Trustee Visit, Roving Reporters, and Upcoming Events

Trustee Visit

The AIM and ASPIRE classes played host to school trustee Linda Beavan this week.  The students did a great job of showing Mrs. Beavan some of the things that we have been working on.  The AIM students shared their mini radio shows with her and impressed her with their knowledge of how to work with audio.  The ASPIRE students explained how the Caesar cipher works and then got down to solving a Caesar cipher challenge called Desert Oasis on the Crypto Club website.  Mrs. Beavan appreciated the warm welcome students gave her, and the opportunity to see what we do in the Gifted Program.  We appreciated her taking the time to visit!

Roving Reporters

The Penticton grade 1/2 class continued their Roving Reporter project.  They have been recording interviews with fellow students where they have been asking about people's favourite things (tools, candy, movies, colours...)  In the process they are learning about how to record and edit audio.

Improv Bingo

The Penticton grade 5 classes as well as the AIM class played Improv Bingo this week.  Students did an excellent job in their small groups sharing ideas and they came up with inventive and very funny skits!

Field Trip Update

The following classes will be going on a field trip to Kelowna to visit CBC Radio and Global Okanagan TV:
- ASPIRE class (Tuesday April 29th)
- Penticton grade 5s (Tuesday April 29th)
- Penticton grade 3/4s (Thursday May 1st)
Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to chaperone!

Radio Shows Wrapping Up

Most of the students have completed their mini-radio shows or are almost there.  In the coming weeks I will be talking to students about sharing their shows on Peach City Radio and sending home permission slips in order for their work to be aired.

Upcoming Events

Below is a listing of upcoming events.  These events can also be found on the calendar here.

Wednesday April 23rd
SD 67 2014/15 Budget presentation to the public.  6:30p Penticton High School Library.

Tuesday April 29th
Penticton grade 5s and ASPIRE class field trip to CBC radio and Global Okanagan TV in Kelowna.

Thursday May 1st
Penticton grade 3/4 class field trip to CBC radio and Global Okanagan TV in Kelowna.

Monday May 5th
AIM Open House: Parents/Guardians of AIM students are invited to join us for all or part of the class.  Students will have a chance to show you what we've been up to.  12:30 - 2:30p in Portable #2 at Trout Creek Elementary.

Wednesday May 7th
Penticton grade 1/2 class Open House: Parents/Guardians of students in the Penticton grade 1/2 class are invited to join us for all or part of the class.  Students will have a chance to show you what we've been up to.  12:30 - 2:30p in room 32 at Wiltse Elementary.

Last Week of Gifted Classes May 12th to 15th.

After classes wrap up I hope to meet with every student's parent to discuss how the year went and to plan for next year.

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

Unexpected Visitors

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

Cheap Cheap!

The Penticton grade 1/2 class had some unexpected visitors this week.  At the beginning of class we were lucky enough to be visited by the new baby chicks that Dija's family had just picked up.  Who would have thought that 24 two day old chicks could be so noisy... and so cute!  Their stay was brief, but memorable.  Children were able to hold the little brown fluff balls.  The chicks were so noisy that they attracted the attention of the junior kindergarten class next door who ended up coming over and having a look.  Thank you to Dija's parents for bringing the chicks by.

Field Trip Forms Rolling In

As mentioned last week the Summerland ASPIRE class as well as the Penticton grade 3 - 5 classes will be visiting CBC Radio and Global Okanagan Television (CHBC) in Kelowna.  One group will be going up on April 29th (ASPIRE and Pen gr 5s), the other on May 1st (Pen gr 3s and 4s).  Thank you to everyone who has returned their permission forms and money.  Thank you also to those parents who have volunteered to come on the trip as chaperones.  I still need a few more parent chaperones, so if you are able to help out please contact me.  If your child hasn't returned their forms yet, please do so for the next class.  Thank you!

Radioland

We are nearing the end of our radio project; many students have completed a mini show and some are working on a second (or third!!) episode.  We've learned a lot during this project about how to edit audio, import music, fade music in and out and some classes have learned what the mysterious Auto Duck feature does.  

Pigpen Cipher

The past couple of weeks we've been decoding messages that were enciphered using the Pigpen Cipher, pictured to the left.  Enciphered messages look complicated, but the cipher is actually very easy to use and to remember.  The pigpen cipher is thought to have been used since at least the 18th century.  In popular culture the pigpen cipher shows up in the Dan Brown novel The Lost Symbol, in the 39 Clues series of children's books, as well as some video games.  (Image and information from Wikipedia, accessed April 12th, 2014) 

To the right is a message enciphered using the pigpen cipher.

Can you tell what it says?  It is the name of a game that many of the classes played this week.  Students listened to the sounds below and tried to identify what they were.  We talked about how sounds can evoke other sensations and memories.  For example the sound of a lawnmower may remind you of a warm summer day or the smell of freshly cut grass.  

Below is the answer key, enciphered of course!

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

Newspaper Tables & Intermediate Field Trip

From the sounds of things the students had a relaxing Spring Break.  They were ready to dive back into our activities though, and here are some of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

Field Trip 2014

It is time once again for the intermediate field trip.  The Summerland ASPIRE class as well as the Penticton grade 3 - 5 classes will be visiting CBC Radio and Global Okananagan Television (CHBC) in Kelowna!  The ASPIRE and grade 5 classes will go up together on April 29th while the Penticton grade 3/4 classes will go up together on May 1st.  Students took home information on the trip and permission forms.  I also e-mailed copies of the forms on Friday.  If you have any questions about the trip, please let me know.


Field Trip 2014

Newspaper Table Design Challenge

Last month the ASPIRE class took up the challenge (here), this week it was the Penticton Grade 5 classes chance to give it a whirl!  The challenge is to build a table that can support a heavy textbook.  The table has to be at least 20 cm high and you can only use the following materials:

• 8 sheets of newspaper
• masking tape (unlimited)
• 8.5" by 11" piece of cereal box cardboard  

Prior to receiving the materials, we discussed potential designs, and we looked at how rolling the newspaper into a skinny tube resulted in very strong supports.  Students then sketched out their designs and got to it!  Lots of students incorporated triangles in their structures, some cut their tubes into smaller lengths to make straightforward table legs, others went crazy with the masking tape.  Students who finished up fairly quickly challenged themselves further by seeing if they could fortify their structures so that they could hold up 2 or 3 heavy textbooks.  See below for photos of tables being constructed or click here.

Radio Projects

While the grade 5 classes did the paper table challenge, the other classes continued on with their radio shows.  The AIM students were putting the final touches on their shows as well as coming up with some funny advertisements.  The grade 1/2 class continued to explore using Audacity with a focus on importing in music.  Many students have got their first show "in the can" so to speak.  Soon I hope to be able to put together a couple of half hour episodes featuring the radio students have produced.  

Peach City Radio!

This week: visits from Peach City Radio!

Peach City Radio 

Most of the classes were visited by board members from Peach City Radio. We learned that Peach City Radio is a community radio station and is run entirely by volunteers.  Currently Peach City Radio streams online (here) and also archives shows for on-demand listening (here).  I have attended a number of workshops and information sessions that Peach City Radio has hosted and they have been instrumental in me being better able to help the students with their work.

Each of the presenters from Peach City Radio gave their unique perspective on and experience with radio.  We listened to segments from each of their shows and students asked lots of great questions about making radio.  Below are photos of each of our visitors.

In most of the classes our guests were able to listen to the radio shows that students have been working on.  Students were able to ask questions one-on-one and receive feedback from radio experts!  This was a real highlight for both the students and our guests.

In almost all of the visits each class recorded some station IDs for Peach City Radio (the entire class reciting "We're listening to Peach City Radio" or something similar).  The station IDs recorded by Tim Tweed with the Tuesday morning class will air on the stream tomorrow, Monday March 17th, at 9:59 am (Tenatious-T shout out) and 1:30 pm (Peach City Radio shout out).

Peach City Radio has offered to host our student shows!  In the weeks ahead I will be putting together half hour episodes containing student content.  Before any student work is posted, parental consent will be sought as well as permission from the students.

Our guests, and the shows that we listened to were as follows:

Jackie Del Rizzo

• visited the AIM class
• does the Penticton Top 40 Under 40 show
• we listened to part of this show as well as some other clips that Jackie brought

Tim Tweed (the Tenacious T!)

• visited the Tuesday morning grade 3/4 class
• does Sounds From the Tenacious Hi-Fi, Under Cover, and Arts on the Radio
• we listened to part of this Under Cover show about musical plagiarism

Craig Henderson

• visited the ASPIRE class and the Thursday afternoon grade 3/4 class
• does Craig in the Community, segments of Meadowlark on the Air, and writer and producer of The Big Broadcast
• we listened to part of Craig's interview with talented voice actor Alan Marriott as well as this ad recorded live at The Big Broadcast

Larry Saidman

• visited the Wednesday grade 5 class
• does Larry Saidman's Top 200 Albums of All Time
• we listened to part of this show where Larry interviews local musician Spengla Yves

Dave Del Rizzo

• visited the Thursday grade 5 class
• does Left Off the Dial and Caught in the Act
• we listened to part of this Left Off the Dial show as well as to some other clips that Dave brought

Trustees Stopped In

Also joining us this week for one of the Peach City Radio visits were School District 67 trustees Ginny Manning and Linda Van Alphen.  They enjoyed getting a chance to listen to the student projects as well as to see the students in action as they worked on their shows.  It was a great opportunity to showcase what we do in the Gifted Program.  

Thank You!

A big thank you to all of our guests this week for taking time out from their busy schedules to come and share their expertise and to find out a little more about what we've been up to!

Grade 1/2 Class Experiments With Audacity

The Penticton Grade 1/2 class has been involved in recording 2 short stories, but up until this week they hadn't had a chance to use the audio recording software Audacity.  As with the other classes their first introduction was a chance to play and experiment.  The students quickly figured out how to record their voices and then they were off and running, trying out various effects.  There was a lot of uproarious laughter as they listened to their voices sped up, slowed down, with echoes etc.  After the break we will experiment more with Audacity.

Spring Break

We're off on Spring Break now.  Classes will resume again the week of March 31st and continue until the May long weekend.  After that time I will be meeting with all parents to discuss how the year went and to plan for next year.  This is also when I do assessments for students who have been referred to the Gifted Program. 

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

Paper Tables, Improv Bingo, and The Dead Ringer

Lots of different activities this week!

Paper Tables: The Design Challenge

The ASPIRE class finished up the design challenge that they started last week.  The challenge was to build a table at least 20 cm high that would support a heavy textbook.  The trick?  Students only had access to 8 sheets of newspaper, masking tape, and one 8.5 x 11" sheet of card stock with which to build the table.  It was fascinating watching the students build their structures.  There were quite a variety of methods and designs implemented.  At times students were discouraged or worried that their design wasn't working out.  In the end though, success and lots of big smiles!  Below are photos of the different designs (link).

Improv Bingo and Funny Faces

The AIM class continued to hone their communication skills by playing Improv Bingo.  A character, place, goal, obstacle and object are chosen at random and small groups of students create skits incorporating all of these.   For example, one skit involved a rubber man at the library trying to cross the finish line but a book wouldn't open and he needed to use an egg beater.  One of the challenges is working together with others to agree upon a skit.  The students are getting quite good at positively sharing their ideas and compromising when necessary.

The Penticton grade 1/2 class played a different drama game, called Funny Faces.  It is very similar to charades and requires students to act out characters or activities while the rest of the class tries to guess who they are / what they are doing.  Students are getting quite good at using and interpreting non-verbal cues.

The Dead Ringer

The Penticton grade 5 groups looked into the story of the Dead Ringer.  In a previous class some students shared that they had heard a news story that stated the technician responsible for the Olympic ring that did not open in the Sochi Olympics opening ceremonies was killed by the Russian government.  This week we investigated this further.

Students read the original story (here) and discussed whether they thought it was true.   One student noticed that one of the witnesses in the article was Guy Lafleur of the Canadian bobsled team.  Wasn't Guy Lafleur a famous Montreal Canadiens hockey player?  Hmm.  Some other elements of the story seemed fishy too.

Eventually students started to search to see how this story was reported by other news agencies.  Other students decided to find out a little more about the agency that originally reported the story.  After some searching it was discovered that this story was a hoax and that the site that originally posted it, The Daily Currant, was a news satire site.

We discussed how easy it is today to forward on 'news' stories.  Often people do it without really thinking about what they are reading is true.  We talked about questioning the credibility of the source the story comes from.  We also talked about how easy it often is to do a quick search to find out if the story is a hoax or not.  It was a neat exercise in critical thinking that opened up a lot of discussion.

Radio Shows

Many of the classes continued to work on their radio shows.  Lots of students are finishing up their first show and starting in on a new project, whether it be another episode of their show, fake advertisements, logos etc.  Next week, members of Peach City Community Radio Society will be visiting many of the classes to talk about community radio.  We're looking forward to what they have to share!

Thank you for taking the time to read about what we've been doing... This Week In Gifted!

Logos, Design Challenge, 5 Card Photo Stories, and 'A Squash and a Squeeze'

Logos, tables made from paper, and 5 card photos stories.  These are some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted!

Logos

Last week the ASPIRE group and the Penticton grade 5s investigated good logo design and tried their hand and designing their own logos, either for their own radio show or for the Creation Station.  This week is was time for the AIM group and the Penticton grade 3/4 group to give it a whirl.  First we looked at logos that had been divided into 2 groups.  The students had to decide why the logos were placed into each group.  In the end we discovered that one group represented logos that followed good design principles (simple, few colours, images that related to the product) and the other group did not.  Below are the slides that we viewed (link).  Student then worked on their own logos.

Paper Table Design Challenge

The ASPIRE group was given the challenge of building a table that was at least 20 cm high and that would support a heavy textbook.  Their materials?  8 sheets of newspaper, masking tape, and a 22 x 28 cm sheet of thin cardboard.  We'll be finishing the tables next week, but the photos below show where we are so far.  Many different designs are being attempted, it will be interesting to see how they work out!  (link)

5 Card Photo Stories

The Penticton grade 5 groups knocked my socks off (yet again) with their creative stories that were based upon 5 photos that I showed them.  The stories were creative, dramatic, surprising and inspiring.

A Squash and a Squeeze

Last week the Penticton grade 1/2s did a great job on the radio play of the story of Chicken Little.  This week we tackled 'A Squash and a Squeeze' by Julia Donaldson.  I'll post the audio once it has been edited.  

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

Logos and Radio Plays

This week we worked on Logos, Charades, and a Radio Play!

Logos

The ASPIRE class as well as the Penticton grade 5 classes learned about good logo design and then got to try their hand at designing a logo for the Creation Station or their own radio show!  Prior to our logo activity some of the students had already been working on logos.  It was interesting to see how they reworked their designs after our activity taking into account the principles of good design.  I'll describe the logo activity in more detail next week after the other classes have completed it.

Charades

The AIM class as well as the Penticton grade 3/4 classes participated in the Charades activity which I described last week.  There are a few students who have an amazing ability to guess the right answer almost every time and many more who do an excellent job of communicating their clues non-verbally!

Radio Play

The Penticton grade 1/2 class knocked my socks off with their reading of the story 'Chicken Little'.  We did it as a radio play with each student reading the part of a character or the narrator.  Once the recording has been edited I'll post the link here.  There are many versions of Chicken Little; here is a link to the script that we used.

Audio Thank You Card

This week we sent off our audio thank you card to Chris Walker.  Chris visited the Penticton grade 3 - 5 classes in January (you can read about it here).  Here is a link to the card (https://soundcloud.com/ctworkschool/thank-you-chris-quiet)  The choral parts were spoken by the Tuesday grade 3/4 class and the Thursday grade 5 class.  The individual comments were made by students from the Wednesday grade 5 class.  We received the following in response:

Thanks for taking the time to read about a few of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!