Field Trip, Open House, and the Last Class

The last few weeks have been busy ones!  Here are a few of the things we've been up to.

Field Trip

On May 5th the grade 3, 4 and 5s attended our annual field trip.  This year the trip was to Scandia Golf and Games in Kelowna.  How did this fit with our theme "X Marks the Spot!  The Search for Treasure."?  Well, for their projects this year many of the students noticed that a large percentage of games focus on finding a treasure.

At Scandia, students played games, had a pizza lunch and played mini-golf.  It was an enjoyable day! Thank you to all of the parent chaperones who volunteered their time; it was much appreciated!  Below are some photos from the trip (link).

Open House

The week after the field trip it was Open House week for the grade 1 - 3 classes.  Parents were invited to drop in and see what we've been up to.  Students showed parents their treasure slide shows and we did some geocaching.  Then it was back inside for students to share their treasure maps, as well as the directions and stories behind the maps.  A big thank you to all of the parents who were able to visit us!

Summerland grade 5s

Last Class

Last week was our last week of classes.   The grade 4s and 5s got to do some geocaching (finding the caches their peers hid a few weeks before) and we had a little party.  For the grade 5 students it was their last gifted class ever as the program only goes to grade 5.  We had a special activity to mark the occasion.  As you can see from the photos, things got a little mustache-y.

Penticton grade 5s

Thank You!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  It has been a wonderful year!

  

Geocache Madness!

This past week it was all about final project presentations and geocaching!

Projects

The Monday AIM class (grades 1 - 3) finished up their mapping projects.  All of the students have created interesting treasure maps and many of them have stories or instructions to go along with them.

The Tuesday ASPIRE class presented their projects to each other; they each created a map, 3D model of their booby trapped treasure, and then either enciphered directions to the treasure or a story to go along with it.  We ran out of time so are looking forward to a couple more presentations in the last class; these ones will involve deciphering some pretty tricky messages!

The Thursday AIM class presented their projects; treasure maps and enciphered directions.  We are still working our way through deciphering some of the messages (Iain used a keyword cipher, Caesar cipher and a letter to number cipher so he's keeping us pretty busy!)

Geocaching

Even though we were short on time, the Penticton 4s and 5s and the Summerland AIM and ASPIRE classes were all able to build, hide and record the coordinates for their geocaches.  Thank you to everyone who brought small toys to put in the geocaches.  During the last week of gifted classes we will get the opportunity to search for the caches!

Dates to Note

This Week (May 4th - 8th)

• No classes
• Field trip for grade 3 - 5s on Tuesday May 5th to Scandia in Kelowna.  
• Thank you to the parents who were able to volunteer to come as chaperones.  We wouldn't be able to do the trip without you!  

Next Week (May 11th - 15th)

• Final week of classes
• Open House for the AIM (grade 1 - 3) classes on Monday afternoon (Penticton) and Thursday afternoon (Trout Creek). 
• Parents are invited to drop in and see what we've been up to.  Stay for all or part of the class.

Dates To Be Announced

• End of year parent meetings

Geocache Designs

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

GPS Scavenger Hunt

This week it was the Penticton grade 1 - 3 group and the Penticton 4s that got to do the GPS scavenger hunt.  'Landmarks' around the school were marked with waypoints on our GPS devices.  Students had to determine what each of the six landmarks were, given a few helpful hints.  The students did an excellent job!

Creating Geocaches

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE groups as well as the Penticton 5s started planning their geocaches and scoping out locations.  Small teams of students will be creating geocaches which they will hide on the school ground for the other teams to find.  We need toys to leave in the geocaches.  Students have been asked to donate any small toys (e.g. the sort you might get in a loot bag) they might have at home to their geocaches.  Please do not purchase new toys--the idea is to empty out our closets a bit!

More Project Presentations

This week in the Penticton grade 4 class Ty presented his informative powerpoint presentation on Precious Stones and Jessica presented hers on Animals and Treasure.  In the Penticton grade 5 class, students got to try out two different games using the SmartBoard; Harjas and Oscar's Treasure Jeopardy Game and Fynn's (aka Willis) Treasure Video Game Jeopardy Game.  Their peers loved playing the games, which were well constructed and full of engaging questions.

SmartBoard Jeopardy Game

Reminders

Grade 3 - 5 Field Trip:

• If grade 3 - 5 students have not turned in their field trip permission forms and money please do so as soon as possible.
• Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to join us on the trip as chaperones; much appreciated!

Week of May 4th - 7th

• Field trip for grade 3 - 5 students on May 5th
• Regular classes are cancelled (there will be no Monday or Thursday afternoon classes, nor will there be any Wednesday classes).

Last Week of Classes May 11th - 14th

• Open House in the Monday and Thursday afternoon grade 1 - 3 classes.  Both a paper and digital invitation have been sent home.
• This week is the last week of Gifted Program classes for this school year.

Thanks for checking in and seeing what we've been up to this week!
    

More GPS Adventures!

More GPS Adventures!

Students were introduced to or received more experience using the GPS units this week.  The Penticton students hid tokens around the school playground and set waypoints on the GPS units at their locations.  The GPS units were then swapped around and students had fun finding the tokens that others had hidden.  The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE students did a scavenger hunt.  Students received the GPS units with waypoints already set on them.  The goal was to try and identify the 'landmarks' that the waypoints were marking.  The GPS units aren't terribly accurate, so hints were given to help narrow things down.

Penticton grade 4s using the GPS units to search for hidden tokens.

Projects

The Summerland ASPIRE class continued their work on their Treasure projects.  Finishing touches were put on the 3D models and some students were able to finish their encrypted treasure clues or  stories.  We're in the final stretch!

Field Trip

Permission forms were given to the grade 3, 4 & 5 students for the upcoming field trip to Scandia Golf and Games on May 5th.  Please return the forms and money as soon as possible.  

Thank you for checking in and finding out about a few of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

GPS Scavenger Hunts

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

GPS Scavenger Hunts

The GPS unit the students used.

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE classes as well as the Penticton 5s learned how to use the new GPS hand held units.  In pairs or small groups students hid tokens around the playground and marked their locations on the GPS units.  Each group then swapped their GPS unit with another group and searched for the other group's hidden tokens.  We learned that the devices are sometimes off by about 3 or 4 meters, so you have to still be very observant to find the tokens.  We'll be doing more with the GPS units in the weeks to come!

Project Presentations

There were some more great presentations this week.  Maia presented her comic strip on Blackbeard and Ricki presented her and Gebrielle's magazine about ancient Egypt.  The presentations were top notch as were the questions and appreciations from their peers!  The Penticton grade 4s and 5s continued to work on projects with many students creating animations or games using the visual computer programming language Scratch.

Field Trip!

Every year the older students in the Gifted Program are invited to go on a field trip related to our theme.  This year's theme is 'X Marks the Spot!  The Search for Treasure.'  One of the things that we have explored this year is that many of the games we play involve the search for treasure of some sort.  Some examples are digital games such as MineCraft or Geometry Dash and board games such as Labyrinth or Settlers of Catan.

For our field trip we will be going to Scandia Golf and Games in Kelowna.  Students will get to be treasure hunters; winning tickets when they play games, that they can then retrieve for prizes!  This trip is for grade 3, 4 and 5 students in the Gifted Program.  Detailed information about the trip was e-mailed to families on Friday and paper copies will go home next week.

Word Link and Encrypted Scavenger Hunt

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

Two Truths and a Lie

The Penticton grade 1 - 3 class played Two Truths and a Lie; a game that allows students to share a few of the things they got up to on the break.  Each student tells the class two true things that happened to them and one untrue.  The class has to decide which statement is untrue.  Students had fun trying to trick their peers!

Project Presentations

More students in the Penticton grade 4 and 5 classes presented their treasure research projects; George demonstrated the Indiana Jones board game that he made, Jessica and Logan shared their Power Point presentation on treasure in Minecraft, Marcus shared his Scratch animation on diamond mines, and Max, Jimmy and Graham shared their Scratch animation about Blackbeard.

Word Link

The Summerland ASPIRE class and the Penticton grade 4 and 5 classes played Word Link.  The group sits in a circle and one person starts by saying a word.  The next person has to say a word that links with the first word, the next person says a word that links with the second word and so on.  It is interesting to see where you end up.

Project Time

The Penticton grade 1-3 class continued to work on their treasure directions.
The Summerland ASPIRE students also worked on treasure directions.  (Josh has been creating some really interesting clues--I wish I could tell you more about it, but they are top secret!)  The ASPIRE class also worked on putting finishing touches on their 3D models.
The Penticton grade 4 and 5 classes worked on wrapping up their research projects, and those who are already done created mini-projects in Scratch or Audacity.

Enciphered Scavenger Hunt

Deciphered Clues

With the Easter weekend coming up and with our theme focused on the search for treasure it seemed like a good idea for the Summerland AIM class to do a scavenger hunt!  I created enciphered clues using the Treasure Hunt Clue Generator on cryptoclub.org.  Students worked together to decipher Caesar Ciphers, Letter to Number Ciphers, and a Keyword Cipher.  They had had practice using the Caesar Cipher before, but not the other two which they quickly picked up.



Thank you for checking in to see what we've been up to this week!

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).