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.

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. 

  

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!

 
 

Year End Wrap Up Part 5 Projects

This is Part 5 in the series of Year End Wrap Up posts.

Scratch Projects

Students in grades 3 - 5 finished up the year presenting their projects to their peers.  Students had a great deal of choice on their topic, as long as it included flight.  A number of students decided to create flight games or animations in Scratch, a free coding program designed at MIT to introduce students to the concepts of computer programing.

I've embedded each of their Scratch projects below or you can view them in the Scratch Studio here.  A few things to note:

• Scratch requires Adobe Flash, so you need to allow it in your browser (Chrome won't run it, as far as I can determine, so better to switch to Firefox or Internet Explorer).
• To see the coding behind the game or animation, which I highly recommend you do, click the 'See inside' button -- you'll have to go to the studio link to do this
• All of the students did a great job solving bugs in their programs and learning new code
• Other non-Scratch related projects will be posted soon!

Animations

Gerry created this animation as a fun finale for his slideshows on RC planes and the history of flight.  Click the green flag to start the animation.


Anya created this animation as an introduction to her slideshow on space flight. Click the green flag to start the animation.

Games

Iain created this game involving hot air balloons.  Click the green flag to start the game and then use the up/down arrow keys to move your balloon.  Can you beat the high score?


Sophie created this game with info on aircraft.  Press the green flag to start the game, the up / down arrow keys to move the plane and collect coins and avoid hitting the birds.


Ezra created this game involving jet airplanes.  Press the green flag to start the game and the space bar to keep your jet in the air.  Try not to hit the green blocks and other obstacles.  If you'd like some music to accompany you on your flight press numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4 on your keyboard once the game begins.


Oscar created this game involving blimps.  Click the green flag to start the game.  Use the arrow keys to move your blimp through the maze.  Your goal is to collect hydrogen tanks and to avoid the bad guys.

Classes Starting Up Next Week!

Gifted Program Classes begin next week and Mrs. Evans is looking forward to starting off the year with the students.  Ms. Thompson is on medical leave, but will return after the winter break.

Mrs. Evans and Ms. Thompson have done some planning together and are pretty excited about this year's theme.  Check out the animation below (if it doesn't show up, go here).  Pengy the Penguin is trying to figure out what the theme for the Gifted Program is this year.  He will get lots of clues; see if you can figure out the theme too!  Click on the green flag to start the animation.



To check out the computer programming behind the animation go here and click on the blue 'See inside' button.

Making a Block, Green Architecture, and Taking a Break

Here are a few of the things we have done the past couple of weeks in gifted.

Image Manipulation

All of the students now know how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements to remove the background from an image.  They can save the image as a PNG file and import it into Scratch.  Students are finding this a handy skill to have--they are using it on a wide range of images!

Green Architecture

Brainstorming 'green' architecture features. 

Students brainstormed different ways that buildings use energy and resources.  We then went on to learn about different ways that architects are trying to make buildings 'greener' or more sustainable by reducing energy consumption, reducing water use, and choosing materials that are better for the environment.  We looked at the Hearst Tower which has lots of windows and few inner walls to allow for more natural light.  It also has an icefall in the lobby to cool and humidify the space.  We also looked at buildings that have giant blocks of ice in the basement for cooling and others that use shower towers.  We discussed ways that we can help conserve energy in our homes in the summer and in the winter.  Most of the classes finished off with a fun and competitive Kahoot online quiz to review what we learned.

Programming

This past week we learned how to use the 'Make a Block' block in Scratch.  It's very handy when you are repeating the same lines of code over and over again.

Students continued to create programs that feature:

• reset code
• broadcast message / when I receive message blocks
• animations
• changing backgrounds
• imported images

Below are some photos of the Thursday afternoon class and the programs they've been working on .

Taking a Break

Last week was the last week of classes until January.  Gifted Program classes stop a couple of weeks before winter break so that students can fully participate in the extra activities and events occurring in their home school.  During this time I will be doing assessments with students who have been referred to the program.

Have a great December and enjoyable winter break.  I look forward to working with the students again in January!

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How to Change Your Image

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

Architecture

Last week the Penticton Primary group's class fell on the Curriculum Implementation day, so we did a bit of catching up this week.  We learned about ancient roman architecture, as described in this post.  We also did the amazing egg activity (eggtivity?!)

Changing our Images

The rest of the classes learned how to remove the background from a photo using Adobe Photoshop Elements.  Each student chose a building that interested them, located a photo of it online and downloaded it.  Then they followed these instructions on how to remove the background and save the image as a PNG file.  From there they imported the image into Scratch.  See some samples below (link)

Programming

All of the classes continued to work on their programing skills in Scratch.  This week we focused on how to animate our sprites.  Oscar did a great animation that involved two crabs climbing up the twin towers.  Also with the crab sprite, Finn animated it to appear that it was eating a large watermelon.  All of the students are adding complexity to their programs.  Our goal right now is to build our skills with lots of smaller programming activities.  In the second half of the year we will tackle a  B I G programming project!

Some Concrete Examples

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

Once Upon A Time

During Circle this week we played a storytelling game called Once Upon A Time.  Each person wrote a noun on a piece of paper.  One person started the story by randomly drawing a piece of paper and including that noun in their sentence which began, "Once upon a time...".  The next person drew another slip of paper and added to the story by adding another sentence including the new noun.  The final story was often very strange!

Architecture

The Pantheon--a giant egg?

Most of the classes continued their exploration of the influence of geology on ancient architecture.  We learned about the advances of the ancient romans due to their access to volcanic ash and volcanic rocks.  They were able to make mortar using ash and lime and later they invented concrete by adding rock fragments to the mortar.  Concrete had many advantages as a building material.  We also looked at the the benefits of the arch and the dome, which the Romans used extensively and usually built using concrete.  In particular we learned about the amazing Pantheon!  It's dome has a diameter of 43 meters and for 1000 years was the largest dome of its kind.  It was built using a variety of volcanic rocks of varying density in the concrete: basalt for the bottom parts of the structure, tuff a bit higher up and extremely lightweight pumice in the concrete of the dome itself.

To further reinforce the idea that domes are very strong we did an activity with a raw egg.  The students were challenged to hold the egg in their palm, wrap their fingers around the egg and squeeze really really hard.  No one was able to break the egg!  Although the Penticton primary group hasn't tried this activity yet, so who knows, perhaps one of them has the strength to do it!

Scratch Programming

Part of the Penticton primary class coding away.

All of the classes continued learning more about computer programming using Scratch.  Some of the students did the activity Debug It! where they were asked to debug 5 scratch programs that weren't working as they should.  Other classes learned how to create code to reset their programs (e.g. if they create a character who walks across the screen, the next time the program runs they need to make sure the character starts from the correct starting point again).  They also learned how to make one sprite (character) respond to another by using the 'broadcast message' and 'when I receive message' blocks.  Some of the students used these skills to program conversations between characters.  Below are a couple of examples of student programs involving conversations between sprites.

By Finn.

By Ellen.

  All of the students are creating interesting programs and they are very enthusiastic about using Scratch!

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Rocks and Architecture

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

Rocks and Architecture

We learned that in ancient Egypt and Greece architecture was influenced by the type of rock that was available to use as a building material.  Sedimentary rocks, such as the limestone blocks in the Pyramids at Giza in Egypt, do well under compression.  The pyramid shape mimics that of a mountain with the blocks at the top only having to support their own weight.  The blocks at the bottom have to support the weight of all the blocks above them and the pyramid shape helps to distribute the load.

The Pyramids at Giza

We also learned that the huge and beautiful sandstone columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall at the Karnak Temple Complex in Luxor, Egypt are actually made of huge puck shaped stones stacked on top of each other.  (You can't just take a long slab of sandstone and turn it 90 degrees to make a pillar--the rock will fracture.)  Stacking the stones like pucks to make columns takes advantage of the fact that the horizontal layers of the sandstone do well under compression.  The Egyptians had to have many columns close together to support the sandstone roof since the rock spanning the columns does not do well under tension.  

Columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall at the Karnak Temple Complex in Luxor, Egypt.  It looks like a storehouse for wide columns!

In Greece we learned that the presence of marble allowed the ancient Greeks to build more slender columns with larger spaces between them because marble is a much stronger rock.  Look at the 'slinky' columns in the photo of the Erechtheion, a temple devoted to Athena and Neptune on the Acropolis of Athens.  The columns are tall and well spaced out due to the strength of marble!

The Erechtheion, the Acropolis of Athens.

Next week we will look at how geology shaped the architecture of ancient Rome!

Programming with Scratch

This week we explored the idea that when you are programming you have the 'tell' the computer every step you want it to carry out.  You have to be specific and you have to use a common language. The students went on to follow a Step-By-Step set of instructions on how to make a 'sprite' (character) in Scratch dance. 

Thanks for dropping by to see what we've been doing!

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Scratching the Surface

First Class for Wednesday Morning Group

Our Wednesday morning group had their first class this week.  (Last week was the Naramata Run, so we waited a week until everyone could be there).  The students did the Me in 3D activity I described last week--I've added photos of their creations to the slideshow (link).  They created a cute cat, the Stanley Cup, emojis, aliens, a pie, as well as a plate of pancakes and bacon--yum!

Architecture Introduction

All of the classes discussed what architecture is, then we looked through some great books to find examples of interesting buildings or other structures.  Students were asked to either share three facts about a building that interested them, or share three buildings that they liked and explain why they liked them.  Through this activity we learned about an amazing variety of buildings and other structures!

Scratch Surprise

We did our first activity using Scratch.  Created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a programming language especially designed for kids.  Scratch has a low bar for entry (you can quickly create something without a lot of background knowledge) and a high ceiling (you can program pretty complicated stuff).  This week the students' were given the task of making the Scratch cat do something surprising.  Some students made it change color, meow, glide about a stage, zoom around the screen and much more!  Over the year we will be learning more about computer programming--I'm excited to see where the students will take this!

The Scratch Cat

Thanks for checking in to see what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Scratch That!

Project Updates

Projects are rapidly wrapping up!  We had the following presentations this week:

• Oscar shared his Lego Stop Motion Mystery Movie CS Investigation and his BitStrip comic Bank Robbery
• Ben shared his BitStrip mystery comic Meow
• Jessica presented her interactive Smart Board mystery Who Ate the Bagel?!
• Kieran presented the mystery video game he created in Happy Wheels.
• Jimmy presented his BitStrip comic Mystery #1
• Ryan A presented his PowerPoint slide show on Mythical Creatures
• Ryan M presented his 3 part BitStrip comic Who Did It?

Many more students are ready (or almost ready!) to present.  

Through the projects all of the students have learned new information and/or new skills.  Prior to starting their projects, students were introduced to BitStrips and how to use it to create interesting characters and stories.  Some chose to use this tool for their projects, but in many cases students chose a different format.  Kudos to those students who took on a tool that was new to them, especially the grade 2s and 3s who chose to use PowerPoint even though some of them had never used it before and so were learning on the fly!  Katie D, Logan and Jessica took on Smart Notebook (software for the interactive whiteboard), with little or no exposure to it before.  Many others chose formats with which they were familiar but took it to a new level--using Comic Life and learning how to use image editing software or programming in Scratch and learning how to use more complicated commands or learning how to add audio to a PowerPoint slideshow.  Throughout this process, students are sharing their new skills with their peers.  We are a community of learners where skills that one person learns are celebrated and shared with others--it's pretty neat!   

Scratch That!

So what are the students who have completed their projects doing?  Well, some of the Penticton grade 3s are taking on computer programming using Scratch 2.  Scratch is a visual based programing application that introduces kids to programming concepts.  Students can create animations, video games, interactive stories, and much more.  There is a low bar for entry (ie users can quickly program something fun that works), but Scratch also allows for more complicated programming.  A number of the Penticton grade 5s had a short introduction to Scratch a few years ago in the Gifted Program, and many of them have used Scratch this year for their main project.  

Screenshot of Scratch showing the main screen on the left with the programing scripts on the right.

Field Trip Planning

Thank you to all the grade 3, 4 and 5 families who sent in the field trip forms and $.  A big thank you also to all those parents who have volunteered to chaperone on the trip--much appreciated!

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

 

Before the Break

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

Treasure Directions

Many of the classes have been creating old looking treasure maps.  Now they are working on coming up with directions to go along with those maps.  The Summerland ASPIRE class looked at some examples of real life treasure clues; the Beale Papers and the poem with clues to the whereabouts of the Forest Fenn Treasure.  The Beale Papers are a series of three cipher texts supposedly leading to a vault of silver and gold.  The Fenn Treasure is a bronze chest containing gold, silver and jewels.

As mentioned last week, some of the students are creating their own ciphers or using ciphers they are familiar with to encipher their directions.  Others are writing rhymes or riddles and still others are using the tools on The Crypto Club website to encipher their messages.  Some are even trying the challenging Affine Cipher!

Around the World

Almost all of the classes played Around the World as a warm-up game this week.  Students sit in a circle and one person starts off by giving the name of a geographic location on Earth.  The next person has to come up with the name of a new geographic location that begins with the last letter of the word just given.  For example if the first name given is Penticton, the next name has to begin with an 'N'.  Each group quickly found out that a lot of places end in the letter 'A' and that you soon run out of 'A' names!

More Project Presentations

The Penticton Grade 4s and 5s heard presentations from:

• Jamie on 'The Eye of Horus' (info page and plasticine model)
• Isaac with a poster on the California Gold Rush
• Tessa who made a newspaper with a number of treasure related articles
• Joycey with a mini movie on types of gold and diamond objects in Minecraft

Some students who have presented their projects already, explored using the visual programming software Scratch to create maze games.

These are just a few of the things that we did this week.  Thanks for checking in!  I hope that the students and their families have an enjoyable Spring Break.  Gifted Program classes resume again the first week back after the break (the week of March 30th).

Remixing and a Robbery

Here's a look at some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted.

Identifying a Bank Robber

The Wednesday afternoon K - 2 class were taking care of some banking at the Gifted Program Bank of Penticton when it was robbed!  The bank robber made off with an unknown amount of cash and bonds.  Police interviewed witnesses immediately after the robbery to try and ascertain his or her identity.  It was discovered that the robber was a kid; a boy with light brown slightly wavy hair and blue eyes.  There was some disagreement as to the colour of shirt he was wearing.  It was notable that he was wearing shoes (as strangely most of the employees and customers were in their stocking feet.)  Unfortunately the bank robber has not been apprehended yet, but we think his name might be Graham...

After the robbery the class discussed different ways that we identify people and we looked at a sample BC Driver's license and a sample Canadian passport.  Students then worked on designing their own ID card or passport to use with the tunnel in for the Inventors' Workshop.  (The tunnel has a 'scanner' at one end to scan identification documents.)

Designing Our Own Inventions

The morning classes started to work on ideas for their own inventions.  Students will be deciding on an invention, researching whether it already exists, determining what components are needed for the invention, coming up with drawings and/or models of the invention as well as promoting it.  This will be an ongoing project.

Remixing

The Tuesday and Thursday classes discussed what a remix or a mash-up is.  We then did a quick 'Creature Construction' where each student is asked to draw a creature in three parts.  First, each student has a minute to draw a “head” for their creature. They fold the paper over so that the head is hidden, with little prompts for where to continue the drawing. After the head is hidden, they pass the creature to another student.  Next, each student has a minute to draw a “middle” for their creature, using the guides from the head, but without peeking! After the middles are hidden (and
prompts drawn), they pass the creatures on.  Finally, each student has a minute to draw a “bottom” for their creature. Once the creatures are complete, students unfold the papers to see the collaboratively constructed creatures.  The resulting creatures can be pretty funny looking! 

After that warm up activity students went onto the computers to make a Pass-It-On story in Scratch (see this earlier post for a description of Scratch).   Students had 10 minutes to set up a story; choosing a background, characters and adding movement and text.  Just like the 'Creature Construction' they then rotated to another student's story and added on to it.  We rotated one more time.  Through this process students got an opportunity to learn from each other by seeing how different things were programmed in Scratch.   (This lesson activity is adapted from session 7 in the Scratch Curriculum Guide).

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 ;-)