Our day started with stations, including a fun demonstration of the Bernoulli Effect using a hairdryer and ping-pong balls.  We also worked on convergent thinking skills with analogies and logic puzzles.  

Did you hear about the leafblower demonstration?  It was spectacular!

Later, we focused on algebraic thinking with Lesson 8 & 9 of Hands On Equations.  We're making great progress on our math this year!

Finally, we started work on a mini-STEM project, building RESTAURANTS & MENUS!  We'll finish those next class.
Enjoy Fall Break!
Dr. Kraeger
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Check out their amazing work today!  

We all dug deep to finish our Parade Transportation Vehicles!  They are fantastic!  Check out the photo below!

Later we continued our research on student selected topics from the 1880s.  The kids will be creating newspaper articles about their topics next week.  Thomas Edison appears to be the most popular topic with this group!

Stations:
We tackled convergent thinking activities with antonym/synonym analogies and a non-grid logic puzzle.  Pretty challenging stuff!  We also worked on a divergent thinking activity called "Mountain Tops".  Our final station was a critical thinking reading activity about Houdini-a famous magician from the late 1800s.

Algebraic Thinking:
We moved into algebraic thinking with Hands On Equations.  The beginning word problems were pretty easy, so the kids were able to learn how to translate the word problems into algebraic equations and also learn the components of a complete solution.  Good work today!

Affective: 
We continued our mindfulness practice with Ocean Waves-very calming!
After that, we started our work on Mindset with a sorting activity and a couple of short videos: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset to explain these concepts.  The kids discussed examples of each type of thinking and how they impact current and future success.

Novel Study:
We read chapter 6 in Twenty One Balloons, which introduces the idea of the "Gourmet Government".  The kids LOVED this whole concept and are SO excited about our project for next week--Creating their own restaurant models complete with menus.  It's sure to be fantastic fun!

HW:  Edmodo-Choose your restaurant

Check out the photos of our day:

Until next week,
Dr. Kraeger

Parades are fun!  We had a wonderful time creating our own Parade Transportation models today!  Check out the photos below and stop by the classroom soon to see them on display.

Convergent Thinking:
We continued our study of analogies by looking at Part-to-Whole relationships.  The kids did a great job with this!

Unit Study:
We continued our exploration of Life in the 1880s and extended it with student choice of topics for taking a deeper dive into the research!  Life was VERY different way back then.  We also did a mini-lesson on percentages, since that was part of our research.

Algebraic Thinking:
Today we split into groups for Hands On Equations.  Each group is working at the appropriate lesson based on the results of our pre-assessment.  All are working on Level 2 of Hands On Equations.  If you would like, you may purchase the HOE Level 2 app for home practice.  We'll begin to tackle word problems next week.

Affective:
We continued our mindfulness practice with a short video about Why Humans Feel Anxiety and then practice a Muscle Relaxation exercise.

We also talked about the different ways we learn and how that relates to the parts of our brains.

Novel Study:
We continued our reading about the Professor's amazing voyage.  He has run into some very bad trouble and may not survive long!

HW:  "I Really do Have a Brain"  

Until next week,
Dr. Kraeger