Second Grade Inspired by Sesame Street & Wil.i.am

Second Grade has been exploring what it means to be human in their Who We Are unit.  Their central idea, "Humans manifest their characteristics differently" has led to some great learning about which characteristics we share, which ones we don't, how we define success, and how our characteristics contribute to our success or failure.  They were inspired by a song that was featured on Sesame Street.  Singer Wil.i.am performed his song "What I Am" with several characters from the show. Second grade thought this was a great way to demonstrate what they've been learning, so they showed the video and sang along at our Friday Assembly last week.  Check out their performance, as well as the original video from YouTube. 
Link to lyrics

Skyping with the Author of Origami Yoda

Miss Dees, our librarian, organized an exciting lesson for 5th grade!  Students held a Skype conference with the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Tom Angleberger!  Mr. Angleberger's book is on the Bluebonnet Book List this year, so the meeting was super exciting since so many students have read it!  Mr. Angleberger shared how he came up with his ideas, how he wrote the book, what projects he's working on right now, and even some of his favorite books.  Students had the chance to ask questions and they even made an origami Yoda of their own!  Students reported how awesome it was to Skype with the author of such  a popular book, and teachers reported that students immediately wanted to go to the library and read some of Mr. Angleberger's favorites.  It looks like a successful lesson!    

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Why do We Learn Spanish?

At COE, have lots of curious kids who ask great questions.  Our Wonder Box gives students a place to ask all those burning questions!  We are really lucky to have an awesome crew of 5th grade students who work on our daily broadcast. The KCOE News Special Reporters take on the task of researching and reporting on as many of those questions as they can.  Recently, they answered the question, "Why do we learn Spanish?"  Our reporters scheduled an interview with our Spanish teacher, Mrs. Imperial, to learn the answer.  Check out their video report*- not only will you learn all the reasons why we learn Spanish, but I think you'll agree that we have some great student news reporters and producers! 

*On the video, we report that we are an IB school. Chandler Oaks is a candidate school for the Primary Years Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy - a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Chandler Oaks Elementary believes is important for our students.

1st and 2nd Grade Students Study Dia de los Muertos

Senora Imperial has been busy!  Students in first and second grade are studying the Mexican culture as they learn new Spanish words. One celebration they learned about was Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. Students learned about how this celebration honors the dead and is not meant to be a scary time, but a time of remembrance of those who passed away before us. Students created a skull art piece in remembrance of someone they knew or just for fun.  This was an especially timely lesson for first grade as they just began their Who We Are unit. They are exploring the central idea "Families recognize personal and cultural events."  The study of different kinds of families, different kinds of traditions, and the different ways people celebrate fit right in with this lesson! 

Techno Art Club is Making Movies!

Members of the Techno Art club have gone Hollywood!  They wrote their own stories, created a storyboard to illustrate their ideas, and are using cameras and props to create stop motion movies with the help of some software called Frames.  Students have been putting their creative and collaborative skills to good use to move from just and idea to feature film!

Keith Haring Inspires 5th Grade Artists

5th grade artists have been studying the work of Keith Haring (check out his Haring for Kids website) and used his style to inspire their gesture drawings.  Students posed in different ways while their classmates practiced their sketching. Check out these artists at work!

Kidspiration helps 4th grade organize their family tree

4th grade students used Kidspiration software to help organize and  illustrate their family tree.  In their IB unit Where We Are in Place in Time, students are exploring the central idea "Sharing personal histories fosters intercultural connectedness."  Mapping their family tree was a great place to start.  Students shared their family tree with their class to facilitate discussion about where we come from and how our own culture can connect us to others.