Thank you so very much for the sweet gifts for Teacher Appreciation!  I absolutely love working with your children, and you are all so kind to spoil me with the wonderful treats, presents, and lovely notes!

We had a fabulous last day of Target with our fifth graders!

We started our day with a Game Playing Session.  Each child presented the game he/she created and played it with others.  The kids had a chance to play several games during the 3 Sessions.  We were amazed at the creativity and clever ideas in these games!  Excellent work! 

Later in the day, we challenged the kids convergent, evaluative, communication, and collaboration skills with a Mystery to solve: "Mayhem in the Math Department".  The kids used cryptography to break ciphers and solve the clues to the crime.  I've never seen the kids so engaged!  We heard comments like: "I've never been so confused!  I LOVE this!" and "I'll be back from the AR Ice Cream Party in 5 minutes, so I can get back to solving these clues!" 

It's so hard to see these kids move on to middle school.  They're totally ready, but I guess we're not quite ready to let them go!  It's been a fantastic 4 years with this group!  

Have a wonderful summer!
​Dr. Kraeger 

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