Enrichment
From Weareteachers.com: Simply put, Genius Hour is inquiry-based, student-directed learning. Sometimes called Passion Pursuit, it gives students an opportunity to look at the big wide world around them and explore their own unique interests in a loosely structured, but supported, way. Terry Heick, founder and director of TeachThought, sings the praises of Genius Hour and describes it as a time when “students are in control; choosing what they study, how they study it, and what they produce or create as a result. As a learning model, it promotes inquiry, research, creativity, and self-directed learning.”
A Genius Hour from first semester: Create an Instrument Zoo for younger students
Joe showing our Pre-K friends the parts of a clarinet.
Sam teaching a Pre-K student how to "buzz" on the trumpet.
Ms. Dunton guides students in making a shaker instrument.
Second graders began their cultural unit on China with a learning experience about the Chinese New Year.
Third graders exploring the materials that they will use to build their Mars rover.
Joseph's design
Following the Engineer Design Process of: ask. imagine, plan, create, improve.
Fourth grade podcasts on the regions of the United States, coming soon!
The podcast.m4aClick on the play button to hear the 4th grade's theme song to their podcast. A little bit of a backstory- on the first day that we met the students wanted to have a group name and someone suggested "The Vegetables." I approved this name as long as everyone took the name of a rare/exotic vegetable so that we could begin researching and learning something new, even on our first day. "The Vegetables" were BORN!
The Mojave Desert
The fifth grade world history unit on Ancient Egypt began with research and adding dates to our classroom timeline.
Our canopic jars that were made for our experiment on what will preserve an apple slice the best?
GEEK Club, sixth grade enrichment, has began their first endeavor of educating the student body about geography. They designed, planned, and created this bulletin board in the main hallway of the school.
They created informational posters of over 70 geographic terms to share with the school. 6th grade researched and cited (in MLA form) every definition and photo.
