We had a fantastic day of learning to close out the month!

Unit Study:
The kids worked hard on their programming in Mission 6-"Alien Contact".  Then we learned about Conditionals--"If, Else" statements in coding.  The kids had fun playing "Conditional Card Game".  They used silly actions for their "If, Else" activities using various playing cards.  After this, they used Conditional coding to solve the puzzles in Code.org.

Novel Study:
We read a bit more of our book and found out that "E", the robot, is missing!  Cooper Elliott may be involved, but we just don't know yet!

Stations:
We used our convergent thinking to solve another Quotefall from House of Robots. The kids really love these and are getting really good at them!  They used their divergent thinking to create solutions to a "House of Robots" F2OE.  The work was very creative!

Algebraic Thinking:
We continued our Hands On Equations work with Lesson 4.  The kids learned a new "Legal Move" where they can subtract the same number from each side of the equation.  This definitely blew their minds!  We'll practice this a bit more after Spring Break to refresh our memories.

Affective Skills:
We worked on Courage Connections between ourselves and House of Robots. We had some good conversation about how this character trait can be seen in books and in real life.

Target will begin after Specials on Tuesday, April 13th because of Kindergarten Gifted Eligibility testing in the morning.

Have a good Spring Break!
​Dr. Kraeger

The kids have been busy with so much great learning in Target!

Unit: 
We continued our Coding with 2 Lessons on Code.org to practice debugging our programs, "Debugging with the Bee" and "Artist Debugging".  The kids are making excellent progress in their coding skills and having a blast!

Novel Study:
We found out about Trip's mini-robot and saw Sammy and E's plan to get Trip out of trouble with the class bully.  The plan worked perfectly!  All was well until E caught on fire at the Science Demonstration!  The kids are waiting to see what happens next!  

Algebraic Thinking;
We continued our Hands On Equations algebra lessons with a new concept, the "Legal Move". This allows kids to remove the same thing from both sides of the equation.  What a game changer compared to the "Guess and Check" they had been doing.  We're still working on that skill and will practice it more next week.

Stations:
We finished our Weighty Word with the last four words--Winsome, Xenophobia, Yammer, and Zealot.  The kids did a fantastic job!  Wait until you see the photos of their work next time!
We worked more on logic, including a new type of puzzle called a "Fallen Phrase".  The kids LOVED it!  We'll be doing another one next week!    
The kids created a Ninja Comic Strip inspired by the one Sammy's dad created in the Book.  They turned out great!  Take a look in the photos.

HW: Finish Logic, Comic Strip or Weighty Word
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

What a wonderful day it was in Target!

Affective Skills:
We learned about resilience and how to build it!  The kids had fun doing a Stand On 1 Leg Challenge.

Stations:
We read about a few more letters in our Weighty Word book, W & X.  Oh the kids did a good job! The kids worked on a logic puzzle to hone their convergent thinking skills and used their divergent thinking to create a Resilience Collage.

Unit Study:
We continued our coding with "Relay Programming".  The kids had to create and debug the code of their classmates to successfully code a picture.  They did a great job and had a blast!

Novel Study:
We read a few more chapters of our book and used our critical thinking skills to predict next events for our Robot E.  

Algebraic Thinking:
The kids worked on Lesson 2 of our Hands On Equations program.  They did a great job, even though it was HARD work!  

HW:  Finish Logic, Collage & Math
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

What a wonderful day of learning in Target!

Algebraic Thinking:
We started our Hands On Equations lessons for our algebra curriuculum.  The kids learn to use manipulatives to solve algebraic equations.  By fifth grade, the equations we solve are at the Algebra 1 course level.  

Unit Study: 
We continued coding using loops on Code.org.  Then, the kids applied this learning to program their robots to complete Mission 4-Security Patrol.  They did a great job!

Stations:
We read a wonderful book, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd.  The kids used their creativity to imagine what their Diffendoofer schools and teachers might look like.  The collage images are in the style of the book.  
The kids used their convergent thinking skills to solve a logic puzzle.

Novel Study:
We read a few more chapters in our book, finding out some important details about what's next for our characters.

HW:  Finish classwork

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger