Mrs. Alers gave me a task: help some of our fourth grade GT students publish our classes' creative writing products. Since Mrs. Alers was open to a new method, I determined that creating a class website with built in blogs might be a great way to integrate technology and motivate the kids. The kids worked with me to categorize their classmates work into 5 headings and then worked to deterime an editor-in-chief and page editors for each of those headings. Mrs. Alers taught the kids how to use the scanner to add images, and I taught them how to use the web editor. And with little or no guidance beyond that, we have a web page up and running! If you want to check it out (and leave comments,) go to:
http://werner4thgrade.weebly.com/
0 Comments
One of my many goals this year working with the Werner GT kids is to find applications for math. This means projects! Instead of doing boring review of perimeter and area with worksheets, I gave the 5th graders a task... given a certain amount of materials to work with to build an enclosure (in other words: a required perimeter,) help us build an enclosure for a zoo animal that would provide it with the maximum area. The added challenge to the project was to create a scaled-down grid to show how big your enclosure would be. Each of them had to present to our "zoo committee" and be prepared to justify how many animals would be appropriate in this enclosure and what the animal would need to survive and thrive. I was amazed at their creativity in their posters! Many of them decided to take the project a step further by making their presentation 3D. Seen here are a few of the projects. For more pictures, check out the photo portion of the website. Gotta love when science, math, and art collide in the classroom! Kitchen bath scene by Xan How do you foster creativity in students? I am still working on the answer to that. Last week though, I caught a glimpse of what 4th grade language arts gifted students are capable of when given a good book and some choice in product. After competing their reading of "Sarah, Plain and Tall," I gave the kids a choice menu of 9 different book projects ranging from naming the chapter of the book to researching train transportation of the early 1900's to creating a botany book detailing plants mentioned in the book. Many of the students choose the option of becoming Sarah, who liked to draw pictures, and trying to recreate her artwork. Two partnerships chose to work together to write a screenplay for a chapter (before they watched the movie!,) and both small groups then opted to act it out, as well! We also had talk show hosts who wrote up interviews with main characters. Their creativity was overflowing! So for today, the answer to how do you foster creativity? Quality literature as our base and a good dose of student choice in product and simply get out of the way and let them get to work! Fifth grade language arts GT has had fun exploring a variety of genres this year. We have established literature circles with roles assigned, and the kids do a great job of being student leaders to make sure conversations about our books are meaningful AND fun. Most of these kids love to read already. Many of them, however, tend to read the same genre (fantasy, adventure, etc.) I am trying to make sure we branch out and try books that they might not pick up on their own. The picture here is a character study we did when reading "The Westing Game" - a great mystery. The kids were assigned a character to "become." Each character was a potential suspect in the murder-mystery, and they had to create an alibi for themselves as they read the book. The kids even took it a step further on some days and had fun role-playing their character in class. Hopefully, they had a chance to see how fun a mystery can be when you put yourself in the role of trying to solve it, not just simply read. Do I expect them all to love every book and therefore every genre? No, but I hope a little exposure might make them step out of their comfort zone on occasion and try something new. Each of my classes spend a small portion of each week trying to master our basic math facts (namely multiplication for my gifted students.) We do this through our Xtramath.org practice, mad minutes, and daily work. Math isn't about who finishes the fastest really. It is about who can apply their mathematical concepts in meaningful ways. However, having your basic math facts memorized for quick recall leaves more time for that application of concepts instead of dwelling on , "What was 6 X 8 again?" This is especially true for fourth grade as they master long multiplication and long division this year.
In a National Council of Teacher's of Mathematics journal article, it was stated this way, "Why should children learn the multiplication facts? Because children without either sound knowledge of their facts or a way of figuring them out are at a profound disadvantage in their subsequent mathematics achievement. Students without muliplication-fact fluency spend more time determining routine answers and less time on more meaningful applications." Skill and drill has its place and parents can be a huge help in this department. Encourage your child to log on to XtraMath.org at home and practice. I have also listed other websites under the "Parent Tips & Link" tab that allow students to practice their basic facts. Use flashcards at home and have them practice with a sibling or in the car on a longer drive (assuming no one gets carsick!) Better yet make them apply their knowledge of multiplication by posing problems at home or at the grocery store or while driving: "If I buy 2 dozen eggs, how many eggs will I have?" Remember too that division is really just the opposite of multiplication (good ol' commutative property!) "If we buy a package of 12 carrots for the 4 people in our family, how many will each person get for dinner?" See how you can work it into your day without it taking a lot of your time - and being more meaningful as well! https://www.xtramath.org/ |
Tracey BeanWerner Elementary Archives
May 2018
Sign-up for updates: |
Knowledge Peak | Blog |