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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January Update: A Busy Month Culminates in Applied Technology

I found myself with access to a stack of iPads this week and couldn't let the opportunity pass. I quickly updated my plans to incorporate a technology piece that was a perfect extension of the work and explorations we'd been doing at each grade level. Here, then, is a quick summary by grade level of what our January has been all about and then a note about how we used tech this week to enhance and extend our learning.

1st

We've transitioned into visual/spatial reasoning in January, which is a fancy way of saying we've been developing the problem-solving muscles in our brains that utilize visual information to find logical patterns in forms, shapes, colors, etc. We've used two classic geometrical tools to do this: tangrams and pentominoes. This week with the iPads we focused on 3 nice apps to apply these developing skills: Blockaders, Zentomino HD Lite and Zen HD Lite - Relaxing Tangrams. They are all free, find them for your devices!

Tangrams consist of 7 pieces

Pentominoes consist of 12 pieces of 5 sections each

2nd

2014 has been all about roller coasters! We started with some of the basic science, like how coasters get their speed and what "G force" is. Then we went into research mode and dug up some detailed information on famous coasters throughout the world. On the iPads this week, we found the perfect app to begin testing our own coaster engineering skills: Coaster Frenzy. Students have to design, test, and modify their track in order to increase speed and make the ride fun. There is also a wonderful creative aspect to designing a coaster that would be safe AND fun.

3rd

Using Benjamin Franklin's fascination with magic squares as a trigger, we've been playing around with "magic math," especially different types of magic squares. That led us over to a cousin of the magic square, sudoku, and all 3rd graders have now been formally introduced to that classic (and addictive) game. The apps we used this week were ProMagic Square and Sudoku 2. There are probably several thousand sudoku games out there, but this one was a hit for its easy interface.

4th

Well, pentominoes and more pentominoes! As you know, students created 3-D pentominoes at home using 5 6x6x6 inch cubes. We are using those in class for real-life architecture challenges, like the reading nooks we have lovingly called "pentominooks." This week with the iPads we stuck on the theme of pentominoes but with a special creative twist: students used the app iMovie to create movie trailers in which the characters, theme and title all centered around pentominoes in some way. I will share those soon in a separate post.

5th

OK, 5th is the one grade that didn't indulge much in the iPads. We've been busy, though. In January we kicked off a long-term unit on Mindset--a way of framing and perceiving the world and yourself for long-term success and growth. At the same time, we are continuing with our civilization projects. Most recently, students designed (with elaborate detail) the fictional fruits that are the basis of their civilizations. We got some inspiration for our fruit creations from a documentary called Fruit Hunters. We only saw the trailer in class, but Mr. Koch has seen the whole thing and recommends it (Netflix)! :)

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3rd Grade Update: Hot Off the Presses!

Though it took some patience and some skilled hands, everyone has finished their kites! The back of each kite includes an executive summary of the famous event, including the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW of it all. Many have keys attached, and one student even brought in a mock Leyden jar just like the one Ben used to "trap" his electricity.

After the "enlightening" experience of the kite projects, we did go back into Ben's childhood and do a more traditional biography study.

We've studied his life so far right up to about his 40s, when he really made his mark as a printer of two major publications: 1) The Philadelphia Gazette newspaper and 2) Poor Richard's Almanac. Both had a major impact on the thinking and development of society in Ben's times and the sayings and wisdom of "Poor Richard" are still well-known today. We spent some time unpacking and decoding several of Poor Richard's gems, such as:

• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.
• He that can have Patience, can have what he will.
• Diligence is the Mother of Good-Luck.
• Hear no ill of a Friend, nor speak any of an Enemy.
• A true Friend is the best Possession.

For the last few weeks we've been trying our own hand at publishing, working on a newspaper project in the computer lab. Each student is putting together a newspaper edition inspired by Ben Franklin with the following requirements:

• One funny article about life at your school written with a pseudonym (Like Silence Dogood!)
• One article with advice for other students
• A newspaper cartoon (you can copy from the internet but make sure you say where you got it)
• Three jokes and/or riddles throughout the paper
• An Almanac Page with:

1. Weather predictions
2. Wise sayings

We've also taken some time the last couple weeks to introduce/review some specialized deductive reasoning skills with logic grids. Some kids love them, some kids dread them. Either way, logical reasoning is an important piece of their thinking tool kit!

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3rd Grade Update: A Shocking Discovery!

In third grade we have the fortune of studying one of the most fascinating people in American history--Benjamin Franklin. Rather than a traditional biography study, though, we jumped right in with a survey of many of his incredible inventions and how they led to modern manifestations. For example, did you know that Benjamin Franklin invented the first odometer to track the mileage he put on his horse buggy when he was the post man of Philadelphia?

Then we honed in his most iconic discovery and the famous kite experiment. After studying the historical context and relevance of the experiment, we decided to build our own kites! A couple students have already finished. The rest will be finished up next week.

Parents, we will NOT be flying these in a lightning storm!

It was important for students to clarify that Franklin did not "discover" electricity. He proved that lightning was a form of electricity. That allowed him to then think about controlling it in order to protect tall buildings, and that is how the lightning rod was born.

As part of our literature connection, we are also reading the rather revealing alternative history of Benjamin Franklin's life as told by his mouse Amos in the book, Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. Turns out there's more to the story than anyone knew!

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