Genius Hour in Action

So our Genius Hour projects are now underway.  I am still struggling with pushing kids to some higher thinking projects but overall I feel that this year has been more productive than years past.  Students were given more time to choose their passion, which I feel in turn is producing higher level projects.   

Here are a few pics from our Genius Hour projects in the making.

Josie is making Easter eggs out of yarn, food coloring, and balloons.  Can't wait to see how they turn out.

I have lots of 6th graders who want to use the 3D pen for their Genius Hour projects BUT I am not an expert in this area yet.  I tapped my new friend, Mrs. Chumbley, the Anderson Teen Public Librarian, to come in and help us troubleshoot.  The great thing is she also brought another 3D Doodler so my students could get more accomplished.  In this video she is promoting her MakerFair coming up in June.

You can see the pink "K" that one of the Genius 6th graders created.

Brayden builds a crane...still problem shutting some things.

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Mercedes created 3D glasses with the 3D Doodler pen.

Liz is making her characters out of pipe cleaners for her stop motion movie.

Kayla building her characters.

Play Brennen's Game (he is still working out some problems)

https://flowlab.io/game/view/372003

Keenan showing us the 3D Motor Model he is building.

  

Kyle discusses his process for making a lava lamp.  Click here to take a look.

Logan explores the world of circuits, while creating a pocket fan to keep you cool.

Austin controls his computer games with the Makey Makey.  

Zachary shares his Incredibox music.  Click here to listen.

3D Doodler Pen Creations

Brayden builds a CRANE!

Sophia makes a FLIP BOOK!

Emily makes a DUCT TAPE pencil holder.  It was a huge success and I think she may be taking orders.

Haley is working on her hair bows.

Mallory is working on a 3D volleyball.

Katie shares how she made her tissue paper pom-pom balls.

Abby creates a Stop Motion video with Legos.

Maggie's Movie

Brennen makes another video game.  Are you up for the challenge?

Andrew creates a STOP MOTION Star Wars video.  What better way to celebrate "May the 4th Be With You Day."

Stop Motion Fun by Lily C. and Hannah

(pretty good for their first time)

Maker week in the Media Center

I am introducing Makerspaces into our Media Center/Library this week.  My kindergarteners eased into making by simply making a stone and a stick out of paper to use during our storytime of the book Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry.  If you haven't read the book you need to know that the two main characters are a stick and a stone.  The two of them build a friendship by helping each other out through tough situations.  Here is a picture of by friends with creations.

My first graders read Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett.  This is a beautiful book about how a young girl, Annabelle, connects a small town with a magical box of yarn.  

                                      

After we read the book we became MAKERS and created our own magical sticks by using sticks and yarn.  The students had so much fun walking around and casting spells on each other.  This was a simply activity but they loved it.  

My third graders were introduced to our new Makerspaces today.  To say they were excited was an understatement.  I spent the entire class going over expectations and setting them up on Google Slideshow so they have a format to blog about their learning process once they start with their Makerspaces.  One of my fellow maker colleagues created this Innovative Menu, which is what I will allow students to pick their Maker projects from.  It was fun for me to see all of my students excited about these new spaces and they were disappointed they didn't get to start making today.  Even my less enthusiastic students were asking "can we get started."  I can't wait to see what they create.  

A few MakerSpace projects created by 3rd graders

Kuren -necklace, Sophia stuffed pig, Molly-guitar

Fourth graders are in the process of filming their NUTRITION videos.  They are using Green Screen, iPads, or flip camera formats.  Stay tuned for their creations.

Fifth graders are creating IMAGE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES COLLAGES.  We have learned about citing sources, gathering good images, finding free images, and design techniques.  Stay tuned for our amazing creations.  This is an example of what they are creating.

Sixth graders are deep into creating their PITCHES to their in-house classmates and posting their PITCH videos on their blogs for their out-of-house partners to provide feedback on.  As soon as they receive two green lights from their pitches they will start making their GENIUS HOUR projects.  Stay tuned for their GENIUS HOUR creations.  

                                       

Spring Book Fair was a BLAST!

     We just wrapped up our spring book fair.  Peace, love, and books was our theme.  We traveled back to the 70s for this wonderful literature adventure.  

     We had the best fair to date!  We sold $10,734.75 in products, we donated $395.48 to our "Loose" change contest (this is a wonderful service project for our kids because they bring in money that we keep for more books and Scholastic matches it and donates that much in books to distressed kids), we had a radical tee-shirt tee-shirt decorating contest, gnarley poster contest raffle, and amazing teacher participation.  I could not host my amazing book fairs without the help of my parent volunteers.  Thank you so much.  Take a look at this slideshow of some captured memories.  Enjoy.


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If you'd rather view individual pics rather than a slide show click here.

So what happens during a week in the Media Center with your child?

I decided to do one blog post about a typical week in the Media Center. Many parents don't understand what their child is learning about when they come to the Summit Media Center. Many adults still tend to think back to the days when they went into the library occassionally to check a book in or out. Well, I wanted to bring you into my world for a brief moment. The Summit Media Center is an ever evolving place that is inspiring your children to jump into things that interest him or her, explore topics he or she is interested in, invent or reinvent new and old items, and yes we still encourage a love of reading and helping inspire students to be lifelong learners. Here are some projects that were created over the last few weeks in the Media Center, formally known as the library.  You may even see someone you recognize.  If not I encourage you to follow my blog (you can do so on the right side of the blog) as this is the best outlet for me to communicate with you what Summit students are exploring in the Media Center.

6th graders are exploring their Interests and Passions. They are setting up blogs to reflect on their thinking. They are watching videos and exploring websites to help them create amazing Genius Hour Projects. If you have some of these items at home we could use them to help our 6th graders create some great projects.
Legos 
Building Blocks (Licoln Logs, or anything of the like) 
Jewerly Making Kits
 Duct Tape 

Take a look at how some of our 6th graders responded on a Interest Survey, which was given to help them reflect on their interests and passions.  

Summary

The videos that I watched were?

Question	Count
woman learns to dance	15
middle schooler creaters own apps	13
lion attack warning system	9
Caine's Arcade	13
saving trees one paper towel at a time	0
one man beat box	4
skateboarder	2
30 day challenge	2
ketchup bottle redesign	4

woman learns to dance	15	68.2%
middle schooler creaters own apps	13	59.1%
lion attack warning system	9	40.9%
Caine's Arcade	13	59.1%
saving trees one paper towel at a time	0	0%
one man beat box	4	18.2%
skateboarder	2	9.1%
30 day challenge	2	9.1%
ketchup bottle redesign	4	18.2%

What is something you can make?

I can make good jokes

cookies

a giant crown

i can make shoes on paper and logos for businesses

....I can make a drawing..

I can write a book.

A cake

i can make a box

a drawing.

soccer ball

I can make a box.

I can translate books between Farsi,English,and french

a robot

A box

A drawling

drawings

Pillows

alarm for intruders

Did you post a reponse on Padlet?

Yes	21
No	0

Yes	21	100%
No	0	0%

What is the biggest problem facing America?

people not helping people out

poverty

There are too many people in this world, and no one can get along. I know that it doesn't only affect America, but the Earth as a whole.

people not recycling.

Reffuges

terorists pretending to be refugees

refuges

Terrorism

People not getting enough food or water or shelter

Income

Poverty

Poverty

Syrian reffugees

isis

Homeless

What is the biggest problem facing someone living in Anderson Township?

taxes

Heroin

disrespect

The Bengals can not win a playoff game.

The roads have cracks and pot holes

drunk drivers

i have no idea.

Running out of chipoltle

the cincinnati bengals cant win a playoff game

IDK

Poverty

Tax increase

Taxes

heroin-addicts

I have no idea. I guess it depends on the person.

What is the biggest problem facing kids today?

Bad Schools

second hand smoke

Drugs for kids

Drugs

abuse

stress of schools

drugs

 

5th graders just completed creating book trailers.  This is a project that involves them collaborating with a group, reading the same book, creating a storyboard for their book review, gather images from Google Images, learning about citing sources, and then compiling these into a website called Animoto, which guides students into creating professional looking book trailers.  Take a look at this blog post to view the students trailers.  Hopefully you will be inspired to read the books after watching the trailers.

  

5th graders are also learning about quick research and presentation skills. They were given an image from the Civil Rights Movement of which they had to use prior knowledge and research new knowledge of what was happening in the picture. They collaborated on Google Docs about their research with a partner. Next week they will present their knowledge with no notes, simply with an image and their learned knowledge. This encourages them to think about what they are telling the audience and not simply read a slide to us. This sounds easy but can be extremely challenging.  This is an important skill for 21st Century Learners to have. They must be able to successfully present a topic to an audience.

Here are some students discussing their image.

Here are the kids reflecting on the image on a Google Doc after conducting some research.

Here is a video of students presenting their image messages to the audience.  They were not permitted to use notes.  They simply had to talk about their image.  We discussed some keys traits of a great presentation before we started such as:

1.)  Eye Contact 

2.)  Face your audience

3.)  Voice tone

4.)  Be organized

Click here to see one of our presentations.

4th graders....we are collaborating with Mrs. Cocks on a NUTRITION unit.  In the Media Center students are looking at how advertising affects what type of food they choose to eat.  They are watching commercials and analyzing the commerical via Google Docs with a partner. They will soon be working with a partner to create a commercial selling either a healthy or unhealthy snack.  

3rd graders...they were assigned email partners at Wilson at the start of the year.  This week they met their partners either through Skype or through a video.  The students loved seeing their partner face-to-face.  They are encouraged to continue emailing their partner.  This allows them to practice keyboarding skills, good digital citizenship, increasing writing and reading comprehension, as well as learning about how email works. 

3rd graders also read books about Friendship including Beekle:  The Adventures of an Unimaginary Friend and We Lost Brock.  Students then shared a Google Doc with a friend and learned about taking pictures with the Chromebook camera and how to interview their partner.  We also discussed having GOOD DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP when using the camera on a computer.   Here is a look at what they created.  

2nd grade...Students just completed their Words that Describe Better Than OK poems.  They started this lesson by reading The OK book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  The proceeded to use Google Docs to type a poem that describes words that are better than OK and creating sentences that describe themselves.  Create a setting with watercolors, place your character in the setting, polish finishing touches and they turned out great.  Take a look.  You can see all of them on display in the hall outside the Media Center.

What's happening in 1st grade?  First grade has been learning about nonfiction books.  They have developed wondering questions and are locating nonfiction books to help them learn about their wondering topic.  Click on the WONDER WALL below to watch the videos below to hear some of their wondering questions.
https://www.wevideo.com/view/574400032

Preschool and Kindergarten Friends

In Preschool and Kindergarten Media time we have been learning about friendship and imaginary friends.  We have read two books about imaginary friends.  They were:

Here are our small friends drawing a collaborative picture of their imaginary friends.

Click on the image to see a video of our kindergarten friends.

                 A SPECIAL TREAT FOR OUR 1ST-3RD GRADERS...author Coach Sloath visited and discussed some key issues from his books, such as bullying, perserverance, and hard work.  Students acted out parts from his book Hank the Bully.  You can find more information out about Coach Sloath at http://coachsloth.com/.

Some words that came from teachers about the visit:

Exciting

Motivating

Inspirational

Energetic

Fun

Click on the image to see the students interacting with the author.

Fabulous Fifth Graders are studying Visual Literacy through the Civil Rights Movement

My 5th graders experienced SEGREGATION just a bit this week in the Media Center.  Upon entering the Media Center they were asked to pick up a strip of yellow or green paper.  Depending on the strip that they picked up that determined which group of people they were allowed to interact with that day.  Yellows could only sit, talk, and work with yellows.  Green could do the same.  These were the steps they had to follow:

1.)  Partner up with someone with the same color strip as you.

2.)  Get your assigned image (take a look here for all the images).

3.)  Use your prior knowledge and conduct quick research on the Civil Rights Movement to gather information on your image.

4.)  Take notes on a colloborative Google Doc on your image.

5.)  Practice your presentation.

6.)  Share your presentation to the class.  Not using notes, just talking to the audience with your image projected.  

Wondering, wondering, wondering...my first graders are wondering about many things.

My first graders are learning about differences between nonfiction and fiction through their wondering questions.  They are listening to me read the 2016 Caldecott winner Finding Winnie:  The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick.  We then talk about things we are curious about from the book.

 

Students then discuss the main differences between FICTION and NONFICTION and we talk about
how if we wanted to find out how to do something, make something, learn something we would want a true book...not a made-up one.  

 We then share things that students wonder about.  Here are some of the wondering questions.

-How to do an ariel

-How to do a cartwheel

-How to learn things about the universe

-How to fly a rocket

-How to dive from a diving board

-How to swim faster

Week 2 of WONDERING through our NONFICTION

now that my 1st gr. friends have their wondering drawings completed they are ready to explore the nonfiction section and find TRUE books that will answer their wondering questions.  This was a bit crazy on my part trying to pair each kid up with a book but I think I manged to do accomplish it.  Some books had to be placed on hold from other schools.  I encouraged kids to come back next week with a fact they learned from their NONFICTION book on their wondering topic.

Geniuses in ACTION!

My 6th graders have spent two weeks watch inspirational videos and thinking about their interest and passions.  They are planning their GENIUS HOUR topics.  As part of this process they were asked to take a INTEREST SURVEY to get them thinking about what they consider some of the biggest problems in the world.  Here are their results.

Monday's GroupOverall these were the biggest problems they felt like were facing someone living in their township.

What is the biggest problem facing someone living in Anderson Township?

taxes

Heroin

disrespect

The Bengals can not win a playoff game.

The roads have cracks and pot holes

drunk drivers

i have no idea.

Tuesday's Group

Wednesday's Group

Thursday's Group

Friday's Group