Footprint Follow-up and DNA!

As the last class before break, we spent some time reflecting and goal setting for the new year.  I am proud of all this class has accomplished.  I can already see a lot of growth and love watching them apply the language and skills of our Habits of Mind!  

We also did some field study follow up looking at a crime scene as a system and sharing about our highlights and takeaways of the trip.  We mixed in some math by looking at our footprints and using them to predict our height.  Students checked their measurements to see the correlation.

Finally we practiced our close reading skills to understand DNA and its use as evidence in court. Students summarized their findings and challenged each other with comprehension questions they had created.

CSI Field Study with the Richland County Sheriff's Department

We had a fantastic trip today!  Thank you to the sheriff's department and our wonderful chaperons! 

Students listened to Investigator Bouknight present on all things crime scene and then rotated through three crime solving stations...

Fingerprints- Students heard investigators talk about the three types of fingerprints and how even seemingly similar prints can reveal unique differences.  Students got to be fingerprinted themselves and examined their own print pattern.

Footprints- Detective Carrie assisted each student in making a footwear print. Students made observations and learned about footprints as forensic evidence.  They learned several techniques for finding and lifting prints including using a gel lifter, electricity paired with mylar film, and dental stone for casting.  They also learned about using oblique lighting to find tracks and photographing prints as the most important form of documentation.

Mock Crime Scene- Students documented the scene by sketching the site and evidence.  They also learned to use magnetic powder to dust for prints.

Idioms

Here is a run down of our day:

• Students worked their tails off on our heart rate projects and used our data to calculate the different measures of central tendency. 
• We did our daily brain workout with our morphic thinking.  The kids really enjoyed this song that was our lead in to our boundary breaker that explored different avenues of describing our feelings and moods.    
• We checked out the newly improved and renamed GoQuest website (formerly Renzulli that got the axe).  
• We spent time preparing for our CSI field study by reviewing crime scene procedures so we would be ready to roll on Wednesday.  
• The students had a ball celebrating Veteran's Day with our guest readers!
• We also looked at idioms and did some brain stretching plexers.  Try these for yourself!

It Beats Me and Habits of Mind Bonanza

        We were back to our data investigations this week.  Students are completing a real world project (It Beats Me!)to show what they know about creating line plots and describing a data set in terms of median, mode, and range.  Students are working in partners to use the results to answer our question, "How fast does the heart of a third grader beat after exercise?"  Today we collected data by measuring our heart rates after two minutes of jumping jacks.

Jumping Jacks!

Line Plot Rough Drafts

     We spent the rest of our time together taking a closer look at several Habits of Mind.  First we read the book Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein and discussed it as a non-example of managing impulsivity, thinking before acting, and using your brain to manage your body.  Students then created their our Interrupting ___________ stories and presented them to the class.  I'll tell you, we have quite the creative crew!

Interrupting Nerd

     Our second Habit of Mind focus was on Metacognition.  We read the book The Three Questions and used the metaphor of the students having the power to "drive their brains"- put on the brakes to rethink and reflect, put on the gas to be proactive and take initiative in their learning, and in this reflection, make choices that put them on the road to success!  For more on metacognition for children, check out this article.

Metagognition Article

     Our last Habit of Mind focus for today was Gathering Data through all Senses.  Students connected this to crime scene investigation by making observations of evidence.  They learned the terms quaLitative (describe with Language) and quaNtitative (measure with Numbers). They also watched this video and learned the definition of inference and how inferences help explain the observations that we make. 

Inference- an explanation of an observation based on prior knowledge.

An Explanation of

an Observation based on 

Prior

Knowledge

     We also did some brain stretching using deductive reasoning puzzles-my favorite!  Try your hand at these!

Sports Logic Puzzle

Pet Mix-Up Puzzle

     Finally, check out this creative gal's pumpkin art!  Thanks for sharing!  You know I love all things owls!

CSI 101 and Persistence with Brain Games

     Our schedule was different today, so we used our time to do some research into forensic science and the order of events when a crime scene is processed.  Students learned about Locard's Principal that criminals always take a trace of something with them and leave a trace of something behind at a crime scene. They also learned about collecting that evidence and how it gets from the crime scene to the court room.

     The rest of the time we spent trying out some brain puzzles and working on building persistence as a Habit of Mind.

An Eye for Details

     Our time was short today, but we made the most of it!  Students witnessed a theft in our own classroom and used what we learned about composite sketches to make a drawing of the perpetrator. We then looked at some online activities testing their powers of observation and helping them match the suspect with the crime.  Try them for yourself!

Art of Crime Detection

Perp Walk

Face Memory

The thief

Forensic Science, Eyewitnesses, and The Case of the Sugar Shaker

     This week our CSI focus has been on questioning and eye witness accounts.  Students participated in various activities geared toward understanding quality questions in interrogation, the often unreliable nature of eye witness testimony, and the power of close observation.

     We also took a pre-assessment on forensic science and used last week's fingerprint evidence to compare with our suspect samples and determine the prankster that switched our sugar for salt.

     In math we worked on creating line plots with data and using the graph to find the median, mode, and range of the set.

     Finally we tried our hand at both word and figual analogies and looked for relationships between ideas.
Try this one for yourself:  tornado : scary :: ALERT: _________
A. boring
B. dull
C. green
D. FUN!

Median, System Wrap Up, and Dusting for Prints

We had our commencing Digging for Data math lesson and students looked at both their rights and obligations as we embark. This math curriculum focuses heavily on discussion, defense of one's thinking, and writing about concepts. Today, students collected data on their jumping rate. Each student completed three trials counting the number of leaps they could complete in one minute. We used this data to understand the concept of the median in a set of numbers and how if can be used when looking for a "typical" result in a set of output data.

We also finished our Systems lesson by drawing given systems and labeling their parts. Students showed off their understanding with our class Kahoot quiz to review. Click the link and see how you do!

The solar system drawn and labeled.

A pond ecosystem drawn and labeled.

The roads system drawn and labeled.

The nervous system drawn and labeled.

Finally, we learned some at home techniques for dusting for fingerprints. Next week we will check the prints we uncovered with our suspect samples to determine the culprit in The Case of the Sugar Shaker!

Systems Kick-off!

     This week we continued to focus on building a growth mindset.  Students used an online quiz to determine their current perspective on learning and we spent some time discussing failure and how to approach it.  We want students to believe that perseverance and challenge can really grow their brain.
Students enjoyed some challenging activities to practice these habits by completing the Set Game and Quiddler daily puzzles.

     We took the pre-assessment for our data unit so students could show their prior knowledge and get a glimpse into what will be coming their way in math.  We also looked at critical thinking using the Foundation for Critical Thinking's Child's Guide to Critical Thinking videos.  We saw three types of thinkers and evaluated them.  Ask you child about Naive Nancy, Selfish Sam, and Fair-minded Fran. Students should recognize quality thinking as accurate, fair, clear, relevant, and logical.

Some lovely notes on critical thinking.

My favorite activity of the day was kicking off our year-long theme of Systems. Students interpreted the definition of a system and worked in teams to brainstorm examples. They came up with some great ones! We also named the different features of systems (boundary, input, output, elements, & interactions). Next week we will continue the lesson by drawing and labeling the parts of a system, creating a list of generalizations about systems, and competing in a friendly kahoot quiz to show off what we had learned.

Brainstorming types of systems.

Mindset and the Brain

     This week we focused on meta-cognition.  (Thinking about our thinking!)

     We kicked off our Morphic Thinking morning routine where students warm-up with a spontaneous problem and boundary breaker.  We will be including these weekly.

Spontaneous Problem: A spontaneous problem is a brainstorming type problem to be solved in a specific amount of time and scored according to the number and creativity of responses generated. The point is to challenge students to be flexible thinkers, to elaborate on original ideas and to think fluently and creatively about a specific topic.

Today's Spontaneous Problem: Name things in the ALERT room.

Boundary Breaker:  A boundary breaker is a group experience which works toward creating a sense of community. Students gain an awareness of and respect for the opinion of others by the use of questions that go beyond superficial depth and have no right/wrong answers. Boundary Breakers also provoke a higher level of thought that merges cognitive and affective thinking.

Today's Boundary Breaker: What is thinking? Why is thinking important?

Carrying on with the same theme, students learned about the connections they make in their brain when they learn and how to strengthen these pathways. They were able to draw their conception of their brain, feel a brain, and use various resources to discover the parts of the brain and how they work together for your body to function. This year we want to be very intentional about building a growth mindset in students. It will be our goal to emphasize the part of effort and perseverance in learning and intelligence as something that can be grown or grow stagnant. To evaluate our current perspective on intelligence, next week we will take the mindset quiz at this link. Feel free to take it yourself! We want to turn "I can't do it!" into "I can't do it yet!"  

Demonstrating neural pathways. 

Touching a "brain".

   

NERDS!

     It's great to be back for our second week!  This week we explored our creative side by discussing and demonstrating the four keys to creative thinking.  We began by taking a simple figure, looking at it from various perspectives (flexible thinking), brainstorming what it could become (fluency of ideas), choosing the idea like no one else's (originality), and filling in the details of our picture (elaboration)! Our lesson was themed around our mascots of creativity the NERDS candies which the students got to enjoy while they worked. These creative pieces became the covers of our ALERT binders reminding us to "think outside the box"!

     Our other main focus for the day was looking into Art Costa's Habits of Mind.  We discussed these strategies of successful people and discussed ways we do and will use them this year inside and outside our classroom.  Student teams completed in a pre and post lesson matching game where every pair came out on top improving their understanding of the ideas.

     Other happenings were the creating of a class fingerprint archive just in case we need it for future suspects in future tomfoolery, putting the finishing touches on our writer's notebooks, and getting started on our learner profiles at RenzulliLearning.com.

Check out our adorable detective!

     I hope your student enjoyed today.  I did!

Game On!

     We had a wonderful first day!  We began by getting acclimated to the classroom and some of our ALERT procedures and resources.  Students got to know one another and myself with a mingling "Who Fits?"  grid activity and we were able to compare some likes and interests.

     Knowing yourself is important as a learner, so we spent some time talking about what it means to be gifted and some of the rights and responsibilities that brings.  Students should understand that gifted doesn't mean being great at everything or making straight A's.  We want them to recognize their potential and develop perseverance and flexibility when approaching tasks.  We looked at some famous individuals known for their giftedness and reflected on the impact we can have on the world when we reach our potential!

     Finally, the highlight of our day was being introduced to our first focus area of the year: CSI.  We did some crime scene investigating by comparing hand writing samples and working as graphologists to analyze and match the culprit to the crime.  Students also studied classroom evidence for clues and found that by looking at past impressions, a ransom note can be more than meets the eye.  Check out more CSI activities at this link!

     I am already looking forward to next week and I hope you are too!

Getting ready to work out our brains!

Getting to know you.

What is ALERT?

Finding impressions.

Graphology.