June
We prepared for exhibition... Our goal is to create beautiful arcade games out of cardboard for our Kindergarten customers so they can have fun playing. Here is what our workshop looked like, our games, and our final celebration of learning.
Introducing..
Last Days of May
Star Wars Mini-Golf: Up Close
Our amazing engineers are building prototypes of their arcade game designs to test them. This group of engineers has shown amazing creativity and teamwork. They have designed a mini-golf course, which is incredibly ambitious. They communicate effectively and kindly, which has helped them be efficient with their time. They help each other and work independently to share the workload and complete their work with quality. Above all, they are having fun as a team. And then on Friday they were able to present their prototypes to our customers in Mr. Lopez' class. Here is a peek into their work.
All of our engineers were able to build their prototypes and present them to our Kindergarten customers on the turf. Our customers provided valuable feedback while playing our games. We will reflect on the feedback and begin building our real, life-size arcade games this week. Here are more pictures of our Play & Test sessions.
attention to detail
writing workshop
|
In order to prepare for writing our story drafts next week, our writers created storyboards and then used oral story telling to rehearse their stories with their peers.
|
May 23rd
This week we introduced SCRUM to our design process. SCRUM is a project management tool used by many software engineering firms, and we have retooled it for the classroom. SCRUM helps us organize tasks for a group so that everyone has a clear purpose and understanding of what needs to be done. See the boards below, and ask your child to explain how it works. We practiced by making a class cardboard robot. And now we are using them to organize our tasks for building our prototypes for the cardboard arcade.
Feel free to check out this Slides presentation for more details about SCRUM.
|
Here are some pictures of us at work. Planning and creating. Communicating. Critiquing and encouraging. Sharing materials and ideas. Supporting and leading. Having fun.
Reading Workshop
You should be seeing more post-it notes when your child is reading. We are learning how readers use post-it notes to capture ideas as we read. We can write about the character, like we have been learning over the last few weeks. We can also capture big ideas and lessons learned.
After filling our book with post-its, a student asked what to do when she finished the book. I taught her that when we finish a book, it is the perfect time to review our big ideas on our post-it notes, and choose ones that still ring true. Take those important ideas and move them to your notebook, and then write more about why they were important to the story. See her work to the right. |
May 15th
The school year continues to fly by as we successfully navigate this hybrid season. Students have shown tremendous resilience, and continue to transition between home and school with continued engagement and excitement. This project has really been ignited this week with our Kindergarten (customer) interviews and project ideation (planning). Students teamed up and signed contracts to commit to working hard, listening to and helping each other, sharing the workload, and being kind. Next week we will finalize our game designs and begin building prototypes.
Writing Workshop
We are using the following illustrated checklists to help revise and edit our realistic fiction narratives. Ask your child to share their story with you.
Then we will restart the writing process by collecting new ideas for a fictional story about our arcade games. Here are some of the prompts we will use:
Then we will restart the writing process by collecting new ideas for a fictional story about our arcade games. Here are some of the prompts we will use:
- You came into the classroom and you saw that your game came alive. Tell us what happened.
- If your game could talk, what would it say. Write a story.
- [Insert Kindergarten Buddy Name] is playing your game, and then your game comes alive. Write the rest of the story.
- Write a story about what happens to our arcade at night time.
Engineering
Every week in engineering, Ms. Roxanne is teaching a new simple machine. She started the trimester introducing the design process, like we did in the classroom, by designing, building, testing and improving a baby chair. Now we hope that as students learn about different simple machines, they will incorporate them into their arcade game design.
May is here!!!
Our Cardboard Arcade Project, "Think Outside The Box", is launched. Here is the Design Process we will be following, ending with an exhibition of our final arcade games so our audience can play them. We identified our Kindergarteners as our primary customers (or users) and will be interviewing them this week. Below are the questions we brainstormed together.
Let the games begin! A few engineers have spent some extra time ideating prototypes.
|
|
Last Week of April
Project Launch!
We launched our project with Caine's Arcade... https://imagination.org/about-us/our-story/
We talked about how resilient and inspiring Caine was, and then everyone started asking to build their own arcade games out of cardboard... and so the project begins.
We talked about how resilient and inspiring Caine was, and then everyone started asking to build their own arcade games out of cardboard... and so the project begins.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reading and writing workshop
Our focus right now is on our characters. In reading, we are observing and developing theories to learn about our characters and why they do the things they do. In writing, we are beginning realistic fiction, and want to develop strong characters and utilize a story arc to develop an engaging story with tension. At home, you can ask your young readers about what they are reading: What was important that your character did? What did they say that was important? Why did they do or say that? What theory do you have about your character? Why do you think that is true?
Welcome back!!
Our school doors re-opened on April 13th. And what a year it has been since they closed due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Now that we are back, there is so much joy in learning together to share. Here we go...
Design ChallengeWe have been working on designing and creating for the classroom. The problem we defined was transforming the sterile classroom into our classroom. This is our Design Process Wall with each step outlined. Below are photos of our students collaborating on projects. I love seeing how engaged students are in creating something special and necessary for the classroom. I also admire how selflessly each child lend an idea or hand to a peer. We stopped every so often for a student to present their idea for feedback. And students were able to provide specific warm feedback along with helpful ideas for improvement. Posters have been added to our walls. A peace structure for taking a time out to calm down. Pillows for comfort. Squishies and fidgets for focus. Robots for class pets. And the list goes on. Next week we will begin a new design challenge as we launch our new project.
|
Math
We have been focusing on measurement this week in preparation for studying perimeter and area, as well as applying those skills to creating blueprints for our designs in our next project. We discussed the different units and measuring tools available. And we did some troubleshooting when we measure the perimeter of our tables and got 10 different measurements. I asked the question, "If we all measure the perimeter of the same table, shouldn't we all get the same measurement?" Everyone agreed that we should, and we were able to brainstorm 5 tips for measuring accurately: (1) using the same units, (2) lining up our rulers carefully on the lines, (3) marking our measurements along the way, especially when the thing we are measuring is longer than our measuring tool - don't let those fingers get in the way or leave big gaps, (4) figuring out how to measure curved corners with rigid rulers, and (5) dealing with those pesky fractions - we can't just leave them out.
We also will continue to work with story problems and calculation.
We also will continue to work with story problems and calculation.
Reading and writing
We have focused on building a reader's life, which essentially means that reading is not a task but a passion. Some of our readers already feel that desire to read throughout the day, and some are still building their independence. One huge factor is choosing the right book for you. The right book for me may not be the right book for you. So, we have spent a lot of time exploring the classroom library, which has recently received hundreds of dollars of new books through Donor's Choose.
Last week we started reading Because of Winn-Dixie, which has already captured the class' attention. Our focus now is "Getting to know your character." We are using post-it notes to capture our ideas, and then growing our ideas through conversation and writing in our notebooks. You will see these assignments in their work at home. |