We had a very interesting day today due to benchmark testing. The fifth graders got a lot of small group attention early in the day while the 4th graders worked on science testing and make-up testing, then joined us after lunch. Students worked on their house sketches, probably about half of the class has theirs finished up. They analyzed shape pictures to determine how the applied to a statement about shapes, then looked back at their previous work to figure out if this new shape created a need to change their previous way of thinking. By far the most exciting part of the day was finally getting into Minecraft Education Edition. Any build challenges or assignments for ALERT in Minecraft will go through google classroom, which should help both you and your children keep up with this new and exciting activity.
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Even though this week was a half day, Killian ALERT students still had a full day worth of learning. We worked on our house sketches, solves some math snake equations, and built towers out of notecards. The key to the notecard towers were shapes and foundations, because they were not allowed to use tape, glue, or any other substance to hold up the cards or hold them together. We will use these pictures later as we analyze architecture for various shapes to determine how the structures are built and why certain shapes make for better/stronger designs than others. Killian ALERT students were busy this week! They worked together to solve a perimeter problem with 2 squares and 2 triangles of different sizes that were combined to form 1 shape. Only 1 of the square side measurements was given, so there was a great deal of mathematical reasoning that they had to do to figure out the answer. We received a visit from the district coordinator for gifted service, Dr. Maria Kratsios, who was very impressed by their knowledge of architecture elements during our lesson on Victorian architecture. They also worked on octile scaling (measuring and dividing a paper into 8 equal pieces) and found a house to draw for their first full house sample work. Some students practiced drawing 3D shapes as both open and closed figures, while others challenged their artistic skills in drawing a set of 3D stairs going down into a room. |