End of Year LEGO Stop-Motion Movies!

Let's face it, when we have two huge bins of LEGO pieces sitting around and access to some cool stop-motion technology, why would we NOT make some awesome stop-motion movies as part of our end-of-year thematic summaries?

But here's the thing: Each grade level was tasked with creating a stop-motion movie that related to our theme for the year. So 5th grade, for example, had to make their film relate to "encounters" between two civilizations or groups; 4th grade's movies had to center around a piece of architecture, and so on...

First we studied some "best practices" for making stop motion with LEGOs, including considering such factors as positioning, background, lighting, movements, etc. Students learned that making a quality stop motion is MUCH harder than they thought, and requires oodles of patience and concentration. That made it an even more important exercise!

At the link below you can access a folder with all the videos. File names are labelled by student first names. Enjoy!

NOTE: We used the app "LEGO Movie Maker" on the iPads. That app is not available on Android but there are other user-friendly stop-motion apps on the Android market.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2urbvFV8qF1c3lBaHNYNHNDR0k&usp=sharing

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5th Grade: Interactive Inklewriter Story Links!

Fifth graders spent all year building up an imaginary civilization attribute by attribute, from geography to mythology, from basic crops to language and number systems. There were thousands of possible ways to wrap up their study, but we went with a free online program called Inklewriter that allows students to create interactive, reader-driven stories. Their task was to create an interactive story full of reader options that told the story and details of their civilization indirectly along the way. I think you'll enjoy!

NOTE: Although I guided and consulted students as much as possible, they were responsible for their own editing, grammar-checking and link-testing. With our limited time each week, I chose to focus on the development of their ideas as opposed to the meticulousness of their writing.

Now have fun!

Ben W: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/g69x

Alex Z: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/nh3q

Annie T: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/jh3q

Jai G.     http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/dm3q

RYAN Y. http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/4dfz

Tom P: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/48wb

Chihchia Y. http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/xwn6

Kristen. http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/cb64

Jeffrey W. http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/3z82

Ava J.: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/zh3d

Anica: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/fghp

Emma R: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/qzd9

Siddhartha: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/q69x

Prisha: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/g8wb

Katherine: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/8pqf

Riya: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/f4xc

Elaine: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/5nd9

Adit: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/44xc

Santosh: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/wwn6

 Amelie: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/gghp

Neha: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/zmpd

Navya: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/cz82

 Kylie: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/bzgm

Ritvik: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/59j8

Marjan: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/9jgm

Tommy C.: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/mmpd

Divya: http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/2nqf

If your child's story does not appear here, then they did not finish in class and were asked to finish as homework and send me the link. It's not too late!

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Kinder Update: A Running Start into Problem Solving and Logic

Although we've only had a couple meetings so far, you can't say our Kinder students haven't already hit the ground running in some important thinking skills.

First, we've been introduced to a thinking system developed by Dr. Edward De Bono called "The Six Thinking Hats." It is a system used in schools and in the corporate world for approaching problems. Each of the six hats has a color and represents a different lens through which to view the problem. We started at the knowledge level--just understanding each of the hats--but are now beginning to apply the hats ourselves.


Second, we've been introduced to an entertaining but deceivingly difficult logic game called SET. It incorporates visual reasoning through the use of attributes. I could try to explain it myself, but the web site of the manufacturer does a pretty good job. If you go to the "Set Daily Puzzle" section and click on the man with the hat, he'll walk you through a tutorial: www.setgame.com/set/daily_puzzle

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Fifth Grade Update: The Rise of Civilizations

Bit by bit throughout the year we've been inventing and developing our own civilizations by taking inspiration from real civilizations throughout history, both real and fictional. 

Most recently we've added two new attributes to our civilizations and both gave the opportunity to also practice our creative thinking skills of FFOE and SCAMPER.

Constellations

After studying constellations and their associated myths and legends from various cultures, students designed their own and then wrote a myth to accompany it. The myth needed to somehow form a piece of the mythology of their civilization and reflect something about their civilization's geography, resources, beliefs, etc.

Fruits

Every classic civilization has it's staple food crop. After watching a clip from the intriguing documentary The Fruit Hunters, we decided to make our staples fruits. We got inspiration from the adaptations of real life rare and exotic fruits and created our own. To call our fruits "exotic" would be a huge understatement!

Next up is the culmination of our civilization project in the form of a dynamic, reader-interactive story using the online site http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter/. Watch for those stories to be posted before the end of the year.

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Fourth Grade Update: Setting the Gold Standard

Our study of the novel The Wright Three has sent us on many wonderful tangents this year, but none have been as mathematically mysterious as the Golden Ratio. Used and observed by architects, artists and philosophers throughout history, the Golden Ratio is a number that seems to reflect the universe's natural desire to make things beautiful, or so many believe.


The ancient Greeks believed that humans who exhibited the golden ratio were naturally more beautiful and attractive. We decided to put ourselves to the test--could we be ancient Greek supermodels? First, we practiced measuring and calculating on a scale drawing of a real Greek sculpture that was designed with the golden ratio. Then, with the help of partners, we measured the dimensions of our own facial features and made several calculations. Let's just say there are few potential Ancient Greek Idols in our midst!

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Third Grade Update: A Cameras Handspring!

By the way, "A Cameras Handspring" is an anagram for "Ciphers and Anagrams!" That will make sense in a minute. :)

Benjamin Franklin's life of unending fascination and intrigue continues to be the launchpad for us to explore many exciting topics. This semester that topic has been ciphers. Franklin himself used ciphers during the Revolutionary War in his work as a spy.

First, we understood that there are two basic TYPES of ciphers: 1) Substitution ciphers, in which the letters of the message are replaced by other letters or symbols and, 2) Transposition ciphers, in which the letters aren't changed, but simply rearranged.

For substitution ciphers we started with the most classic of ciphers, the Caesar cipher, and also learned and used the pigpgen cipher. Students made their own cipher wheels to encipher and decipher messages.

To study and practice transposition ciphers we had a LOT of fun with anagrams. We got inspiration from the book Elvis Lives, a book of funny anagrams like "ASTRONOMER = MOONSTARER" and "SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA = HOT SUN, OR LIFE IN A CAR." Pretty amazing, huh?

We got out the letter tiles and students came up with their own hilarious zingers, such as:

"I'M HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING" = "TYLA HAS MY CHIN, GRILL GLEN!" BY TYLA

"ADRIAN IS NOT A CIPHER" = "TARI CAN RAID IPHONES" ADRIAN

"CONSTIPATED" = "COST TED PAIN!" BY ZOIE W. AND MYKAL

"I'M CRAZY VIKING" = "ANY CIG, MR. KIVIZ?" BY KIERAN

"NITISH AND YOSI" = "SIT IN A DISNY" BY NITISH AND YOSI

"MINECRAFT" = "RUN MATEY!" BY COREY 

"RAT OR COB" = "CAR ROBOT" BY RHEA

"INSPECT, OR..." = "INSPECTOR" BY BALA

"WET GOATS HAVE..." = "WE HAVE TOGAS!" BY SHREEYA

"BAD DAY" = "BAY DAD" BY SUMEDHA

"SHE SAT ON BEES!" = "NO BEETS, ASHES" BY OLIVIA

"ROB, IN HERE!" = "HEROBRINE" BY STEVEN

"RAISINS" = "RAIN, SIS!" BY RHEA

"FORWARD" = "FAR WORD" BY APOORVA

"POINTS" = "IN POTS" BY BALA

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Second Grade Update: Life's Ups and Downs

This semester has been all about roller coasters! In our last update post we told about some of the coaster research we'd done and how we'd explored some of the science behind coasters. Now, it was time to put all that knowledge into action and build our own mini-coasters.

Student groups were given miscellaneous supplies, such as wooden dowels, cardboard, paper cups, construction paper and tape and asked to create a roller coaster for a golf ball. There were different levels of challenges, including a basic drop, a hill, a double hill, and a loop.

This was true problem-solving and innovation! Were there lots of dead ends? Absolutely! What would be the point if it were all laid out for them? The successes felt so much better because the students had truly earned them.

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