January 13th to 16th

Here are a few of the things we did... this week in gifted!

Storytelling Continues

Julia Cox visited the rest of the Penticton classes this week.  Regardless of the grade, when Julia asked "would you like to hear another story" the answer was always a resounding yes!  Students learned how determine how quickly or loudly to read a passage by following the clues in the text and and in the images.  They also learned the importance of pauses to increase tension in a story.  The students will be able to put what they've learned to use in their audio recordings and in the storytelling activities and games that we play.

Grade 3/4 class.

Grade 5 class.

Grade 1/2 class.

Audacity

This week the AIM students were introduced to the audio recording software Audacity.  (Audacity is a free open source software program for recording and editing audio.  It can be downloaded here.)  They had the opportunity to explore and 'play' with the program.  They found out how to record audio, delete sections of audio, and add effects such as echoes, changing the pitch and speed, as well as reversing the audio.  In future classes they will be making audio recordings sharing what they have learned in the communication research project.

Researching and Writing Scripts

The ASPIRE students spent time doing more research on their communication topics.  Students will be sharing what they've learned by creating a short 'radio show' on their topic.  To prepare for their shows students spent time preparing their scripts.  We focused on ways to engage your listener.

Questions for Chris Walker

Next week Chris Walker, host of CBC Radio's Daybreak South, will be speaking to the Penticton grade 3, 4 and 5 students.  In preparation for his visit students listened to a segment from his show.  The Wednesday and Thursday classes enjoyed this segment on using the net to name your child.  They then spent time doing some research on Chris Walker and coming up with good questions to ask him when he visits.  Essentially, the students were asked to prepare to interview an interviewer!

Note: For the week of January 21st the Tuesday morning class is rescheduled to Thursday afternoon (12:30 - 2:30p) and the Wednesday morning class is rescheduled to Thursday morning (8:45 - 11:40a) so that students can hear Chris Walker.

Scytales

I wrote about scytales last week.  This week it was the AIM class' turn to try them out.  They enciphered their own messages, and deciphered messages created by their peers.  Some even experimented with using scytales to make enciphered drawings--neat!

And We're Back!

Winter Break is over and classes are up and running again!  Here are some of the things we did, this week in gifted.

My Winter Break in 3D

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE students were charged with making a 3D creation that represented something they did over the break.  They had 30 minutes and access to paper, tape, glue, markers, recycled items (egg cartons, plastic containers etc), play-dough and building toys.  The photos below show most of their creations, though not necessarily in their final form (link).

Scytales

The Summerland ASPIRE class were introduced to Scytales.  A scytale involves a cylinder wrapped with a strip of parchment (we used paper).  The message is written on the wound strip of parchment.  When it is unwound the order of the letters do not make any sense.  It is only by winding the parchment around a cylinder of the same diameter that the message can be deciphered.  

Storytelling with Julia Cox

Julia Cox, the Youth Librarian at Penticton Public Library, visited the Thursday classes.  Julia read stories to the students and discussed the fine art of storytelling.  Students learned about clues such as the size and amount of text on a page that let you know how quickly or loudly to read a passage.  She also talked about the importance of engaging your audience by making eye contact.  These are just a few of the many tips she shared.  The students in both classes were wonderful audiences.  When Julia would ask if they wanted to hear another story, the answer was always a unanimous "Yes!"  Julia will be visiting the other Penticton classes next week.

Fabulous Felt Flags Finished!

The Penticton grade 1-2 class picked up right where we left off in December.  At that time they were flag design experts, part way through assembling a flag of their own design in felt.  After this week's class, almost all of the students have finished putting together their flags.  Next week students will share their flags with their peers and explain why they chose the colours and symbols that they did.

Radio Shows

The Tuesday grade 3-4 class and the Wednesday and Thursday grade 5 classes worked on their communication research radio shows.  Students are finalizing their scripts and many have recorded some of the spoken word content of their show.

First Term Winding Down

This week was the last week of gifted classes for everyone except the AIM class (Monday's AIM class will continue up to and including December 16th.)  It has been a great first term!  Here are some of the things that we did to wind things up.

Marshmallow Challenge with the ASPIRE Group

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti, 1 metre of string, 1 metre of masking tape, 1 large marshmallow, and 18 minutes in which to build the tallest structure that will support the marshmallow.  This is the challenge that the ASPIRE class faced.  Working in pairs they attacked the task with enthusiasm!  The first successful towers were erected after just over half the time had elapsed.  Interestingly enough, these were the only successful towers to be built within the time limit.  Marshmallows, it seems, are heavier than they look!

After the challenge we discussed the difficulties the task presented and what worked for the two successful groups.  The Marshmallow Challenge and the lessons learned from how people tackle it are described in this TED Talk by Tom Wujec.  Interestingly, recent MBA graduates do consistently poorly on this challenge, while recent kindergarten graduates do consistently well.  Last year the Penticton classes did the Marshmallow Challenge and I wrote about it here.

Radio Shows

The Penticton grade 3 to 5s continued to work on turning their communication research into a short radio show.  Many of the students are close to completion.  We listened to some great work by the following students:

• 'Bug Talk' by Jordan and Braiden on how ants communicate
• Connor's show about binary and ASCII
• Nicola's breaking news about Braille

Each of these projects demonstrated key aspects of audio recording that we had been learning about; providing appropriate music / sound effects, speaking clearly, and making the material interesting and engaging.  There are lots of other great projects nearing completion, and others we just didn't have time to listen to this week.  Students will get to hear those when we meet again in January.

Flag Construction

As I've mentioned on earlier posts, the grade 1 and 2 class has been doing a lot of work on flags.  Last week they designed their own flags and drew sketches.  This week we attempted to recreate their flag designs, first using construction paper and then using felt.  This was more ambitious than I had anticipated, but the students were very patient and did a great job.  We just didn't have quite enough time to finish all of the flags, but hopefully we will complete them in our next class in January.  Below are photos of two completed flags.

Gerry's flag

Katie's flag

Research, Audio and Storytelling

The AIM students continued with their communication research this week.  Some of the students also started to learn how to use Audacity; the software we are using to record audio.

AIM students also tried their hand at writing and presenting 5 card photo stories.  In previous weeks the ASPIRE class as well as the Penticton grade 5s did this same activity.  Students were shown the photos below and asked to come up with and present a story to the class that involves all five of the images.  We talked about the basics of a good story and then the students got down to it!  We were treated with some very funny stories.  After each story students were asked to give appreciations; pointing out what the storyteller did well in their story.  Students are getting quite good at giving specific, positive, and constructive feedback!

Below are the photos that were the basis of the stories (link).

Schedule

The ASPIRE class and the Penticton classes have wrapped up for the first term.  AIM class (Summerland grade 1 - 3) will continue up to and including December 16th.  Classes for everyone resume the week of January 6th which is the first week back at school after winter break.  You can view a calendar with key dates for our classes here.

Recording, Storytelling, & Designing Flags

Here are some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted.

Research

This week all of the grade 3 - 5 students started or continued researching their topics under the broad theme of communication.  A few bugs were worked out in Trout Creek that lead to things working better on the computers for the ASPIRE group.

Designing Flags

As was mentioned in two earlier posts, the Penticton grade 1-2 group has been learning about flags and the basics of good flag design.  This week they put what they learned into practice by sketching out designs for their own flags.  It was difficult to stick to using just a small number of colours, but I think you'll agree, that these students have come up with some wonderful designs.  Next class they will be making good copies of their favourite flag designs.

Recording

The Penticton grade 3 - 5 students continued to work with Audacity again this week.  The goal was to record what they had learned from their research.  Once they have that audio, they can start to add music, an intro and any other sound effects that will compliment their work.  The students are learning a lot and are enjoying sharing the tips and tricks that they are picking up as they go.

Last Week of Classes

The week of December 2nd is the last week of classes for the ASPIRE group as well as for all of the Penticton classes (*AIM classes will continue running up to and including December 16th).  That means that there will be 2 weeks where students are attending their home classes, but not attending gifted class.  During this time I will be conducting assessments for new students who have been referred to the Gifted Program.  Gifted Program classes will resume for all students the week of January 6th (the first week back after winter break).  In January I will be sending home a brief report of each student's progress in Term 1.

WW II Deception, More Flags, and Audacity

What a week!

Audacity

Last week the Penticton grade 3, 4 and 5s tried to work with the audio software Audacity, but the technology was not working for most students.  This week was a whole different story.  Everyone was able to get the software working and students started recording, editing, playing with effects, downloading music and sounds...  the list goes on!  This class was all about 'playing' with the software and finding out what it could do.  Students were encouraged to take risks.  It was exciting to see how engaged the students were, and to see them sharing their new found expertise with each other.  At times it was very loud in the classroom (something about recording your voice makes students yell) and at others it was very quiet as students listened through their headsets to their recordings.

World War Two Presentation

The Summerland classes (AIM and ASPIRE) were treated to a presentation by ASPIRE parent and World War Two history enthusiast, Myron Dueck.  Mr. Dueck created a presentation that discussed WWII in the context of our theme; Top Secret Communication.  Mr. Dueck gave students a brief summary of the events leading up to WWII as well as the war itself.  He talked about the Enigma Machine, which the students had been introduced to in an earlier class, as well as methods of deception used by the different sides in both WWI and WWII.

USS West Mahomet in dazzle camouflage, 1918. 

One method of deception that Mr. Dueck describes was the use of dazzle camouflage .  It was used on ships mostly in WWI .  Instead of trying to camouflage something as large as a ship, the idea was to paint it to make it difficult to tell what type of ship it was, how many ships there were, and which way the ship(s) were heading.  The photo to the left shows a ship with dazzle camouflage.

In addition to the images in his slide presentation, Mr. Dueck also brought in some artifacts from his WWII collection.  The grade 1 and 2 class, who are currently learning about flags, would have been interested to see the German flag from a U-boat.  It was specially constructed to enable it to withstand being submerged in water.  Students also got to see a bayonet, as well as some ceremonial daggers, a grenade (empty of course) as well as other items.

The students had lots of questions and the hour that we had originally planned on for the presentation stretched out for almost an hour and a half and at that, Mr. Dueck left them wanting more!  A big thanks to Mr. Dueck for giving this presentation, and a thank you as well to the AIM parents for accommodating a change in schedule so that the AIM students could also be there for this presentation.

More Flags

The Grade 1 and 2 class continued to learn more about flags this week.  First of all, the students looked at flags from various countries and discovered that there are 6 main flag colours: red, blue, yellow, green, black and white.  Other colours are used, but they tend to be less common.  We wondered what Penticton's flag looked like.  Did you know that it looks like this?

Penticton's flag.

The students quickly figured out what the different symbols on the flag represented.  We then looked looked at the North American Vexillological Association's 'Good Flag, Bad Flag' section to learn more about good flag design.  The students quickly learned that with flag design, you really want to keep it simple, avoid complicated designs or lettering and stick with 2 - 3 basic colours.  Next class students will be designing their own flags.  We'll see how they follow the guidelines of good flag design.

Thanks for reading and finding out what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Research and Flags

Here are some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted.

Flags!

The Wednesday afternoon grade 1-2 class started looking at flags as a way that we communicate who we are.  We looked at the Canadian flag that is flying out front at Wiltse Elementary.  We brought the flag down to the bottom of the flagpole and many of us were surprised at how big it was.  We talked about what it means when a flag is at half-mast.  The students then went on the computer to explore different flags of the world.  Many of the students were inspired to make coloured sketches of the flags they found.  Below is a slideshow with some of our favourite flags.  Included are some of the student sketches and then some of our favourites (the flag images came from Flags of the World and The World Flag Database.)  

Researching Topics in Communication

Last week students brainstormed a variety of possible topics under the broad theme of communication.  This week the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday grade 3, 4 and 5 classes all spent some time doing research on their topic.  The ASPIRE students (Summerland gr 4 & 5) faced challenges as the computer system was operating very S L O W L Y.  The students are finding out some interesting things in their research.  For instance, Olivia found out that when there is a noisy background frogs communicate by flapping their hind feet in the air.  Who knew?

Audio Recording with Audacity

The Wednesday and Thursday morning grade 5 classes have been the guinea pigs for trying out Audacity.  Audacity is a free open source software program for recording and editing audio (it can be downloaded here).  We will be using this program to record our radio shows.  We encountered a few problems with the program not launching, so not all were able to try it out.  Great problem solving though by Connor and Josh.  Hopefully the bugs are worked out now and it will work for everyone.  

The Wrap Up

These were a few of the things we did this week.  Thanks for checking in with us!

Brainstorming, Scytales and Straw Bridges

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

Brainstorming

This week all of the students in grades 3 to 5 brainstormed topics to research under the broad heading of communication.  We started out with each class as a group suggesting topics. 

Communication Research Topic Ideas

Then students worked individually or in pairs; writing topic ideas on post-it notes and sticking them onto large sheets of paper.  Using post-it notes meant that if a student wrote down an idea and wasn't happy with it (either the idea, or that it was misspelled or messy) they could just discard it.  Handy for those perfectionists in the group.  It also meant that they could move ideas around on their page and group similar ideas together. 

Post-it note brainstorm

We talked about the DOVE principal of brainstorming:

D--Defer judgement

O--Oddball or outrageous ideas encouraged

V--Vast number of ideas

E--Expand or elaborate on ideas

The hardest DOVE principal for most students is deferring judgement.  We talked about how the key is to start getting ideas down.  Because one idea often leads to another, and another.  Eventually you end up with an idea that really strikes your fancy!  At times in the brainstorming process we stopped and looked at the ideas others were coming up with.  The ideas we liked, we borrowed, or they made us think of new ideas.

After brainstorming, some of the classes were able to start researching the communication topic in which they were most interested.  All of the grade 3, 4 and 5s will be spending time more time on this research in upcoming classes.

Scytales

What is a scytale?  Ask our grade 1 & 2 Wednesday afternoon class!  We continued our exploration of steganography (hidden messages) by creating our own scytales.  Scytales have been in use since at least the 7th century.  A message is encrypted by wrapping a strip of paper (parchment or leather were used in earlier times) around a cylinder.  The message is then written on the paper.  When the paper is unwound, it just looks like a random collection of letters.  To decipher the message, it must be wound around a cylinder of the same diameter as was used originally.  We used long strips of paper and wound them around some wooden cylinders.  At home you could use cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls or wrapping paper rolls.

Straw Bridge Challenge

The Summerland ASPIRE class did the Straw Bridge Challenge.  Last week they were given the instructions for this challenge, but they were encrypted.  Students had to use their code breaking savvy to decrypt the instructions.  This week it was time to do the challenge.  Each small group of students were given 

• 15 thin drinking straws
• 25 cm of masking tape
• 1 pair of scissors

The goal was to make a bridge that spanned a 30 cm gap and was strong enough to support a coffee can.  The can could be rested on the top of the bridge, or suspended below the bridge using string.  The next part of the challenge was to see how many golf balls could be placed in the coffee can before the bridge collapsed.  

This activity encouraged students to think creatively.  They also had to be able to communicate well with their partner(s).  Below are photos of some of the bridges as they were being built:

 

The photos above show three very different approaches to the bridge structure.  The top bridge was the strongest; holding the coffee can and 2 golf balls.

Non-Verbal Communication

Finally, all of the classes have been looking at non-verbal communication.  Whether it is by playing Charades / Funny Faces or by acting out a narrative walk.  So beware; the students are becoming skilled at interpreting the non-verbal signs we all transmit! 

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