What a day! We had so much fun working on scenes for our play! I can’t wait to film the scenes next time. It’s going to be amazing!

We worked their convergent thinking skills so much with our 21 Balloons Breakout! In fact one of the kids said he was working so hard, “His Brain Hurts!” Live it!

we worked a bit more on our perfect square activity with a focus on excellence, not perfection!

No HW!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
​Dr. Kraeger

Even though it was a wet day, the kids had a lot of great learning!

We started off by finishing our book and used our critical thinking and evaluative thinking skills to choose important events from the story.  We also learned about story elements and how they apply to our play.  Then, we learned about a couple of dramatic techniques that we might find useful for this play, narration and asides.  At the end of the day, the kids formed small groups to work on outlining main events for each Act of the play, gathering ideas for how to show these events, thinking about props, and even writing some dialog.  It was an extremely productive part of our day because the kids were SO excited to use their communication skills, research skills, and divergent thinking to create part of this play.

We also worked on Hands-On-Equations to strengthen our algebraic thinking skills.  We continued the lessons from last week, with a very cool video about subtracting integers--Matrix and Gotham City Style!  Check it out here: Subtracting Positive and Negative Integers.  

​Affective Skills:
We practiced Mindfulness with Cloud Breathing.  The kids did a fantastic job in concentrating and experiencing a bit of quiet to still their minds and bodies.  After that, we discussed and experienced some thoughts about perfectionism.  We'll continue this work next week.

HW:  Share ideas for the play on Edmodo
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

We had a fantastic day in Target!

We started right in with our book and a rousing game of Kahoot!  This year's class crushed their opponents from last year.  Way to go!  You really pay attention to details and think deeply about the tough questions!  

Algebraic thinking:
We got back into our Hands-On-Equations with a new lesson.  Our advanced group has gotten into some tough territory with subtracting negative numbers.  We'll be working on this again next week to strengthen their understanding of these concepts.  Not to worry--this is hard stuff and we will keep with it until we understand!  They are doing fine, just need to slow down a bit to let our brains catch up.  

Affective Skills:
We continued our Roadblocks to a Growth Mindset today with another lesson.  The kids worked in groups to brainstorm ways to overcome common obstacles to developing and maintaining a growth mindset.  They did a very good job with this!  Next, we each wrote a reflection about personal roadblocks and strategies to overcome these.  I'm looking forward to reading their reflections to see some deep insights and great ideas!

We also reviewed a fun movie clip about "What's the Worst that Could Happen?"  The kids liked it, especially the ending when the girl shares that losing the competition might be the worst thing, but she can handle it.

Unit Study:
We designed and built parachutes today!  The kids worked in pairs to create a parachute with the longest possible "Hang Time."  We tested them out on the Playscape this afternoon.  Following that, we learned how to calculate averages using our 3 test flights and the data from the class average.  The kids also evaluated the winning parachute design and compared it with their own.  So much good learning with this lesson!

Finally, we ended the day with more reading.  We are almost to the end of the book and finally know where the 20 balloons came from!

​Don't forget, Target is on Thursday next week!

HW:  Edmodo
Until next time,
Dr. Kraeger