Grade 3 in Madagascar!

Ok, so we know all the awesome animals on the well-known movie Madagascar, but today we were able to meet a native of the country!  This native is part of an special group in which 80% of the species' from Madagascar do not live anywhere else on the planet.  We learned this specialization is probably due to the fact that Madagascar is an island that experts believe broke off from the main part of Africa a very long time ago and different species ended up living there.  The "native" we met was a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (MHC)!  We used a t-chart to take notes on physical adaptations, behaviors, adults, and nymphs (young).  We observed so many things and even heard one of our MHC hiss.  

After we concluded our scientific investigation, we used the icon of depth and complexity Multiple Perspectives to put ourselves in place of the MHC.  Some of our responses:

If I were a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, I would...

-read about the life of human beings and then write a report about it.  Maegan
-make humans not dislike us!  Carter
-make the world's first robot roach.  Brock

I would dislike...
-having hairy legs and getting walked on.  Jake
-people pushing on me and doing stuff I don't like.  Elise

I would wonder...
-has anyone (MHC) ever survived in America?  Brady
-how does a piece of meat taste?  Cora
-if humans would like me or not.  Eden

I would want people to know...
-I am harmless, and not nasty!  Adam
-that we won't hurt them (humans).  Hayden
-we are not like American cockroaches.  Coltin

I wish I could have gotten pictures of everyone who held the MHC, but I was picking them up and putting them into hands myself and couldn't operate the camera at the same time.  I was amazed at how many of us actually wanted to hold one-most of our class!  They were very calm with the animals!  MHC, like 99% of the cockroach population is clean and cannot harm us.  I think knowing this fact helped quite a bit!  Of course, we still ALL washed our hands when done!

Grade 4: Genius Hour and Aerodynamics

Our CITS technology person, Mrs. Mitchell, virtually visited 4th grade last week to show us how to log in to our Lamar Microsoft student accounts and use a program called One Note.  It was very exciting!  Students first checked their email and saw that Mrs. Imrie had shared a "notebook" with them called Genius Hour.  Genius Hour is a lot like the 20% time that Google gives its employees to research and pursue topics/ideas of their choice.   The research that we do will be stored, collected and presented in our own One Note notebook.  Mrs. Mitchell showed us how to save information on our Notes page, collaborate with our Frost friends AND our Adolphus 4th grade friends (very excited about that!), copy, paste, and move info and handouts from Mrs. Imrie.

This week in 4th, we opened our class by viewing an aeronautical engineer who works on space station environments and is also hearing impaired.  In discussing our thoughts, we expressed how awesome it was that high level/skill careers are within reach of everyone and technology can really assist people with their everyday work.  We continued using the engineering design process to work on making our Rocket Racer, air powered car successful.  We are now at the testing and re-design process.

Kinder: Getting to Know Each Other in GT

In Kinder GT we introduced ourselves and talked about why we were in this class together (because we think differently) and the different types of thinking we were going to do.  We read a book called, I'm Gonna Like Me by Jamie Lee Curtis and created our own page for the book.  We discussed how, just like in the book, we need to like ourselves even if we get a wrong answer, or something breaks, or we just get sad.  See our ideas below:

I'm gonna like me when...

when I miss the ball--Max

when I miss the shot in basketball--Jackson

when I don't win--Ryan

when I build legos and they break--Rylan

Grade 5: Robotics Special Projects

5th grade browsed for special robotic challenges to try today.  With a new partner, many of us started building our new design today.  A few examples: dog sled, ballerina and even a power saw!  Can't wait to see these projects in action!

5th Grade Robotics: Using sensors!

Fifth grade uses sensors:

Ellen and Emily

Johnny and Ashlyn H

Parveen and Tyler

Rylee

Reghan and Ashlin N

Zane

Michael

Grades 1 & 2: MHC!

First and second grades furthered their knowledge of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach today by learning a little more about its habitat and behaviors.  Last week we were able to observe and hold the animals if we wanted to!  This week, we observed differences between the nymphs and adults and also recorded special adaptations and all the behaviors we noted as we watched our own MHC in class.  We located the head, thorax and abdomen and any special variations some of our species had.  After we finished our scientific observations, we used the Multiple Perspectives icon of depth and complexity to imagine ourselves as MHC and what we would do, dislike, wonder, and want people to know about us.  Imagining ourselves as MHCs, we drew pictures of how humans see us and how we see ourselves.  Some of us drew ourselves with a mohawk or wearing sports gear!

Grade 4: Rocket Racers!

Fourth grade returned to their study of Aerodynamics today and continued working on rocket racers.  We designed cars completely fabricated from Styrofoam and straws of various sizes.  Our rocket fuel is air coming out of a balloon.  We started our first distance trials today!  Our cars had some good distance, (we kept a data chart to record) although steering and balloon/straw placement was an issue.  Following the engineering design process we will modify our designs and retest for our 2nd and 3rd trials.

Grades 1 & 2: Tribal Redo

Grades 1 and 2 learned why tribes in New Guinea create different masks for different occasions.  In our class, we wrote about a compelling reason for creating our own masks and indicated at least 3 parts of the mask that were related to our reason.  Some of us made a mask that would bring good luck, health, safe travel, protection, etc to our families.  Some samples of decorative items were:  combination locks (ears) to symbolize protection, huge 3D eyes with which to see our families and spend time with them or even lucky 4 leaf clovers as eyes.  Our next stop is Madagascar where we will meet a very special species!