The Stange Bear Robbery

Well Madison, Brian and Nikolas are finally done their StopMotion movie! They wanted to share it with everyone so below you will see The Strange Bear Robbery. They finished the fifteen geography challenges, and then collaborated with the iPad to create their movie. Great work! More fun projects coming up after the 30th challenge!

What's Where?

Coming up over the next few weeks, we will be studying the locations of the states, capitals, and some of the nicknames. Have fun learning and play the games below!

http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-state-the-state/index.html

http://www.primarygames.com/states/2d.htm

http://www.scholastic.com/play/prestates.htm

http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/unitedstates.html

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/mappuzzle/us-puzzle.html

P.S. You'll need to study for more than a nanosecond! 

MIT's Computer Program for KIDS

We've been looking into some basic computer programming, which doesn't sound very basic at all at first. MIT has developed an educational software program called Scratch which teaches children how to create animation and games. Sounds like fun! But the real reason behind me bringing this into our classroom is not for fun and entertainment purposes. In order to run this program, students need to think creatively, reason systematically, and collaborate with classmates. These are all real world skills. If your son or daughter asks you to download the program onto your home computer, please consider it because the possibilities for creation, and learning opportunities with this program are truly endless. Students must use critical thinking and mathematical reasoning  to animate and program. I am learning the program myself, however it's the students who need these skills for success in the world of tomorrow.   Who knows, maybe you are living with a future computer engineer?

http://scratch.mit.edu/

My Fave Video Clips So Far This Year...

This kiddo is amazing! I wish he was in our class so he could teach ME!

Belly breathing is for real. This is cute and we all need to do it at times!

How about these kiddies? They are the best of the best. They say no burn, no learn!




Caine is one of the most inspirational kids I have ever seen. We watched this clip in class and the kids were so fascinated by how determined and motivated he was. We are thinking about trying this out too!