What an exciting day we had with the surprise waiting for us on Halloween!  Right after the announcements, we checked out the "Crime Scene" down the hall!  The kids were beyond thrilled to finally get started! 

They used their convergent thinking skills to take careful notes of every detail of the Crime Scene.  Later in the classroom, we add their notes about the evidence to our Crime Scene Map.  We'll use this in the next class to try to investigate our suspects.  We also honed our observation skills with some Hidden Pictures.  The kids loved these!

Later on, we continued our convergent thinking and added critical thinking to help us solve some cryptograms.  The kids were amazing in figuring out the message.  

We also read a chapter in our book and used our evaluative and critical thinking skills to answer some tough questions about the book.  Our main characters had a close call when a class from their school showed up at the Museum where they are hiding.  Talk about tense moments!  

Remember, no Target next week because of the School Holiday on Election Day.  

HW:  Edmodo

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

Today we learned all about Secret Codes and Ciphers!  We went to the computer lab and checked out some websites for research about cryptography and saw some examples of different types of codes and ciphers.  We'll finish our research and practice next week.  Watch out-you may see some ciphers around the house!  

During stations, we worked our convergent thinking skills with a "Bank Robbers" logic puzzle.  Even though it looked easy, some had to revise their work a bit to find a correct solution.  They also used their divergent thinking skills to SCAMPER a magnifying glass.  The answers are wonderfully creative!

Affective Skills:
We continued our mindfulness practice with some information about how to reduce our worries: Kick Logic Back Into Gear.  We also worked on our Character Traits with a discussion of creativity.  We watched an interesting video featuring film producer Brian Grazer talking about creativity.  The kids took away some powerful lessons from this talk!

Algebraic Thinking:
We honed our algebraic thinking and critical thinking skills with a Math Stars problem-solving activity.  The kids had to stretch a bit to solve some of the problems.  Early finishers had the chance to start learning how to solve the Rubik's Cube, convergent thinking to the MAX!  

Finally, we finished our day with more of our novel.  Hmm...the mystery is getting tricky now and Claudia has a plan to solve it! 

HW:  Edmodo
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

We started our day off with catching up and working on student-created word searches based on our novel study.  We learned a bit about what makes a good word search! 

Next, we moved on to our novel study by finishing chapter 5.  Our main characters were able to find a source of income--the fountain at the museum restaurant!  The kids thought it was a funny way to get more money!  

Stations:
We used our critical thinking skills to answer some questions about chapter 5 reading.  The kids are trying to remember to answer using complete sentences.  This is a work in progress for most, but we're trying!  We also did a super challenging logic puzzle from our Mystery Unit to stretch our convergent thinking skills.  Almost everyone had to revise their solution a bit this week to find the correct answers.  

Mystery Unit:
We had SO much fun learning more about fingerprints by identifying the Print Formula for each suspect in our mini-case, "Who Robbed the Safe?".  The kids were able to make a guess based on their fingerprint analysis.  We discussed how things really work with fingerprints and the other types of evidence criminals might leave behind at a crime scene.  

Finally, we ended our day with a bit more of our novel.  We stopped just as our main characters discovered mysterious rings on the velvet cloth under the Angel Statue.  We'll find out more about the mystery next week.

If you haven't stopped by our room this week, I hope you'll swing by to see the great work the kids did on our Mystery Story Theater.  Bring your phone, so you can scan the QR Code to see their amazing stories!

HW:  Edmodo Poll
Until next week,
​Dr. Kraeger

We had a wonderful day of learning, packed with new things!

Stations:
We started off with four activities for the kids to jump into this morning.  For convergent thinking, we had a Mystery Logic Puzzle.  The kids aced this one, so they're definitely ready for the next puzzle in our Mystery Unit.  We also worked on creating a visual vocabulary definition for Felicity.  Ask your child what image he/she chose to illustrate the word.  We used our critical thinking skills to create word search puzzles using vocabulary from our novel study.  The kids will solve each others' puzzles next week.  Finally, we recorded our mystery stories using a new technology tool, Flipgrid.  I hope you'll check out this project, which is posted outside our classroom.  Bring your phone or tablet down to the Target room and click on the QR code to see all of the fun stories the kids shared.

Mystery Unit:
We practiced listening for clues, as we solved the "Backpack Mystery".  The kids were able to use the clues from the story to eliminate some suspects, and then find the culprit.  The LOVED this activity!

Algebraic Thinking:
The kids worked on some VERY challenging math problem solvers today, including adding fractions, adding decimals, and elapsed time.  Wow!  They did a great job!

Affective:
We practiced mindfulness with a video, "Fear vs. Anxiety".  This helps the kids learn the difference between real fear and how our bodies react to anxiety.  Then we discussed the strategies we've learned that can help with anxiety.   
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We also practiced our collaboration, divergent, and convergent thinking skills with a class game of Boggle, and a small group game of Q-Bitz.  The kids found so many good words!

Novel Study:
We read another chapter of our book and found out what elegant and  humble mean.  Things are getting interesting in this mystery!

HW:  Edmodo
Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger

What a great day of learning for these kiddos!  We hit the ground running and didn't stop!

Stations:
We started things off with activities using 3 skill areas.  Our convergent thinking skills got a work-out with some tricky logic puzzles.  These are getting tough!  We continued our divergent and evaluative thinking skills by working on our word of the week, expedient.  This was the toughest word to find images for.  All the kids understand the meaning, but many had difficulty finding/thinking of an image that would convey that meaning.  This deep thinking is one reason we're using this approach for learning new words.  Finally, we used our critical thinking and communication skills to answer some questions about our novel to practice making inferences.  Not as easy as the kids think!

Unit Study:
The kids finished their mystery stories today.  We'll get a chance to share these next week by using a new tech tool called FlipGrid.  Wait until you see how this works.  It's going to be so much fun!

Later, we did some research about fingerprints-history, details, and uses.  This was helpful for our Finger Print Lab this afternoon.  The kids really enjoyed creating their own fingerprint samples, identifying the patterns in their prints, and trying to guess the identity of some mystery prints.  Take a look at their papers that came home.  

HW:  Edmodo Question about Fingerprints

Until next time,
​Dr. Kraeger