The last two day of ALERT at Killian were fast and furious working to finalize their projects and presentations. They attached their roof pieces and put the finishing touches on their Minecraft houses (only to have some of them disappear when the district reset chromebooks for online testing - they are in the process of putting the kid's worlds back in place) . We headquartered in the hallway for the first part of presentation day to help kids move between classes more easily. They handled the new location and multiple transitions very well. Everything I heard from the classes they presented for was wonderful.
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Back to our regularly scheduled day and location (at least for today) ALERT students at Killian were hard at work on their architecture projects. As you can see from the pictures they are coming along nicely, several students are basically finished and will have a couple more classes to add any details they may want to add and prepare for their presentations at the end of May. We don't normally have class on Fridays, but when Field Day is on Thursday, some changes have to be made. The kids worked on architecture projects all day - except for a break for lunch, where we brought out some very old technology. They got to pass around an original bag cell phone from the 1980's. Of course they laughed when I told them that these things were high tech when they originally came out. The fifth graders used a great deal of math logic, actually figuring out that Mr. Ashley made a type-o in the math riddle, because it was unsolvable, then they figured out what my mistake was, and what the correction should have been in order to get the only possible correct answer. We had a packed day this week as many students worked to get their digital blueprints finished and their interior structure attached to their walls. We now have almost the whole class getting ready to put their walls together and/or start on their roof. We also did some Minecraft coding at the end of the day, they learned/practiced how to set up and run the programs block chain coding system. Hopefully later this year we will have time for either Java or Python, which are two other coding options they can learn in Minecraft. There were no Leprechaun sightings this St. Patrick's Day ALERT day, but we did have house sightings! Several students finished their digital blueprints last week and received their cut house pieces this week, they started adding the internal support structures, hopefully by next week all the walls will be up and they can work on their rooves. Three additional students finished their digital blueprints this week, so they will receive house pieces next week. Two others are very close, they have a few tweeks to make before I can cut their houses. Hopefully they are checking their Google classroom messages (hint hint)! The last two weeks have been very short classes due to state testing for future Gifted and Talented students. When they came to me after lunch and recess they got into their architecture project work and some math. (a few are still trying to figure out the Master Level problem from a few weeks ago) We had a short class session today due to testing, once we got to the room the kids were busy working on blueprints, double checking measurements, and starting their digital blueprints. One student has all 4 of his walls done and will have them to glue together next week. The kids worked exceptionally hard today, especially during math. They solved several variable equations and spent a huge chunk of time on one specific equation. They experienced their first Master Level equation, which combines larger answers with a greater number of variables. This means that there are many more possible solutions. With the less difficult problems, the kids often "see" the answers just noticing the basic multiplication facts within the problem. With the Expert and Master level equations, this isn't usually possible. So, they have to apply more logic and a greater number of strategies to actually solve the equation. They were not able to solve the problem, however, one of the 5th graders did manage to randomly guess the correct answer, but wasn't able to explain how he got it (he put down about 8 guesses at the very end of the day). So, currently, he doesn't know which of his guesses is the correct answer. I did issue them a challenge, so if they come to you asking for help, they are trying to complete the challenge contest. They also worked really hard on their blueprints, since most of them finished their draft scale measurements last week or very early in the day today. Several finished their front facade and are now thinking through the decision of whether they want a complete four walled structure or a facade structure with support braces, similar to what movie sets sometimes use. |