We got our day of to a great start with some challenging games of chess, checkers, and ThinkLab. 

Algebraic Thinking:
We reviewed our Lesson 6 concepts with an Extra Practice. The kids are definitely ready to move on to the next lesson, the start of Level 2!!!

Unit Study:
The kids sorted the Global Goals and prioritized those they thought were most important. We watched a read aloud of Beatrice's Goat to illustrate how much poverty impacts people all over the world. The kids chose their country to research for our Model United Nations debate. We'll be researching different aspects of the countries and how they are working on the Global Goals. We learned about how many people live in poverty around the world and how scarce resources are. 

Stations:
The kids worked on the August F2OE, focusing on creating things to show fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. There ideas are SO creative!  Love these great thinkers! 

Novel Study:
We read a few more chapters of Front Desk. The kids thought about whether it is better to have something for a short while before it is taken away or to never have it at all. It was a good discussion!

Affective Skills:
The kids read an article, "You Can Grow Your Intelligence". They learned all about how we can impact our learning and intelligence through what we chose to do. They shared "Wow!" facts during our "Whip Around". So many great ideas! We continued our Mindfulness practice with "Why Humans Experience Anxiety?". The kids enjoyed doing a couple moments of mindful breathing. 

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Fantastic Friday with these great kiddos!

Algebraic Thinking:
We played "BACON" again, but this time the rounds included squaring numbers, cubing numbers and multistep operations. Much more of a challenge!
We combined math and logic with a Versatiles activity. The kids had fun figuring out how to use the Versatiles kits again and solving the logic!

Affective Skills:
We watched a few Sketchnoting videos to help us build our skills for notetaking: "Drawing Peeps". The kids did a great job sketchnoting during their "Big Idea 1" video! 
Later we continued our Mindfulness Practice with "4-7-8 Breathing". The kids liked this one. We'll practice this again next time.

Unit Study:
We continued our Model United Nations unit with Goalkeepers Can, where we discussed what special skills we bring to being a Global Goalkeeper and how those skills will help us work toward those goals.  The kids also finished their "Global Goals Countries". Very creative ideas on how to meet all 17 Sustainable Development Goals!

Until next time,
Dr. Kraeger

We had the absolute BEST day in Target! What a wonderful way to start our year!

Affective Skills:
We started off with the Cup Stack Challenge. The kids worked in pairs to stack the cups into a pyramid without touching them with their hands. Look at their successful collaborations!

We started our Mindfulness Practice with "Still, Quiet Place". The kids enjoyed these moments of calm in the middle of a busy and active day.

Algebraic Thinking Skills:
We jumped back into Hands On Equations with a review of Lesson 6. The kids are working through that pretty well. We'll pick up there next week.  Our friends who are new to Target did a great job on Lesson 1 and will move ahead next week to continue learning with Lesson 2. 

Novel Study:
We read the first chapter of Front Desk. The kids loved the funny things the main character says about her life in the United States as a new immigrant from China. 

Unit Study:
We kicked off our Model United Nations unit by learning about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Goals of reaching all 17 by 2030. The kids created drawings of their lives in the year 2030. Then they worked in small groups to create a fictional country that shows what would happen if all 17 Global Goals were met. We had some interesting discussions about how to create equity in resources and why everything can't just be free.

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger