Grandparent/Special Friend's Day

We always look forward to our Grandparents and Special Friends visiting Seabury. We had a great turnout and the Innovators got to act as hosts this year. They did a great job showing their best manners to our visitors. They shared a math challenge, toured the school, went to the book fair, had their photo taken with their visitors and, of course, ate cake. 

STEM

What is STEM?
The simplest definition is what it stands for, which is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are an important part of education in a competitive global marketplace and at Seabury we believe in preparing our students for that marketplace. Last week the blog focused on math, this week we want to showcase science, technology and engineering. 

Our student's are well versed in the scientific method so as part of our Transitions over arching concept we will look at how technology and engineering have changed the world. In our first few encounters with engineering the Innovators immediately saw the connection between the engineering process and the scientific method.

We looked at how a computer "thinks" in a binary code, sorting information through the the use of yes/no questions.We used numbered blocks that needed to be sorted into sequential order without seeing the numbers. It was very challenging until the students began to see the patterns.

They were then "hired" by the Color Bricks Company to make toy bricks out of stuffed paper bags with very specific decorations and criteria. The first attempt was individually where the fastest time was 22 minutes (and the slowest 43).

We then talked about Henry Ford and the assembly line and the Innovators designed their own assembly line to build the bricks. The first one came off the line in 15 minutes followed by 25 more in the next half hour. A pretty impressive improvement.

The Innovators use technology daily in the classroom and this year are also learning coding. We feel really good about STEM in this fifth grade class.

Math Groups

The Innovators are working on 4 different grades in math.  Students were initially assessed as to what background information they have to help us put them into a math group.  Once their initial group was decided, we assessed the students on the first chapter to discover what prior knowledge they had and what they needed to learn.  This helps to drive our instruction on the specifics that students need to know and they will only be taught what they don’t know.  

Students working in the 5^th grade book are working on place value concepts in the first chapter.  Students in the Course 1 book (6^th grade book), the students are learning beginning algebraic expressions, as well as prime factorization of numbers.  The Course 2 (7^th grade) students are working exponents, order of operations, and solving algebraic expressions.  The students in the Course 3 (8^th grade) book moved quickly through the first chapter since they all knew the concepts in this chapter.  After a quick review, we were able to move right into the second chapter, which is about the 4 operations of fractions and mixed numbers.  They are also converting fractions and decimals, including irrational numbers.  

The students in The Innovators and Gumshoes switch classes for math depending on their group. Everyone is really excited to have their own math book to work from.

Another great week!

To celebrate the beginning of the year the Innovators cooked breakfast on Tuesday. Each group was given the ingredients they needed and they made pancakes, bacon, fried apples and hash browns. It was yummy and we even had Mrs. Wollum join us.

So what was "taxation without representation" and why were the American colonists so mad about it?
Meet King Kyle and his tax collector Sir Vardaan. It turns out losing your money (or Skittles) for having a water bottle on your desk or pencils isn't all that fun. One colonist even had to go to debtor's prison when she ran out of Skittles. The colonists had a much clearer understanding about why early Americans were not too happy with King George.

The Innovators are happy to finally be the keepers of the school guinea pig, Ginger. The fridge is full of treats for her and everyone wants the chance to hold her and take her to recess. Ginger's feeling the love!

First Week of School

It was a short but busy week for the newly renamed Innovators! Everyone was excited to be back, meet their old and new teacher and see friends again.

The also had their first math challenge with the fourth graders, building the tallest structure they could with spaghetti and marshmallows. It was a good team building exercise and a chance to get to know the Gumshoes.

And finally the Innovators were the first to visit the new Makerspace. We have bins upon bins filled with fun things for crafts, inventions and building. The Innovators loved investigating what materials were available and beginning to make some cool projects.