"Wrapping" Up Our Semester - No Pun Intended!

This morning, the students practiced reading their winter poem.  We discussed what factors impact the quality of an oral presentation- good content, speaking clearly and slowly, appropriate volume, pause between phrasing and using inflection in our voice to convey enthusiasm.  We used Cinch.fm to create mico-podcasts of their poem that you will find in the previous post.  They did a great job on their poems and their first audio presentation!  They are also bringing home their copy of the poem.  I hope you enjoy them!

Photgraphy by Frankie (Well done Frankie!)

During our computer lab, the students worked in Microsoft Excel to create a bar graph of some of the data they recorded from our Snowman card exchange.  Some students chose to graph the average temperature on December 15th, some did the number of students in the classes and still others graphed the grade levels from which we received our cards.  I was hoping they would have them finished to print out and bring home, but alas, their typing skills are not as fast as I pictured in my head when I planned the activity.  :-)

After Spanish, the students worked on their math problem solving skills in the TOPS Math program at the end of the day.

Our next SAGE day will be on Wednesday, January 4th.  I hope your family has a wonderful holiday season and I will look forward to seeing the kids in January!

Bulking Up on Research Skills

So for me, blogging and preparing for the holidays are not tremendously compatible.  My posts for the past two weeks and probably the next two will be a bit less elaborative.  Hopefully things will settle down after that.


The second grade SAGE students have been working on their research skills the past several weeks.  We have reviewed and confirmed our ability to locate a topic in alphabetical order with the help of guide words.  The students have knowledge of how to use the table of contents and index as well headings and sub-headings to locate a specific topic or information.  We have also learned how a traditional, bound encyclopedia is organized and when and why it might be necessary to cross-reference a topic with the index.  We have discussed the importance of using current sources as well as a variety of sources when  researching a topic.


Additionally, the students completed a pretest on goal setting.  Over the next few SAGE days, we will be discussing the importance of goal setting, learning to evaluate a goal to be sure it is realistic, creating a plan of action and discovering how our effort impacts our success.


This past week, the students finished their snowman cards and wrote the final draft of their winter poems.  They made a second copy of their poem for you.  I will send them home right before winter break.   


All of our cards were mailed out this week.  We ended up making and mailing 62 cards.  Thank you so much for your donations of stamps to assist us with the postage costs.  We have received 21 cards so far.  It is kind of exciting to check my box in the office now.  


Today, we opened some of the cards we have received from other schools including ones in Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kansas, Arizona, Florida and Ontario, Canada.  Many more will arrive in the days ahead.  We used a map of North America to locate the states and their relative direction and distance from Kansas City.   


The students have recorded the grade levels, number of students in each class and the average high temperature for December 15th in each town/city.  They will be using this data to create graphs to help us compare the schools participating in our groups.  We were able to discuss the difference between degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius and what a negative number means.  (Ontario's average high temperature for December 15th is -11 degrees Celsius.)


Last week, in the computer lab, the students were introduced to Google Earth and the features that allow us to zoom into a map to the point of virtually standing in front of the schools.  They were very observant and noted differences and similarities in each town/cities geographical location, proximity to the ocean, lakes or rivers, rural and urban areas, the physical size of the schools and even surrounding plant life.  As we were recording the average high temperatures today, by looking at the map of North America, the students began to infer (fairly accurately) what they believed the temperature was going to be based of its north/south location.  They even noted a large discrepancy in the estimated temperature of one North Carolina city as it compared to three others that were fairly close.  Without a doubt, they were making positive use of their higher level thinking abilities.


At recess today, I introduced the students to the game, Blokus.  It is a strategy board game that challenges spatial thinking and it a lot of fun for all ages.   If your family likes board games, it is a great one!

In the afternoon, the students continued our discussion on endangered animals in preparation of our research unit.  They completed their pretest this past week.  Today, they went to www.arkive.org to learn more about the threats that are bringing some species near the point of extinction.  If your child has the time, encourage him/her to explore some of the video and  photos to become more aware of the variety of animals that are endangered.


We ended our day today, working in our individual, exploratory areas.


Have a great week!

Wishing Each of You Wet, Wonderful, Snowman Snow!

2011 Global Snowman Card Exchange

UPDATE!  We Get to Participate in Two Groups!  (Remind me of how excited I was when we get closer to December 9th and I start to panic...)

I am very excited to share information with you on our newest project.  All five rotations of students are going to work together to participate in a global card exchange between 59 classes from across the United States and Canada.   Over 750 classrooms have registered and been organized in groups of 30 for this project.  This collaboration was organized by a teacher in California named Jennifer Wagner.  She has successfully encouraged teachers since 1999 to use online projects in their Pre K-6 classrooms.  This is the first time I have participated in one of her projects and I am very excited about having an opportunity to connect our students to others from across our country and around the world.  

Through this real world platform, we will be working on our research, problems solving, writing and technology skills.  We are responsible for making one, snowman themed, card for each of the fifty-eight other classrooms.  Below is a Google Map I made in Batch Geo to show the locations of all of our partners.

View 2011 Global Snowman Holiday Card Exchange in a full screen map

Our 2nd grade SAGE students are learning to use a traditional USA and World Atlas and coordinates on a grid this week so the skills tied nicely to this new adventure.  We will be working with Google Maps and Google Earth to learn more about the locations of each school. 

Both K/1st and 2nd grade SAGE students will be introduced to using a Thesaurus in the next week or so.  We will use the synonyms we find to help us write winter swirl poems  for the cards.  The cards we create must be mailed by December 9th.  Once we receive all of the cards from the other schools, we will be graphing some of the information we learn about the other students, schools and locations.  I am hoping we can Skype with one or two of our partners so the students have a chance to connect face-to-face.  We will have to see! 

A Little Outrage Can Be Good for the Learning Process

The boys and girls were enthusiastic learners today! In the computer lab, the students are beginning to apply and synthesize their skills with Microsoft Power Point.  Today, they used basic figures (shapes) and began to create a winter snowman scene. By formatting their figures for color, size and position, they were able to design the background for their picture.  The students learned to format the outer line on a figure for style, thickness and color.  In most cases, for this task, they needed to remove it completely.  They also learned to "lasso" objects to select several at one time and to group them, so they move as one figure.   

We will be using this scene for our winter swirl poems we are writing over the next few SAGE days. If you have Power Point at home, encourage your child to practice and explore some of its possibilities.  

The students completed their first full page "Squiggle" as a part of our creative problem solving.  As they combine the squiggle marks to create a single, cohesive picture, they learn the necessity of taking their time, being flexible in their thinking and to be elaborative in their projects.

In the afternoon, the students were introduced to using a USA and World Atlas.  We discussed the purpose of the table of contents and index and practiced using them to locate a map for a particular city.  Next, we learned to use coordinates on a grid to locate a point on a map.  It's amazing what you can do without a smart phone!  LOL   Ask your child about the activity.

Today, in Spanish with Senora Gates, we learned about:

1.     Greetings.  Hola, Buenos días. 

2.     Names- Me llamo…¿Cómo te llamas? Mucho gusto.

3.     Colors-rojo, azul, blanco, negro, amarillo, verde, anaranjado, rosado, morado,         gris, azul cielo, café o marrón.  

4.     Numbers 1-20 Los números 1 hasta 20

5.     Calendar –El Calendario
6.     Days and Dates-Días y fechas

Our day ended with more than a little personal outrage.  We hung the students' "Squiggle" designs up on the bulletin board along with a name tag at the base of their illustration-- but we mixed up the names and papers to be sure none of the names matched with he appropriate student work.  It took a little while or them to notice, but when they did, they let me know that an error had been made and they didn't like having someone else's name on their own work.

After leading the conversation in a few circles, I pointed out that I believe this must be how authors, illustrators and photographers feel when someone takes their ideas, designs or photographs and uses them in their projects without giving them proper credit.  "Plagiarism" is an academic vocabulary word for our second grade SAGE students. In the end,I think the students gained an understanding of the importance of citing our sources.

Have a great week!

Hola! Senora Gates has Begun Our Spanish Instruction!

Wow, we had a really busy day!  In the computer lab, the students are learning about using Microsoft Power Point.  Today, we reviewed adding and formatting a text box and rectangle.  The students can now add a new text box and format it for color, size, style of font and location on the page.  After today, they can also insert a rectangle, square, circle and oval.  I also showed them how to access auto shapes.  They can format their figures for color, size and position.  They are able to fill the shape with a single color, gradient colors, a pattern or a picture.  Today we practiced layering objects and how to change the position of an object by using the send forward and backward tools.  If you have Power Point at home, I would encourage you to let your child explore some of its possibilities.  It is a great application for writing a report, making a card or doing a book report.  It is user friendly and very adaptable for inserting photos and video.

In the library, the students learned more about Melvil Dewey and his classification system for non-fiction books.  We looked at how the books are organized, the types of books I would find in each category and exactly how understanding the system can help us locate books in any library in the country.  Back in the classroom, we worked on some ABC order skills on the Smart Board to prepare us for using guide words in the dictionary and Thesaurus as well as in an encyclopedia and atlas index.

The students completed a second tower today--without the extensive brainstorming, preparations and writing.  I gave them 12 minutes just to see how they could improve their designs from last week.  The majority of students were able to double and in some cases triple the size of their towers.  They were relaxed and focus as they worked.  Bravo to them!  Today we had an average height of 46.5 inches and our tallest structure was built by Nathir at just over 63 cm!

In the afternoon, the students worked at their individual Exploratory Centers.  We have dental impressions being made, owl pellet dissections, origami figures being folded, illustrations of the Titanic striking the iceberg, original pattern block designs, a "Johny Jump-Up" puppet under construction, a cheetah model being sculpted and more.  Ask your child about their work.

Today was also our first day of Spanish with Senora Gates!  Each of the students selected an optional Spanish name.  We also learned about:

1.     Greetings.  Hola, Buenos días. 

2.     Names- Me llamo…¿Cómo te llamas? Mucho gusto.

3.     Friends-Amigos- Pablo, Livia, Antonio, Rosa

4.     Colors-rojo, azul, blanco, negro, amarillo, verde, anaranjado, rosado, morado, gris, azul cielo, café o marrón.  Game-Levántense- Siéntense

5.     Numbers 1-20 Los números 1 hasta 20

6.     Calendar –El Calendario

Days and Dates-Días y fechas

 

With the additions of several new students, we are looking like a complete class!  The boys and girls are doing a nice job welcoming new classmates and our new students are settling in to our routine and expectations.  Rotation A is a wonderful class of interesting, funny and friendly students!

Have a great week!

Using Our Creativity to Reach New "Heights"

Hands-On Problem Solving

We started our day working individually on our logical thinking skills with the Logic Links program. The students also continued their individual problem solving work in the Math Rules program.


This week in computer lab, the second graders were introduced to Microsoft Powerpoint. They learned how to open, name and save a new presentation as well as how to add a text box and format it for size, style, color and font. They also learned to draw, color and resize rectangles as well as how to reposition and reorder objects on a page. The tools they learn to use in one program are often very similar to those used for other applications. This allows students to readily adapt to and master use of other applications.


Today, the students completed their first "hands-on" problem solving challenge. Using only one pair scissors, a one inch cube of clay, an 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, two drinking straws, two folder labels and six popsicle sticks the students had to create the tallest, free standing structure possible. The base of the structure also had to fit within a five inch tape square on their table. They began by brainstorming designs on their planning form and they then were given twelve minutes to actually construct their tower. It is fun to see the room go completely silent as each student's brain is fully engaged in the task. The students used a variety of designs for their towers and, for the most part, were very successful. Our tallest tower, for this first attempt was 51cm.  They ended the task by evaluating their designs, construction and finished structure on their hands-on planning form.

To be successful, students must be fluent, flexible thinkers. They need a steady stream of ideas and they must be able to adapt and change direction or strategy as new problems arise. These tasks develop the skills needed to solve real world problems and provide wonderful opportunities for affective conversations. We discussed how individuals handle frustration and challenge, why some students quit and others persevere and how their classmates that struggle academically might feel on a regular basis. For some it is the "Ah Ha!" moment that enables them to empathize with their peers and avoid hurtful bragging. Having said that, it takes a great deal of maturity and wisdom for an individual to celebrate their academic success in a way that does not make someone else feel less and so, the conversation continues...


Growing up in a culture where athletic, theatrical, musical and artistic "winners" are hailed with attention, applause, trophies and recognition it is only natural that students with academic gifts will initially seek that same response when they achieve a level of success. Although I find it to be hypocritical that is how the world is. I think it is our job as parents, teachers and advocates for bright children to guide them, model an appropriate level of humility and provide them opportunities to celebrate their success and receive genuine praise.


Have a great week!

See Our Possibilities

Thinking, thinking, thinking! I love to watch them when they are thinking!

We started our day by discussing:

 "Tips and Tricks" for Successful Math Problem Solving

(aka Surviving TOPS Math & Math Rules--

and maybe even learning to enjoy them)

• Begin by reading the problem carefully.
• What is the question being asked?
• What relevant information is provided in the text of the problem?
• Is there unnecessary information to distract you or throw you off?
• Look at the illustration or chart shown with the problem.
• What relevant information is found in the graphics?
• Is there unnecessary information to distract you or throw you off?
• Look back at the question being asked.
• What mathematical operation will you need to use to solve this problem?
• What strategies could you use to solve it?
• What is the most efficient strategy that will get me to an accurate answer?
• Complete the problem.
• Show your work in the space provided and double check your computation.
• Look again at the question being asked and write your answer in a complete sentence.
• Did you start with a capital letter?
• Did you end with proper punctuation?
• Did you answer the question that was asked?
• Did you include the proper label for your answer?

I would also like to encourage all of my 2nd graders to begin working to memorize their basic addition and subtraction facts.  (Try to make this a low stress activity.  --Yes, I know, easier said than done, but I do have some ideas for you if you have trouble working on math facts.)  Memorization of these facts will help your child make mind leaps more quickly as they work on problem solving skills.  

After working in TOPS Math, we went to the library to begin work on our research skills. We discussed how the Briarcliff library is arranged, the difference between fiction and non-fiction books, how to read the call number on the spine of a fictional book, what the letters mean in the call number, how the books are arranged on the shelves and the importance of being sure we put books back in their correct location and order. The students practiced locating a fictional book by its call number.  Then, the practiced shelving books that had been returned to the library.  It is empowering to students to learn to locate books on their own.  Mastery of these skills frees them to select books on topics of interest and locate specific books without having to wait for adult assistance. This is monumental for early readers and for students interested in unusual or "hard to locate" topics and information.  Next week we will focus on how non-fiction books are organized. We will continue to focus on research skills over the next several weeks.
In the afternoon, we completed a creative thinking exercise to work on our flexible thinking, originality and elaboration skills. The students were each given a paper with a partial design repeated four times. (The design is below.) Each repeat of the design was rotated a quarter turn to create a different perspective and new picture possibilities.  They had to use the existing design components and integrate them into their new picture.  Each design had to be used to make a very different picture. I challenged them to see if they could come up with something no one else in their class created and to be as elaborative as possible.  These drawing exercises strengthen the skills (fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration) that will help the children in their problem solving.

The students also completed two critical thinking exercizes and their first quarter self-evaluation.  I will share it with you at our parent/teacher conferences next week.  Please call or email me if you have not set up a fall conference.  I still have spaces available!
Have a beautiful, warm, fall weekend!

***As the seasons change, please remind your child to watch the weather and bring a warm coat, hat and gloves when necessary.  Our playground sits just high enough to catch the wind and recess can be pretty chilly.  It is hard to adjust to early, "wintery" days!

Creative Thinkers & Fledgling Bloggers

The boys and girls got off to a great start this morning!  We began our day with a discussion on our class Blogging Guidelines.  These can be found in a new tab on our main page.  Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with them.  


We also reviewed the components of a quality comment and how to post a comment on our blog.  I explained that our blog is an "academic blog" and should not be used as a social network.  I want to avoid students spending large amounts of time just socializing here. 

I want them to post comments on their learning and "Ah Ha!" moments.  The source of their learning and revelations can be from within or outside of school.  Ideally, I would like to see students post a comment from home once or twice a week.  In the beginning, their comments may not be very sophisticated.  With instruction, practice and encouragement, your child will gain a desire to share their ideas and opinions with others and the skills to do it through our blog.  Blogging provides a real world platform for students to improve not only their reading and writing skills, but also the technology skills 21st Century Learners will need.  


Please encourage your child to share their enthusiasm and experiences from rich learning moments.  At this age, they will need your support and assistance with proof reading their comments prior to clicking that "publish" button.  In the next week or so, I will try to get a screen cast tutorial made on how to post a comment to our blog for those parents and grandparents that would like directions.  By all means, please encourage your child's grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested adults to post comments about your child's projects and learning on our blog too!   I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

The students continued their individual work in the Math Rules program and their Exploratory center today.  Ask your child about their current task.  I think almost everyone is now past the Knowledge and Comprehension level tasks.  Now they can choose any other task from this same center to complete. 

Currently, a person is reading about bats, bones and rodent fur is being dissected, a puppet is in the design stages, illustrations of a sinking ship are being drawn, dental impressions have been taken, origami figures are being folded, a wild cat model is being designed, original patterns have been created and color schemes are being analyzed.  This is an exciting place to be in the afternoon!  I will continue to encourage them to take their time for their personal best effort.  


In the afternoon, they learned/reviewed the rules for brainstorming. 

• Accept the unusual
• Never critcize or compliment
• Piggyback when possible
• Never stop too soon.

They individually brainstormed "things you might find in a pocket."  We judged their ideas for their fluency and originality and if they were relevant to the problem.  Have your child tell you more about their list.  They are a very creative class!

We ended our day working on our critical thinking skills.  The students were given two different problems that could be solved through the use of a matrix.  With their thinking caps in place, they analyzed the clues and made inferences based on the information provided to match up the people to their homeruns (and in the second problem, to the insect they brought to school.)

Have a beautiful fall weekend!

Woo Hoo! We All Posted a Blog Comment Today!

We started our day discussing how to post a comment on a blog and what makes a quality comment.  The students each posted a comment today!  If you have the time, take a look!  They did a great job.  I am encouraging them to begin to post comments from home.

We have struggled with problems between Internet Explorer and Blogger.  From my own research, Safari and FireFox seem to be a good match to Blogger, but IE has had problems working it.  Many of you may have tried to post a comment only to have it erased, without your post going through.  Thanks to our IT department, I think we have finally found a "fix."  Please let me know if you are ever having difficulties with the blog.  A lot of this is new for me too, so in some cases, the kids and I are learning together.  (I hope you don't mind being dragged along with us!)  If you have a working knowledge of blogs and have any suggestions or ideas, please pass them along to me!


The students continued their individual work in Math Rules, TOPS Math and Exploratory today.  We had a pretty long Exploratory block of time and they really made some progress!  Ask your child about their current task. 

The students were also introduced to the Components of Creativity:

• Fluency
• Flexibility
• Originality
• Elaboration

Some questions have only one answer:  Who was our 16th President of the the United States?

Some questions have many answers:  What are all of the ways you might have come to school today?

When I asked our students this second question, they came up with car, bus, and walking and then moved onto more creative and original ideas.  They thought of digging tunnels underground, riding in a bean bag chair in a wagon, riding on a zebra, flying with a bunch of helium balloons and many other great ideas.  They came up with a pretty creative list for our first brainstorm of the year.  Ask your child to brainstorm more ideas for you.

It was wonderful to see so many families at our Open House last night!  If you have not signed up for a parent conference, please call or email me.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our First Commenting Challenge!

Boys and Girls,

Our SAGE Open House is next Thursday, October 6th in our Briarcliff classroom.  Although we haven't had many days together, you have been working hard and have many things to show your parents.  What specific work are you excited about sharing?  


After you get a chance to watch Mrs. Yollis' video,  How to Compose a Quality Comment,

http://vimeo.com/15695021, try posting a comment here! 

Techno-Fun, or should that be, "Tech-YES-Fun?"

The A day kids did a great job today.  They worked hard, followed directions well, and were patient!  I (and therefore we) faced one technology glitch after another, from the start of our day to the very last moments of class.  Karma was definitely not on my side today; your children, however, were and I'd take them over karma any day of the week!  I was surprised and impressed with their flexibility and willingness to adjust.  Bravo to them!

Despite our tech trials and tribulations, we managed to accomplish quite a bit and I think everyone had a good time along the way.  We started our day with an introduction to a Web 2.0 application, www.voki.com where I hope your children will have an opportunity to create a talking avatar for their personal blog.  Unfortunately, this was our first glitch.  Voki's are fun and very easy to make.  This application does require that you create an account and sign in so if your child is going to explore this from home, I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with the site and monitor your child's activities.  


As a part of our affective investigation to learn more about ourselves and our classmates, we spent some time this morning reflecting on our interests, influences and personality traits.  We used our computer lab time to create an electronic word cloud that tells others about us.  These will also be on display at our Open House next Thursday, October 6th.  Although the students are anxious to share their work with you, you will have to wait until Open House.  To give you an idea of what a word cloud is, and to give you some more information about me, my personal word cloud is below.  I'm sure you will enjoy what your child created! 

After recess and lunch, the students continued their individual work in the Math Rules program.  They were also introduced to/reviewed our procedures for using the TOPS Math Problems Solving Program.  We are focusing on finding the important information in the word problem and in the illustration.  We also discussed the key words that tell us if we need to add or subtract and ways we can show our thinking.


Next, the students began working in their Exploratory area.  A few were able to complete the Knowledge and at least some of the Comprehension level task.  They are now able to select any of the remaining tasks to complete.  Ask your child to tell you about their center work and a fact or two they learned about their topic.


At the end of our day, we discussed how to leave a comment on our blog and what constitutes a quality comment.  As we prepared to watch a brief video on commenting, we hit our last glitch of the day.  The video loaded slowly and then we were kicked off the network.  By then it was time to pack up.  Ugh!  I promised the students I would leave them a link to the video we were trying to watch.  Below you will find the link.  The video, How to Compose a Quality Comment, was made by Mrs. Yollis' third grade students in Los Angeles, California.  Her blog, http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/ has a lot of great information on blogging as well as some wonderful examples of student blogs.  I hope the boys and girls enjoy the video.  We will continue this conversation in the weeks ahead as we learn more about being a responsible, creative blogger.


http://vimeo.com/15695021

(I'm sorry my post is late. I wanted to get permission from Mrs. Yollis to use her video on our blog.)  Have a wonderful week!

We Started Our Exploratory Centers Today!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Up for the Challenge

The A day students worked hard today!  They should be really proud of their efforts!  At the start of our day, we reviewed where we were on their future goals paragraph.  Everyone was able to complete their rough draft before our morning lab time.  Once on the computers, they really listened well and jumped right into their typing.  Using Microsoft Word as our tool, they were all able to complete typing their paragraph.  Along the way, we learned to space appropriately between words and after punctuation, right click to correct spelling errors and to save and print our documents.  Bravo boys and girls!

After recess and lunch, the students worked to finish their construction paper head.  They are excited to share them with you at our Open House on October 6th.

The students were excited to begin their new Exploratory area today.  First, however, we needed to review/learn to fill out our Exploratory contract.  They will use it as an organizational tool to document their choices and weekly progress.  With over ninety centers and hundreds of tasks from which to choose, it would be impossible to individualize the students without it.

Once their contract was completed, they began the knowledge level thinking task.  In the weeks ahead, each student will complete the knowledge and comprehension level tasks plus at least one other higher level thinking task before moving on to another center.  Most centers will take between six and eight weeks to complete three to four tasks.  Ask your child to share what they are hoping to complete at their center.

Tell them to keep up the good work!  Have a great weekend!

Same Song, 2nd Verse...

Rotation A students had a great second day/week of SAGE. They came in excited and that seemed to have carried through to their work! They are settling in and getting to know each other.

This week we discussed our SAGE class rules and expectations. I shared with the students that SAGE is somewhat like brain aerobics class (minus the sweat- LOL.) The work they do here should challenge them and hopefully, frustrate them from time to time. It is not supposed to be painful, but it is intended to stretch their abilities, take them out of their comfort zone and test the way they handle frustration. The safety net is close, although sometimes camouflaged. I need to know what they can handle and so do they.

Each week, the work they do in our room should be hard enough that they are missing at least one or two problems/questions. If they are getting everything correct, I will bump up the level of difficulty until they are missing some. I want to get them to their individual, instructional levels. All of our work (particularly in math and critical thinking) is done over until it is correct. I give small hints if they ask. If I feel like they are becoming too frustrated, I will set down with them and work through the problem.   I've told them our classroom is a safe place to try something new and a safe place to fail. I try very hard to watch that a student is not getting too stressed, but I sometimes miss the signs. If your child expresses that SAGE is too hard, please contact me so we can talk about it with him or her.

This week the students went to the computer lab. we reviewed the parts of the computer and the related vocabulary words.  We also practiced how to find our way around the network.  The students were able to locate their personal folders on the shared drive with little or no help!  Great job!  They learned to add and name a new folder inside for future photos. Then they opened and named a blank Microsoft Word document. They typed their full name and grade and then learned to format the font for size, style (bold, underline & Italics) and color. Our thirty minute lab times fly by quickly! I am looking forward to expanding their technology skills this year, continuing our discussions on being safe and responsible on the Internet and starting down the path to becoming twenty-first century learners.

After lunch and recess, we continued our work on our affective project.  This week, the students began the rough draft paragraph about their aspirations for the future.  We discussed indenting, the position and purpose of a topic sentence, supporting details and a conclusion sentence.  Several students finished this draft.  They also finished drawing a picture of what they would like to be when they grow up.  Their projects are going to be really cute!  Next week, they will begin typing the written explanation of their goals.  We hope to have this completed by our October 6th Open House.

Next, we discussed Bloom's Levels of Thinking and what each level might look like.  I introduced our Exploratory centers and the students had an opportunity to look through the choices and list their top three picks.  Each student met with me to be sure their first choice center is a good fit for them.  Ask your child which center he/she will be beginning on our next SAGE day?

Our time flies by, but I feel like they accomplished a lot.

Just a reminder: 

Our SAGE Parent Informational Meeting 

is on Tuesday, September 20th 

in the Briarcliff Media Center 

from 6:30-7:30 pm.  

This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the characteristics of gifted children, our SAGE Program and our curriculum this year.  This meeting is intended for parents new to the program and those with questions about our curriculum this year.  I hope you can attend!


Have a great week!

Our First Day of SAGE

The Rest of Our First Day...

So I need to start with the blanket apology... Please be patient with me as I enter the world of blogging with your children.  I started today's post before the students left so I could model posting with them.  Our future SAGE day summaries will hopefully occur in one post. 

After the students settled in and we collected paperwork, they got to know one another a little better with a Skittles activity.  They discovered they have many simular interests.  Ask your child to tell you about our activity and share some of the things they learned about their classmates. 

Next, we learned our way around Briarcliff, seeing the office, nurse's office and the cafeteria.  The students were then introduced to a new portion of our critical thinking lessons, Logic Links where they had to analyze clues to find the correct patterns.  They also started in the Math Rules problem solving program.  After lunch in the Bear Cafe, the students enjoyed the beautiful weather at recess.   In the afternoon, we discussed blogs, posting, commenting and the purpose of our blog.  We also started an affective lesson where the students will be making a project and writing about their future goals and aspirations.  We hope to have them completed by our October 6th Open House. 

Our day seemed to be over before we even knew it!  They are an enthusiastic, outgoing and friendly group of students.  I know we are going to enjoy our time together this year.  We hope you will stay connected with our blog.  Feel free to share your thoughts by posting comments here.  You are also welcome to share questions or concerns by calling or emailing me. 

Be sure and sign your child's Take Home Folder and have them return it next week.  Have a wonderful week!

Our First Day of SAGE!

I was so excited to see the students as they got off our bus this morning!  We spent a little bit of time looking at Briarcliff and learning how to find our way to our classroom.  The students had a chance to play detective to see what they could learn about me.  I passed around my purse (....yes I know that sounds silly- but what a great bag of clues!) Each student took an item and looked at it to see what they could learn about me.

They discovered I had $4.00 and a few coins so they have accurately concluded that I am not rich!   They found a picture of Courtney and Logan and I told them about my children.  They discovered my new, teeny, tiny video camera and learned I like lots of kinds of technology and I plan for them to use it too.  From a Lowe's receipt, they found out I like gardening and have some marigolds planted in my yard.  One student found a recipe for chicken salad and they inferred I like chicken salad and that I like to cook.  I collected all of my items (and Jack gave me back my $4.00.)  We laughed and had fun as they learned a little about me.  I wonder what your wallet or purse would say about you????