November 21- The word of the day was "livid" meaning furiously angry. The habit of mind was Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision. Today we built circuits with batteries, light bulbs and wires. We learned about parallel circuit and series circuits. A parallel circuit is a circuit where you can light more than one light bulb equally. A series circuit is a circuit where you can only light one light bulb. Lucy book consulted a book called Extra Credit by Andrew Clements.
November 7 - The word of the day is profound, Profound means deep, its an adjective, rooting from the Latin word profundus. we also learned about the United Nations and 7 of their causes, from stopping poverty, to protecting lands from becoming deserts. Today we built towers with 50 packing peanuts and 100 toothpicks, the tallest tower was 84 cm before it fell. we tested them to see if they could withstand a fan from 1 meter, up to 50 cm away from the towers. Below are the videos of each groups testing. There was no book consultant today sadly, and we ended the day with either Sudokus or Soma Cubes. -Mikey
October 24 -The word of the day is visage, meaning face. The habit of mind was thinking about thinking. The book consultant was Ethan and he presented Linked by Gordon Korman. We worked on planning our structure for when we will build our tower in a couple weeks and all of our materials to build are toothpicks, packing peanuts, and a damp sponge. We also worked on a color, symbol, and image which is where we read two articles, one about geese and another one about how animals cooperate and teach each other how to do stuff. -Zain and Quinn
October 17th-The word of the day is din which means loud or harsh noises. We had socratic seminar today where we talked about a article we read called "A Sense of A Goose" and our partners took track if we made eye contact and talked or invited people in the conversation. We also played last man standing where there is a card with clues getting harder and harder and you sit down if the clue doesn't apply to you, and for morning work did a venn diagram. The habit of mind was thinking flexibly. Our book consultants were Lucy, Eric, and Ethan. - Zain
October 10 - The habit of mind is listening with understanding and empathy. The word of the week is allude. Today we created and sorted questions for the Socratic Seminar next week. We also played with the biodegradable peanuts and toothpicks for the next STEM challenge. We also had fun trying to figure out the SOMA cubes.
October 3 - The word of the day is magnanimous meaning generous spirit. The habit of mind is striving for accuracy. Today we had two book consultants, Weston and Jack. We made big card towers with fifty cards exact and no adhesives and hold up a three pound box of erasers. Two groups got the 18 inch wall of fame, Mikey and Jocelyn, and Dean, Eric, and Zade. In our Thinking Like An Engineer booklets, we wrote and scored ourselves on our explanations. During the time we had left we played with Soma cubes.
September 26 - The habit of mind for the day is Questioning and Posing Problems. The word of the day is wistful, meaning having sadness or a pensive mood centered on something good in the past. The book consultant was Quinn and she presented Hailey Mystery: The Mystery at the Studio. We read the book Lonnie Johnson and his Super Soaker. We read the Sense of a Goose, the short essay we are reading for Socratic seminar.
September 19 - The word of the week was melancholy meaning sad. The Habit Of Mind was managing impulsivity, think before you act. Zain was the book consultant. He presented The Sea of Monsters. We figured out what an engineer is and examples of engineers. We watched an awesome video of Strandbeesten, Beach Beasts. Strandbeests are the invention of Theo Jansen, they are super cool engineered beach beasts.
September 12 - Today was the first day of QUEST. The word of the day was exquisite meaning beautifully made. The habit of mind was persisting. Lucy was our book consultant she presented the book Amari and the Night Brothers. We read a book called Ten Birds, where the birds were very creative and excessive, but selfish. Quinn, Calla, and Lucy gave a incredible performance of their rap DNA from last year. It was amazing. We did the tarp challenge. The tarp challenge was when our group had to stand on a tarp and flip it over without getting off the tarp. We also sang happy birthday to Mrs. McElhinney's son D'Marco. He turned 30. Today at QUEST was 6-7.