Career Day at COE!

Chandler Oaks recently hosted it's annual Career Day.  Students learned about a variety of in-demand careers on the broadcast, took interest inventories and explored different career choices in the library, and listened to a variety of speakers share about what they do.  Many parents gave their time to help our students learn more about some of the different jobs and fields that are available and they talked about how what they learned in school prepared them for their jobs today.  Students even came to school dressed as what they want to be when they grow up- bankers, fire fighters, teachers, scientists, police officers, business professionals, athletes and artists were a few of the careers represented.  It was a great day to help our students start thinking, planning and dreaming about their futures!

1st Graders Take Action @ Home!

1st grade students have been learning about natural resources in science. Some of Mrs. Sharp's students took action by going home and reusing common household items and turning them into something new and useful. We get excited when students are able to put their learning to use out in the real world- nothing is more satisfying to a teacher!  

Check out some of their creations below!

Anuj used a shoe box for a question/answer type game about birds.


Briley made a bird feeder out of a large water bottle.

We celebrate students who take action at home- if your child has put their learning to use at home, fill out one of the Action at Home forms and send it in to their teacher.

5th Grade Students Design a Green City

5th Grade students finished their Sharing the Planet unit last month. The inquired into the central idea Using and conserving resources alters our relationships with communities and environments. To show their understanding at the end of the unit, students were given the real world task of creating a "Green City" that would run entirely on alternative energy. In their presentation, students had to discuss the impact on the community and environment as well as the conditions that must be necessary for the alternative energy forms to successfully power the city. Check out some samples below from Mrs. Walker's class:

Student Council Wins Award!

Chandler Oaks Student Council was awarded a great honor! RRISD Partners in Education chose them as the Youth Volunteers of the Year! Our Student Council has worked very hard this year, both for the school community and the Round Rock community.

Student Council members have taught lessons to the younger grades as part of the 15 Days of Caring, volunteered at the local nursing home, raised over $1500 for charities and the school, helped teachers after school and created bowls for the Empty Bowl Project. They are models of integrity, respect and principle!

Congratulations to the 2012-2013 Student Council!

3rd Grade Economics Fair

3rd Grade students recently held their annual Economics Fair.  As part of their IB How We Organize Ourselves unit, they inquired into the central idea: Economic systems require decisions and choices that impact lives and communities. Students created goods or developed services and invited the school to come to their marketplace. Prior to the fair, all students wrote a business plan &developed marketing.
Students used Vocaroo to record radio commercials and shot a video commercial to air on our morning news program.  Check them out!
Radio Commercials


3rd graders researched options for what they would do with the profits. Groups presented their ideas and  then they voted on their favorites. This year they decided that their proceeds would benefit The Wounded Warrior Project and Austin Disaster Relief. Austin Disaster relief was chosen because they are helping with recovery efforts in West.  The Wounded Warrior Project was chosen because there are several students that parents that are active in the military.  In total, 3rd grade raised about $1500 from their fair for the community!

4th Grade Investigates the Uses of Water

4th Grade students in Ms. Barrios' class searched for uses of water and categorized them using an online Web 2.0 tool called Padlet. Students saw how much water we use for "fun/entertainment" and decided that sometimes that is actually wasting water. They took action and decided to come up with ways to conserve water in their everyday use so they wouldn't feel so bad using "fun water" during the summer. What an awesome example of doing something with your learning! This activity is part of their "Sharing the Planet" unit where they are exploring the central idea, The availability of usable water affects people's opportunities.

Check out their work!
http://padlet.com/wall/id8man1tis
http://padlet.com/wall/63vuhykvfw
http://padlet.com/wall/ewcm57a424
http://padlet.com/wall/mk84okcmms

4th Grades Take Action!

4th Grade studetns are investigating the central idea, The availability of usable water affects people’s opportunities, in their Sharing the Planet unit.  Ms. Gray’s 4th grade class was inspired by a guest speaker from Round Rock Water to clean the trash from the reading garden. The speaker told the students one way to keep our water supply clean is to keep the trash out of the environment, so students decided to start in their own back yard!  Many students use the Reading Garden, so Mrs. Gray's class helped both other students and the water supply.  That's putting learning in action!

5th Grade Student Innovation

5th grade recently completed their unit on human discovery and exploration and one of Mrs. Kim's students took some learning in the classroom and applied it to real life! He decided to make a shoe out of duct tape! You never know what action is going to come from lessons in the classroom. What a creative and fun way to discover new uses for duct tape!

2nd Grade Uses Social Media to Research

Second grade students have been working on a unit that investigates the central idea: Humans manifest their characteristics differently.  One of their lines of inquiry was to investigate human characteristics that contribute to success and failure.  They needed to reach a large variety of people, so they decided to use the power of social media to ask the question, "how do you achieve success in life?" Second grade students have a technology standard that asks them to "use communication tools that allow for anytime, anywhere access to interact, collaborate , or publish with peers locally and globally." This was the perfect opportunity to reach other to others!

Second grade created a blog and then reached out to others to help gather information.  Email, Facebook and Twitter were all tools that were used to help spread the work about the inquiry.  People participated by leaving a comment on the blog.  Students then discussed the many things people credit for their success and how they might be able to plan for success themselves.  Drop by their blog and participate today- share your views of success!

3rd Grade Takes Action!

One of the final projects at the end of 3rd grade's "Who We Are" unit involved the class identifying a problem / issue in the community and taking action. Ms. Davenport's class chose littering. Some students created and performed skits, some made announcements on the morning broadcast, some created a website with Voki characters , some came up with ways to make recycling fun, and others created posters or fliers. 

Awesome job taking action and practicing communication skills!

Check out some of their work! The student designed website with Voki's: http://nolitteringinourcommunity.weebly.com/
Check Ms. Davenport's blog to see a video of the skit! 

A sample flyer:

Students Take Action- Every Day!

One of the elements of the IB Primary Years Program is the Action Cycle.  It's the continuous cycle of choosing, acting and reflecting.  We try hard to help our students understand this cycle and how action can happen in many ways.  Sometimes, it's spontaneous and seemingly small, like deciding to pick up some trash outside even when it isn't yours.  Sometimes it comes from curiosity and passion, like when 5th grade presented about UNICEF to a second grade class.  Second grade students wanted to know more, so 5th grade took action and created bookmarks with information and passed them out.  Still other times, action is the result of seeing a need and wanting to do something about it.  Like when students noticed our reading garden was in need of weeding. 

All these little things together make a big difference, and when students reflect on the things going on around them and choose to take action, we all reap the rewards!