Our Learning Targets this month are:

1.  I can use colors and paper to create a collage of ocean waves. I can practice weaving using a template.

2.  I can think critically and understand that weaving shows repetition. 

A lot of students have never weaved before, so some students practiced on looms to understand the repetition that goes into weaving. They were able to understand that each row has to start in a different direction. 

Kinders and first graders really go excited when they were able to cut their looms. Once they weaved the first few rows they lit up with the anticipation of how the whole piece would look. 

Students love the predictability of the Innovation Stations. These stations offer students repetition and an opportunity to practice, which has helped them learn to code Bee-bot, code in Scratch Junior, and solve puzzles in the Bee-Bot App.

This cycle, students also learned to draw their Innovation Lab buddy: Bee-Bot. The step by step approach to drawing Bee-Bot is great for giving confidence to students, while helping them see they can draw anything when it's broken down into steps and shapes. 

Bee-Bot is definitely the star of the show for Kinder and 1st graders in the Innovation Lab. The Bee-Bot mats turn coding Bee-Bot into a game for students. They practice collaboration when taking turns and critical thinking in making decisions on how to program Bee-Bot to reach destination on the mat. They celebrate their success with, cheers, giggles and smiles. There is so much fun to be had on AIM days!

Our Learning Targets this month are:

1.I can learn about another culture to create a work of art.

2.I can learn about another culture to create a work of art.

Students create a Kapa Cloth inspired art piece. Tapa, or Kapa cloth  is made from using the bark of the Mulberry tree.  The cloth features patterns on it that represent animals, and nature found in the Pacific Island countries.

We focused this month on pattern and repetition. 

For the seventh cycle we focused on composition and being innovative. Students learned that musical composition is creating a song using elements that were learned from previous cycles such as pitch, rhythms, and tempo. For Kinder and 1st grade, we used various instruments and even scarves to practice these elements before compiling these together in making songs. At some school sites, students used iPads to compose their own songs through the Chrome Music Lab, a free music website where students can create their own songs through simple and fun programs such as "Song Maker". Below is a link to access it. Feel free to explore the website with your children.

For the innovative component of this cycle, students were challenged to think of creative ways to compose their own songs with prompts that we gave them such as "how fast would you like your song to be" or "what type notes would you use in your song." The focus of being innovative was to "use your imagination to think of new ideas" and students have shown that they can use the music website to create unique as well as personal songs.

Chrome Music Lab

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Experiments 

Our focus this month was the Profile of a Graduate Skill - Critical Thinking. This skill helped first grader students to color their starfish and think critically if they came across a problem. 

Our Learning Targets this month are:

1. I can use paint to add color to my sea creature (starfish- first graders).

2. I can paint a fish and help make an ocean background.

Our Element of Art we focused on this month was, "Color." The first graders were able to paint their starfish. The kindergarteners listened to a story called "Hooray for Fish!". They got to color a fish to add to a collaborative mural the class made. 

For the sixth cycle we focused on tempo; music can be fast and music can be slow.  We engaged the littles in various ways and introduced the fancy music words for this - largo and allegro (also called presto).  Classes got out of their seats to dance, clap, wave scarves, and march to a range of tempos.  

Some classes could be heard singing the same song to various tempos, some were sung to with a ukulele, and others got to smack a cajon (large drum you sit on).  Boomwhackers were once again used as an engaging way to practice rhythm and listen to pitches.  Chrome Music Lab’s Song Maker page was used to have partners compose their own song on an iPad and then choose the tempo and beats.  

Students collaborating for the art show

This month our youngest innovators dove into the basics of coding by programming Bee Bots, tiny robots with with just seven input buttons to make early coding more accessible. 

For the lesson activities, students collaborated with teachers to co-create intricate maps by using wooden blocks to construct walls, creating dynamic mazes on their desks. These maps served as the canvas for their programming adventures, providing a physical space for their Bee Bots to navigate. The goal? Guide the Bee Bot through the maze and reach a target number on the map. It was a hands-on and minds-on experience that brought coding concepts to life in a playful and engaging way. 

As well, students cut out and customized costumes to meet specific needs. This not only added a delightful touch of creativity but also allowed them to explore the intersection of coding and design. 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates as our young minds continue to thrive in the world of innovation!

Our focus in music for Cycle 5 was Critical Thinking and Pitch. Last time we focused on pitch, the students were encouraged to explore pitch as innovators. As critical thinkers, we made related connections and worked towards specific goals.

Students reinforced their understanding of pitch as high and low using their bodies, their voices, and pitched instruments. They had to make connections between the pitch they heard, how they could represent it in their body, and how to make either their voice or instrument match the pitch correctly. 

We also discussed how pitch is made from sound waves. We watched some sound waves in action on the Oscillator app on Chrome Music Lab. In the pictures you can see students following along with the pitches and sound waves - bodies down low for the low pitches and stretching up high for the high pitches.

Our young innovators in kindergarten and first grade are buzzing with excitement in December. This month, the students have been busy programming Bee-Bots to navigate a variety of challenges using specially designed mats, wooden blocks, and other engaging obstacles. 

The little minds at work have not only practicing coding with Bee-Bots but have also taken their first steps into the digital world by exploring Scratch Jr. on iPads. The program aims to foster creativity, problem-solving skills, and a love for learning in our youngest scholars. 

For music’s fourth cycle we harnessed our innovative skills and focused on musical pitch and differentiating high and low notes. The main instrument that was use to practice high and low notes were the boomwhackers.  These plastic colored tubes produce a musical pitch that changes depending on the size and color a student use.

The teachers used a free online music site called "Chrome Music Lab" that use the same colors of the boomwhackers to play a song that students played along with. This website is available for you to use at home so that students can explore the website and experiment with music and sound. This cycle is an introduction to musical pitch which will lead students to see how different combinations of high and low notes are used to construct songs.

Chrome Music Lab Link:

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/ 

This month's focus was the Profile of a Graduate Skill - Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking means that students ask questions and think about how they might solve a problem.  Students during this month used their critical thinking to create shades and tones of colors by using lighter and harder pressure with different art mediums.  We also focused on the Element of Art - "Value."  Students demonstrated "Value" by using light and dark shades to show the depth and dimension of shapes.

Our Learning Targets this month:

1.  I can learn about colors and how there can be different shades of one color.

2.  I can take my shape artwork and use different shades of one color that I like.

3.  I can use different art tools to create a work of art.

Students were introduced to programming using Bee-Bots and Scratch jr., where students use simple commands or command blocks to navigate bee bot through a city of wooden blocks at their tables or to create stories and animations.
This hands-on experience not only sharpens their technical skills but also enables them to unleash their creativity as they craft and share their unique projects.

For music’s third cycle we harnessed our critical thinking skills and focused on rhythmic patterns, known as ostinatos.  Students were using various instruments to keep the rhythms, such as: egg shakers, bucket drums, wood blocks, tambourines, and rhythm sticks.  In addition to physical instruments we also benefited from the use of clapping and voicing the rhythms with Tas, Titis and Shushes (Shh).

Classes also used spinner boards to create their own rhythms consisting of four beats.  These were written on white boards and then shared amongst their classmates.  The beats included quarter notes, eighth notes and rests.  Rhythm bingo was played using familiar rhythmic patterns.

In the innovation classrooms, while students continue to practice the fundamentals of safety and collaboration in the classroom, this month students will have the opportunity to engage their builds with coding tools. Before we begin with digital and internet connected tools, we start with lessons and activities that focus our students on their responsibilities as digital citizens. Students learn to "pause for people" setting devices aside when we need to be present to each other.

Students will practice using the Bee-Bot app on ipads first, before learning to code the actual Bee-Bot. Bee-Bot is one of the early coding tools we will use, add a tangible and tactile dimension to the learning experience. Through playful experimentation, students grasp programming fundamentals by guiding Bee Bots through mazes and challenges, honing their sequencing skills and understanding the cause-and-effect relationships in programming. 

Our learning targets this month include developing strategies for sharing and collaboration, continued practice of safety habits and developing skills as critical thinkers as we create our first programs instructing Bee Bots to travel along a pre-designed path.

Our focus in the beginning of October was collaborative rhythm. 

We reviewed the concept of steady beat and then introduced rhythm. Students learned that while steady beat stays the same, rhythm can change. We started with two simple rhythms: quarter notes and eighth notes. 

We discussed that quarter notes only have one sound (like "pear" or "book") and eighth notes have two sounds (like "apple" or "backpack"). After practicing a variety of rhythms with quarter notes and eighth notes, we had students collaborate with a partner to create their own rhythms.  

Our focus this month was the Profile of a Graduate Skill of being Self-Directed.

Self-direction means that students can get started with their work and keep working, even if students get stuck with their work.  A  student's goal is that they can try and solve their own problems.

Our Learning Targets this month are:

1. I can learn about different types of lines.

2. I can use my imagination, and art tools to create a picture using lines and details to make a work of art.

Our Element of Art we focused on this month was, "Line".  Students learned about different types of lines and created a shooting star collage.

In our first cycle of lessons, we focused on keeping a self-directed steady beat. 

From the basis of understanding our own heart beats, we connected this similarity to how music has fast or slow beats. We used a variety of songs that had fast and slow beats for students to listen, tap, or clap to. Students had the opportunity to march and dance to a beat along with using scarves, bean bags, and egg shakers to keep a beat with the music.