The kindergarten talent development kids are going to be creating a PowerPoint presentation based on the independent research they worked on last week. This presentation will be accompanied by a speech on their topic. The kids seem excited, but there is a lot of technology to learn, so this may take some time. We will be creating backgrounds, adding slide transitions, inserting pictures we find online, and adding all of the data dashes that the kids have recorded. Can you believe one of the kindergarteners wrote nine pages of facts? Amazing work!
The first graders are super excited about the alliteration project we have been working on using the picture book Animalia. The creativity I have seen from the students has been simply awesome. We will be finishing this up and then moving on to one of my favorite books by Chris Van Allsburg, The Wretched Stone. It will be interesting to see if the kids can figure out what the metaphor of the stone represents.
Second grade Project Arrow students will be preparing for Wednesday's test on Ancient Greece this week. We will review what we have learned and discuss what will be on Wednesday's test. I have complete faith in the kids that they will go well beyond what I expect of them. We will end the week with some hands-on logic puzzles using toothpicks and dollar bills. I think they are going to love the puzzles!
Third grade did a wonderful job last week with our investigation of hieroglyphics. Some of the kids looked as if they had been writing using this form of writing for years. This week, the kids will be finishing up the majority of our grammar unit and taking a short grammar quiz. Then we will move on to an illustrated, annotated timeline of Ancient Egyptian history. I selected five important events in Egyptian history, and teams of two will be selected five more to use on this project.
The fourth grade Project Arrow students are going to be learning a lot about themselves this week. We will be exploring the idea of personality this week. We will be taking two different inventories about who we are, the Myer's Briggs and a left brain vs. right brain test. We will explore the results, and discuss how accurate they really are. I retook the Myer's Briggs last night, and I got the same results that I got 15 years ago. I imagine that the kids will want you to take the tests as well. There are links on the blog to both, but the kids need to do them in class.
The fifth graders in PA are going to explore a few poems written by former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins. My hope is that his writing will ignite a spark in the kids to write a few of their own poems inspired by his work. We will be discussing the idea of how change promotes growth, and in what context this happens. On Wednesday, the 5th graders will continue working on the capstone projects. Have a great week everyone!