What a fun day of learning!  These kids are so talented!

We started our day off with finishing up our coding project for the Donor's Choose-Google Partnership.  The kids did a great job and hopefully, we'll earn $100 Donor's Choose Gift Card toward a new class iPad.

Next, we challenged our visual thinking, convergent thinking, math skills, and artistic ability with a fun hidden picture activity.  Check them out by our classroom--just beautiful!

We enjoyed the First Annual Target Talent Show, organized by Mya and Gianna as part of their Genius Hour Project.  The acts included singing, guitar, piano, and tap dancing.  The performers did an amazing job, even our volunteer backup singers were great!  We really appreciated the enthusiasm and support from our audience as well!  It shows the level of trust and respect for each others' talents and abilities.  Well done, everyone!

We spent the rest our day working on our Game Unit.  The kids had a Peer Coaching Session to provide and receive feedback on their games.  All found this helpful because of the different perspective they gained.  The kids took this feedback to refine and improve their games.  This is an important part of the design process.  
We'll be sharing our completed games next Thursday, our last Target day for the year.  

No HW!
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Although we got a late start because of Kindergarten Testing, the kids jumped right into some math activities and games that challenged their algebraic and convergent thinking skills.  

Novel Study:
We finished Ungifted!  The kids loved the ending!  After reading, we spent some time creating either a new chapter or a continuation of the story.  The kids have done a good job using the style and voice of their character, and I can definitely see their humor and creativity in this writing!

Unit Study:
We reviewed the main principles of Game Design and then the kids had a substantial amount of time to get down to the business of creating their games.  The work we saw was excellent!  They are definitely on the right track to creating some fun and engaging games.  There are some very creative ideas!

HW:  Game Creation Progress Check In

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Our day started off with a Math Problem Solving Challenge.  The kids used their critical thinking and algebraic thinking to solve a variety of math problems.  

Novel Study:
We read a couple more chapters in our book.  The kids are trying to figure out who helped Donovan cheat to stay in the Academy, but so far we don't know.

Unit Study:
We watched a video on Game Design to give us some background.  Then the kids used a Game Design Plan to flesh out their ideas for their individual games.   Later, we started creating our games.  Some are creating online games, most are creating card or board games.  The kids have some VERY creative ideas!  This should be a lot of fun!

HW:  Edmodo-Game Design Check In

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Our day was packed with learning from start to finish!  It was great to have the kids for a full day!

Algebraic Thinking:
We marched on with Hands On Equations.  Our beginners started Level 2, which introduces -x.  This will help so much next year in Math 6/7 or Advanced Math 6.  Our middle group learned about representing their problem-solving using drawing.  It's a good back-up plan to solve equations using our Hands-On methods, even without the pieces we usually use.  Our third group is almost to the end of the Hands On Equations lessons, with 24 of 26 lessons.  It's getting pretty tough because we're using EVERYTHING we've learned in each of the equations.  We'll need to spend another week on this one, but that is just fine.  

Novel Study:
We read a couple of exciting chapters leading up to the State Robotics Meet for our characters from the Academy of Scholastic Distinction.  Our hero Donovan wants to help them win, but he's been kicked off the team and has to avoid his arch enemy, Dr. Schultz.  We'll see if the team wins next time!

Affective:
We finished our Dream Poems and illustrations.  Please take a look outside our classroom.  The kids did a fantastic job, with so much creativity in their writing and artwork!

Unit Study:
We watched a couple of interesting videos about Games, The Dawn of Video Games and The Psychology of Gaming.  The kids were fascinated by how much people really liked the early video games and how big the first computers were.  

Later, we worked on learning to code by completing a project on CSFirst.  The kids used the Scratch programming language to create Earth Day Logos for Google.  The clever and fun ideas I saw were amazing!  It was an incredible afternoon.  Imagine...35 kids coding at the same time, most of whom have very little experience with coding.  The best part, they all learned enough today to successfully create their logos!  SUCCESS!  Some of the kids may use this knowledge to create a video game for their Game Project, or at least part of a video game.  A big shout out to Karim for his patience in helping all of our newbies, since he has lots of experience with Scratch!  A very nice bonus to this activity is the $100 Donor's Choose Gift Card we'll earn because of Goggle's partnership with Donor's Choose.  For each coding project the kids finish, our class earns $100, up to a total of $350.  That's fantastic!  We're working toward another iPad for the Target Rooms.  

HW:  Edmodo-Finish the Coding project

Until next time,
Dr. Kraeger

We had only a half day, but we got a lot of great learning done!

We read a couple of chapters in our novel, testing our critical thinking with a ghost game of Kahoot vs. last year's 5th graders.  Our kids did very well!

We continued our Game Unit with our Board Game Session.  The kids enjoyed using their convergent, divergent, and evaluative thinking skills with different games.  At the end of the session, the kids analyzed and evaluated the merits of various games.

HW:  Edmodo-Sign up for CSFirst in our class section.

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Our day got off to a good start with some fun learning games!

Algebraic Thinking:
We stretched our math skills by combining them with art to create Math Multiple Art Projects.  The kids were so creative with  their design patterns!

Convergent thinking:
We had a choice of puzzles today with a Perplexor and a Grid-Style Logic puzzles.  Hmm...the kids finished pretty quickly.  Looks like it's time to move the next harder book in this series! 

Affective:
We continued our Dreams lessons by finishing our Dream poems and creating original artwork to accompany the poem.  The results are AMAZING!  Check those out by our classroom after the Break.

Novel Study:
We read a few chapters in our books and matched wits against last year's 5th Grade class.  We weren't quick enough to beat the winners from last year, but we did a good job in answering correctly!  We also created a "Cheating Investigation Interview" modeled on the one from our book.  Very creative, humorous, and clever!

Unit Study:
We continued our study of games with a closer look at Board Games.  The kids researched this topic for use in our project.  Next class, the kids will bring favorite board or card games to play and analyze.

No HW!  Enjoy your Spring Break!
Until next time,
Dr. Kraeger

We had an amazing day of learning! The kids came in so excited and kept that pace up all day! It was so wonderful to be back with them! :)

Algebraic Thinking:
We picked right up with our Hands On Equations lessons to review concepts from our last session. It was exciting to hear the kids saying things like, "Hey, this is SO easy now!" and "I'm finally getting this!"

Affective Skills:
We continued our work on dreaming big with a sweet and touching book called, Dream. As the story progresses, there are poems along the way accompanied by illustrations from different artists to go with the feeling of each piece. The kids started creating poems from their own dreams and will finish those, complete with an illustration next week.

Novel Study:
We read another chapter of our book and uncovered a mystery. The kids used text evidence to help them inference who helped Donovan cheat on the Gifted Test. The kids also used their divergent thinking to complete an F2OE based on the novel. The ideas were SO creative!!!

Unit Study:
We began our Game Unit with a short video about what a game is. The kids will have some research homework using the Target Glog to find out more about Ancient Games and the History of Games.

HW: Edmodo-Games Question

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

The kids were very glad to see me back and I was glad to be back!  We had a wonderful day of learning together!

Unit Study:
Our Genius Hour Projects are coming to a close!  The kids did a final Peer Coaching session and made necessary revisions to their projects.  They used their time well, and we can see that most are nearly complete.  You are welcome to join us next Wednesday, March 14th, to see their presentations in our Genius Hour Project Gallery Walk from 8:05-9:15.  You can stop by during that time period and visit the many interesting projects on display.

Algebraic Thinking Skills:
We dove back into Hands On Equations.  Some of the kids were a little rusty, but it all came back quickly.  That's great news!  They worked hard with their algebra today!

Novel Study:
We read a couple more chapters in our book and tested our critical thinking skills with a game of Ghost Kahoot.  A superstar team from this class took top place over 3 teams from last year.  Way to go, Anna & Bumnobi!

Convergent thinking:
We learned a new type of puzzle, called a "Drop Quote" or a "Quote Fall".  The kids really enjoyed using their convergent thinking and communication skills to figure out  the quote from Ungifted.  We'll be doing another one soon.

Remember that Target will be on Wednesday, March 14th next week because of a 5th grade program on Thursday.  

HW:  Edmodo-Genius Hour Final Stretch
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

We had a wonderful opportunity to hear from Mr. Rick Parker, Gifted Lead, at Daniell Middle School.  He shared his "Overview of Middle School for Gifted Learners" Presentation.  I have a link to his presentation on my Glog.  The kids learned a lot, asked some VERY good questions, and feel more comfortable with the thought of middle school now.  Even though Mr. Parker teaches at Daniell, the information he shares applies to all of the middle schools our kids would attend.  

Unit Study:
The kids kicked off our day with some intense work on their Genius Hour Projects.  We have two more class periods to work on the Projects before the kids present on March 15th.  Many of them are choosing to do additional work at home, so they will be well-prepared when Presentation Day comes.  You are welcome to join us for the Presentations from 8-9am on March 15th.

Algebraic thinking skills:
Our kiddos stretched their algebraic thinking in a Versatile activity this morning.  They did very well, with what could have been a challenging activity.  I guess they're ready for a bigger challenge next time!

Novel Study:
We read a couple more chapters in our book, Ungifted.  The kids really enjoyed matching their wits against each other in our Kahoot game that involved inferences, idioms, and recall of important details from the reading.  Great job kiddos!

Affective Skills:
We continued our exploration of Big Dreams with a follow-up discussion of the risks vs. rewards and the costs vs. rewards of going after a BIG Dream.  The kids showed a lot of deep thought in their reflections after our discussion!

HW:  None!
Enjoy your Winter Break!
​Dr. Kraeger

Today was filled with big dreams and genius at work!  The kids started off by commenting on Genius Hour Project Ideas from our 4th Grade Partners at Baker Elementary.  These youngsters really look forward to the feedback and helpful suggestions from our wise and wonderful 5th graders.

Stations:
We stretched our divergent thinking with a February F2OE.  The ideas were so clever and creative!  We also challenged our convergent thinking with some logic puzzles called Perplexors.  The kids did pretty well on these!

Algebraic Thinking:
We changed things up for math with a fun Valentine's Day Glyph involving solving equations, long division, and order of operations.  The finished products look great, as does the problem solving behind their creations!

Affective Skills:
We revisited an old favorite for our mindfulness practice with 4-7-8 Breathing.  Quite a few of the kids said that they've used this to help relax.

We also talked about big dreams and the sacrifice that may come with pursing a really BIG dream.  We discussed the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle Disasters and reflected on whether the astronauts' sacrifices were worth it in the end.  Some powerful thinking here!

Novel Study:
We read a bit more of our book, and are still trying to figure out what Donovan's gifts really are.  None of his teachers know for sure.  

Unit Study:
Our work on Genius Hour went pretty well today.  Most of the kids are well on their way with their projects.   We will be presenting these projects in class on March 15th.  At this point, the kids may need to do some work at home if they haven't accomplished a moderate amount yet.  For those learning a craft or skill, it is helpful to take photos of the progress.  Those photos can be included in the Project Presentation.

HW:  Edmodo-Genius Hour Update & Feedback for Partner School

Until next time,
Dr. Kraeger