October 2025

The GT Cuties have been hard at work here in room 211!  Students from all grade levels have been earning Bobcat Best stickers at a remarkable rate.  They are working together to fill our Brag Board.  Once filled, each class will vote for a special reward.  Students are also excited about earning Free Time in our classroom.  To do this they must spell "FREE TIME" one letter at a time.  Letters are earned by the group for positive actions and attitudes.

1st grade:  This group of enthusiastic learners has really enjoyed learning to play mancala and checkers.  These games help the students exercise critical thinking and problem solving.  We play these games for warm up, and all students would benefit from playing at home as well.  The class has really enjoyed learning about OctoStudio.  They use this amazing coding app to create, and the process teaches them about testing and improving their work.

2nd grade:  This group of cuties has been working with tangrams.  First they solved a variety of puzzles given to them.  Then, they are designing a tangram puzzle book of their own.  Each puzzle they make must include all seven pieces of the tangram.  The students are using strong thinking to develop a theme for their tangram book.

3rd grade:  These cuties have really enjoyed working with pentominos.  Pentominos are a two dimensional shape made of five equal squares connected edge to edge.  There are 12 unique pentominoes in a set.  The students took on puzzles made by the college professor who first invented pentominoes back in the 1950s.  After building a foundation of skill and knowledge with the original puzzle book, the students were tasked with creating their own pentomino puzzle book.  This complicated project requires loads of creative and critical thinking! 

4th grade:  The amount of teamwork, thinking, and perseverance that goes into building bridges is staggering!  Our class is learning about this process by viewing documentaries about the bridges from the KNEX Real Bridges kit.  Working in small groups, the students are using strong communication skills and attention to detail as they build incredible replica bridge models. This complicated project has provided an excellent challenge for this amazing group of cuties!

5th grade:  This group of talented thinkers spent several weeks learning about ancient civilizations like the Aztecs, Greeks, Romans, and Sumerians.  Next, the students eagerly created their own unique ancient civilization.  Students chose a location for their civilization.  They also defined the way the civilization was governed.  As students are creating a flag, currency, and alphabet they will be incorporating creative thinking with critical thinking.