6/13/22
Today, we made twisty and turny marble tracks out of wooden and rubber (I think) marble tracks. We were required to have at least one corkscrew in our build. I am writing this newsletter before testing, so I don't know who was successful, and who was not. We will videotape the different groups. Their tracks look pretty good. Speaking of the groups, Here they are:
Josephine, Evelyn, Naomi, Aanya, and Ellie.
Kieran, Owen, Daniel, and Gurvir.
Audrey, Elena, Sarah, and Elliot.
By clicking on the names, you should get a video link. These were the final tests of the marble tracks.
-Samy S.
5/23/2022: Today, we did 2 Socratic Seminars, where we were able to share our opinions and ideas about the certain topic that we chose. The first one was about Saildrones, made by the NOAA. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.) Next, we had a controversial conversation about why some people think that zoos should be banned.
5/9/2022 Today we explored Sphero BOLTs! It was so cool! We learned how to sync them with the IPad and use all of their functions. We had a course to maneuver our BOLTS through and we programmed our BOLTS to run a pattern. They were so much fun!
5/2/2022: First we read a passage and answered some questions that could be used for our Socratic seminar. After we were done with that we played a game where we had to make a 3 by 3 cube with different shaped blocks. Next, Mrs. McElhinny read from our "The Book of Three". Lastly, we played mumball with a wiffle ball.
Owen and Josephine
4/25/2022: We started by "watching" a book about the development of the first Ferris Wheel. We then thought like an engineer to plan building a Ferris Wheel, but we didn't get to build it. Afterwards, we worked on our poems. We finished our rough drafts, and started typing the revised/edited version on the computer. Afterwards, afterwards, we read from The Book of Three. Doli got mad again because the gwythiant that they captured got away. They also lost Hen Wen, and sadly, we had to stop. It was a cliffhanger. While writing this, everyone else was playing a game with sticks, and it looked pretty cool. The pictures are below.
Samy and Evelyn.
Cooperative Games!
4/4: Today in Quest, we started planning our project where we will construct a building using jellybeans and toothpicks. We also started making rough drafts for our poems. We continued reading The Book of Three. The word we learned was singular, which means unique and special.
-Elliot and Kieran
3/21/2022: Today we had our seats in groups when we arrived! We also faced a problem where we needed to make the tallest tower we could with just index cards to support the weight of a lot of dice. While doing this, we also learned about the engineering design process. When we finished, we read The Book of Three. Also, we had a new word of the week, Grotesque. It means disordered or physically weird looking.
-Audrey and Evelyn
3/14/22: Today, we read the book Whoosh! Then we worked in our engineering packet in groups of three. We wrote about character traits that an engineer would have. After that we worked on Grapefruit poem where we listed describing words and sorted them. After this we read from The Book of Three where the characters were talking with the dwarve's.
-Aanya and Ellie
3/7/22: Today, we started working in a packet that taught us about engineering and its marvels. Then, we had used our drawing skills to create pictures, which helped us learn about engineers. We also studied a poem about grapefruit, and had a lesson about figurative language. We also read from "The Book Of Three " and in the story, after they got sucked into the whirlpool, they fortuitously entered an underground kingdom. Samy was also wistful for snack (even though he never came out and said it).
-Samy & Gurvir
2/28/22 Today in QUEST we all shared our IR projects. Every project was very well done and unique. We read "The Book Of Three" and they got sucked into a whirlpool.
-Michael and Sarah
2/14/22 Happy Valentine's Day and Daniel's Birthday! Today we read The Book of Three, ate snack and worked on our presentations for the industrial revolution. Since it was Valentine's Day we got ice cream and since there were extra ice creams, Ms. McElhinney chose randomly who would get the extras. We learned about the book The Way of the Hive presented by Daniel and learned what perplex means is means for someone or something to be confused or confusing. Today, I think we had a very great day. Quick reminder: Industrial presentations March 7th 2022. BEST DAY EVER!
Alain and Colin
2/7/22 Today we read a chapter of the Book of Three. We also had a new word of the week which was Condescend. We had a to-do list which told us what to do for our Industrial Revolution Project. 1st we had to finish our notes. Then we finished our planning sheet. And finally, work on our presentation if we had time.
-Audrey & Sarah
1/31/22 Today we focused on a Socratic Seminar. We talked about two separate articles; One about Animals and another about climate change and how it affects sports. We also read from The Book of Three. In it we met Medwyn. He is a person who speaks to animals and lives in a valley only animals can find. Finally we learned the word "Conjecture". It means to guess or surmise.
Dan & Samy
1/24/22 Today we worked on or Industrial Revolution project. We researched our topics in the resources that Mrs. McElhinney gave us. In The Book of Three, we learned that Gurgi might die. We also worked more on our seminar and created prompts for it. The word of the day is din. Din means annoying background noise.
Sarah & Ellie
1/3/22 Today in QUEST, we read articles about topic for a socratic seminar. We inferenced the author's point and wrote down our own opinions. We read The Book of Three and in the section we read, Gergi was looking for some food and a dead branch fell on his leg. He severely overreacted and wanted his head cut off. Finally we started researching our industrial revolution topics. -Dan & Colin.
12/20/21 Today we learned all about the word melancholy, it was the word of the week. Samy was the book consultant and talked about the book Gamer Army. Kids who like adventure will like this book. We read the next chapter of The Book of Three. Fflewddur Fflam's harp strings break everytime he overexaggerates (aka lies). We finished off the day with a Challenge 24 tournament. We haven't finished yet!
12/13/21 Today in QUEST we came up with ideas for our Industrial Revolution project and we created Decisions and Outcomes, too. We also continued to read The Book of Three. We worked on our mind maps for the Book of Three. We added a lot! Sarah was book consultant and introduced us to the book "The Fire Within". It's all about dragons. Samy was officially not wistful for his snack today. By Ellie and Elena.
12/6/2021 Today in QUEST we first went around the room writing ideas about 11 different topics in the Industrial Revolution on a piece of paper our teacher placed around the room. Next, we were into groups of two or three and thought of a topic about the Industrial Revolution, then we thought about any questions we had around the topic. Then, we read The Book of Three. Lastly, we thought about the characters and compared them to other things like a lightbulb. Also Samy was still wistful about his snack today. By Elliot and Owen.
11/29/2021 Today in QUEST, we all worked together to accomplish a seminar. In a seminar, somebody reads out a question then, everyone has to add on to that topic. Our seminar was about the poem, I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman, America's Poet. Later, Samy was rightfully aghast at the prospect of not being able to indulge in his delicious munchings and crunchings until the very end of QUEST.
11/22/2021 We started the day by doing our independent routine. Like usual, we went over our Habits of Mind. For work we learned how to create questions about the poem I Hear America Singing. We continued with The Book Of Three and learned more about the Industrial Revolution. At the end of the day, we did our reflection and closure.
11/15/2021 Today in QUEST we learned about applying past knowledge to new situations during Habits of Mind. We also reflected on the poem I Hear America Singing by writing a reflection. We did began taking notes about the industrial revolution from a video. Finally, we met Eilonwy in The Book of Three. -Kieran and Naomi
11/08/21 Today in Quest we took a few words out of a poem, then we would write down the definition, part of speech, a synonym, an antonym, and a sentence with the word in it. Later we read more of The Book of Three and wrote in our mind maps all the new things we learned about in the book like the settings and characters. Lastly we watched a 2 minute video about the Industrial revolution and wrote down facts, feelings, questions, and connections. - Owen and Josephine.
11/01/21 Today at QUEST we partnered up with random partners and answered questions about systems. While we were answering these questions we were also making a presentation. They were all so fantastic. Today was different though, Samy was not as wistful for him munchings and crunchings as normal. Near the end of the day, we got to read more of The Book of Three. - SARAH AND EVELYN
10/25/21 We began our day with the word of the week, which was clamor. A bit after that, we made skits for the different Habits of Mind. After we finished brainstorming the skits, the groups started to present the skits to the whole class. Samy was, like always, wistful for snack. We then split up into our groups of two and categorized the systems we had wrote down. We were having snack while Mrs. McElhinny was reading The Book of Three to us. Then, we wrote down a few things in our mind map. At the end of the day, we watched a video of the industrial revolution. -Daiwik
10/18/21 Today in QUEST we read the fourth chapter in The Book of Three and worked on our Mind Maps. We learned all about the word eccentric and connected the word to book characters. We examined an advertisement from 1861 that was looking for boys and girls to work in textile factories. Would you want to work for nine hours straight? We wouldn't! As usual, Samy is still wistful for his munchings and crunchings! By Kieran and Elliot
10/04/21 Today in QUEST we learned about striving for accuracy, where Samy was still wistful about snack. Later, Owen talked about the book Pax. He was a fantastic book consultant! Then we moved on to read aloud where Samy and everyone else finally got their snack! In The Book of Three we learned about a new character, Gurgi! Gurgi is overly dramatic about getting his munchings and crunchings. Written by Liam and Josephine
09/27/21 Today in quest we worked on our mind maps and started to list character traits of the Book of Three. We looked at interesting photos and came up with some questions to get our brains thinking. Wistful was the word of the week, and Samy was wistful for his snack! We went to find our partners with compound words. Written by Evelyn and Audrey.
Today is September 20, 2021. Today in QUEST we learned more habits of mind. We also brainstormed what a system means in groups. We watched the book Zoom! to help us understand systems. We made mind maps for The Book of Three. We had our first book consultant, Daiwik. He explained the book The Mountain Meets the Moon. Written by Aanya and Naomi.
Today is September 13, 2021. Today in QUEST we learned about our partners and listening patiently. We learned a bit about Mrs. McElhinney. Students learned of many employment opportunities. Josephine's arm is extremely tired from ringing the gong. We started our read aloud, The Book of Three.