radio show might say "you are listening to the Creation Station on Peach City Radio!"  Bumpers serve as transitions from one audio segment to another.

Where to find music to use with an audio segment though?  This week we looked at a music site called Incompetech.  This site has royalty free music and graph paper -- an intriguing combination!  (I have to admit to using the site for both of these items.)  Royalty free music is music that is free, or that you have to only pay for once, that you can use in different projects for as long as you like.  If you've ever tried to add a favourite track of music to a video that you are uploading to YouTube you may have had the unpleasant experience of having your music blocked.  This is probably because you do not have permission from the song's distributor to use the track.  Royalty free music can be used without this problem.  Incompetech's site is really handy because you can search for music based on how it feels (ie the mood it conveys).  Maybe you need a piece of music that is bouncy and humorous sounding, or perhaps you are looking for something eerie and dark.

My Favourite Thing

Students exercised their creative and divergent thinking muscles this week by playing 'My Favourite Thing'.  In this storytelling activity students are shown an ordinary object and they have to explain (in 2 or 3 sentences) why it is their favourite thing.  The Wednesday classes told some great tales about a frying pan, sponge, fake flower, and other items.  The Tuesday class came up with riveting yarns about a tissue box, a small plastic hand, and part of a marble works track.
  

Project Time

Students continued to work on their radio projects.  All of the classes got quite a bit of recording done.  The Wednesday morning class tackled another fractured fairy tale, this time written by Char G.  The tale involved 10 voice actors and the students did a great job working together to get the recording done!   

Check out the photos below of the students at work (and at play!)
link
 

Storytelling

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

Storytelling

All of the classes exercised their storytelling skills this week.

My Favorite Thing

The Summerland AIM/ASPIRE group and the Penticton 2/3s made up some amazing stories on why some of these objects were their favourite thing:

- a tape dispenser

- a long cardboard tube

- a plaque magnet with two small birds on it

You'd be amazed at some of the stories; I know I'll never look at a tape dispenser the same way again!

Improv Bingo

The Penticton 5s did a great job coming up with skits.  They have had a little bit of practice with this drama / storytelling activity already.  In the past students chose their groups, but this time around students were randomly assigned to groups of 3 or 4.  It was a stretch for some students, but in the end everyone contributed to and participated in some great skits! 

This week was the first time the Penticton 4s participated in Improv Bingo and they did a wonderful job!  This is a small group, so we were able to work through two different scenarios.  I look forward to doing Improv Bingo with this group again.

With both 'My Favourite Thing' and 'Improv Bingo' we debrief to discuss what made the stories successful.  With 'Improv Bingo' we give appreciations--talking about what each group did well with their performance.  Students are getting good at giving specific, positive feedback.

Project Sneak Peek

Below are a few screen shots from Marcus' Operation Identification project on DNA.  He is creating it in Minecraft and I can't wait to see the final project!  More sneak peeks from other projects in the weeks to come!

Thank you for stopping by to see what we've been up to!

Project Progress

This week students continued to work on their projects. Here are a few sneak peeks from the Summerland AIM/ASPIRE class:

A screen shot from the planning page for Iain's CSI board game.

Niamh researching fingerprints for her BitStrips comic.

Three screen shots from Oscar's Lego Movie.

I look forward to sharing more project work in the weeks to come!

Some other things we did this week:

• The Penticton 5s and 4s copied out extortion notes for our upcoming CSI mystery.
• The Penticton 4s, 2-3s and the Summerland AIM/ASPIRE classes played the charades game 'Heads Up'.
• The Penticton 2-3 class excelled at their first time doing the drama activity 'My Favorite Thing'.

Thanks for stopping by to see what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Shoe Prints

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

Shoe Prints

Last week it was hair samples, this week it was shoe prints.  As you can see in the images below, there is quite a variety!  Why are we collecting all of these samples?  We're building up a dossier on identifying features of each student (fingerprints, handwriting, hair, shoe prints) in preparation for a mystery that we will be trying to solve in a few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Projects

Students continued to work on their projects.  They are collecting information and images and starting to put the information together in the form of; BitStrip comics, slide shows, radio interviews, games (created in Scratch or using the Smart Board or classic board games), stop motion videos...  It is going to be fun to see the final projects!

Drama and Storytelling Activities

Each of the classes participated in a drama or storytelling activity.

The Summerland AIM/ASPIRE class and the Penticton 4s played My Favourite Thing!  In this game a random item is selected and the students have to come up with a creative story explaining why it is their favourite thing.  Both classes cottoned on to this quite quickly and the quality of the stories was really good.  Students came up with wacky uses for a variety of things such as a small pink bucket, a stuffed martian, a Rubik's cube and more.

Great acting was on offer from the Penticton 2/3s.  They played Heads Up!, a charades style game.

There were hilarious skits from the Penticton 5s as they played Improv Bingo.  In 1s, 2s or 3s they had 5 - 10 minutes to prepare a short skit which had to include the following:
Person: a tightrope walker with hiccups
Place: in the kitchen
Object: a crown
Goal: climb to the clouds
Problem: there's a drought happening
The skits were fun and the audience was appreciative!

I'm looking forward to doing more of these activities with the students.  The activities foster creative thinking, allow students to work on their presentation skills, and, in the case of Improv Bingo, involve good collaborative skills.

Thanks for checking in to see what we did this week!

January 19th - 22nd

This Week's World of Treasure Slide Show

This week's slideshow is brought to you by Dija, Jayda, and Kailey from the Penticton grade 1 - 3 class (link)

Paper Table Building Challenge

The Penticton grade 5s had their first building challenge of the year.  Their task was to build a table using only the following materials:
8 sheets of newspaper
1 sheet of cardboard 8"x11" (cereal box cardboard)
masking tape

Their paper table had to be at least 20 cm tall and had to support a heavy textbook.  Prior to building their tables, we talked about how rolling the newspaper into tight tubes makes it fairly strong.  It is interesting seeing the different designs the students came up with.  The students worked in pairs or groups of three.  Agreeing on how to build the table and sharing tasks equally can be a challenge, but they all handled things quite well.  All of the groups were able to get their tables to hold one textbook.  Many of the students took up the challenge to see if they could strengthen their tables so that they could support multiple textbooks.  You won't believe how much some of the tables held!  Check out the photos below (link).  I love how excited the kids are with their creations.

5 Card Photo Stories

This week the Penticton grade 1-3 class tackled 5 Card Photo Stories for the first time.  How it works: I show the group 5 images, and then each student comes up with a story that involves all 5 images.  Prior to creating their stories we discuss what makes a good story.  This class really got into it, many of them wanting more time, so they'll be finishing them off next week.  The Summerland ASPIRE group also did this activity and they knocked my socks off (again!) with their amazing stories!  

My Favourite Thing!

The Penticton grade 4s played 'My Favourite Thing!'  It is a drama / storytelling activity where students are given an object and asked to make up a story on the spot explaining why it is their favourite thing.  Some of the objects used were a fox hand puppet, a plastic coat hanger, and a crystal ball.  We had stories involving lasers, aliens, aliens with lasers, aliens playing ping pong, Dr. Who, aliens and Dr. Who and much much more.  Honourable mention: Graham's Italian coat hanger hat story.  I'm not even going to try and explain it, you'll just have to trust me that it was hilarious (and that it didn't involve aliens).

MaKey MaKey

The ASPIRE and AIM classes used the MaKey MaKey kits.  With these kits students can turn various items into computer keys.  In the photo below Iain is using a banana as a space key.

We've also hooked people up to the MaKey MaKey and then opened up a piano program on the computer; when you touch each person a different note sounds on the piano!

Thank you for taking the time to check out a few of the things that we have been up to... This Week In Gifted!

November 17th to 20th

X-Marks the Spot Research Project

This week all of the grade 4s and 5s had at least some time to work on the X-Marks the Spot research project.  Students are investigating famous people, places or things associated with treasure.  Once students have gathered their information they will be putting it together in a format to present to their peers.  More on this in the weeks ahead!

World of Treasure Slideshow

The grade 1 - 3s have also been busy doing research for their 'World of Treasures' slideshow.  Students are searching for images and information on a wide variety of 'treasures'.  The images and information are being added to collaborative slideshows.  Students have found images and information on some of the following:
- gems (emeralds, topaz, diamonds)
- gold
- money
- treasure chests
- shipwrecks (e.g. the Titanic)
- friendship

My Favourite Thing

STOP! by Michael Gil, on Flickr

Some of the classes this week played the drama game 'My Favourite Thing'.  In this game students are given a prop and asked to tell a story as to why this prop is their favourite thing.  Students are encouraged to be creative and think outside the box.  One prop we used was a hand held stop sign like flag people use.  It was used to; stop a comet from crashing into Earth, defeat an alien robot in a game of ping pong, flip another alien out of someone's house (using it much like a pancake flipper) and so much more!  Through this activity students not only get the opportunity to be creative, but they also benefit from hearing their peers' stories and talking about what worked well in each story.

December 1st to 4th--Last Week of Classes Before the Winter Break

Gifted Program classes will wrap up the week of December 1st to 4th and resume again in January.  The classes wrap up a few weeks prior to winter break in order to let students fully participate in any special activities that may be going on in their classroom or school.  It also provides me time to assess students who have been referred to the Gifted Program.  

Thanks for checking out what we did... This Week In Gifted!