The Impossible Shot is POSSIBLE!

It turns out the Impossible shot IS possible.  Tanner in Mrs. King's 4th grade class was the first student to make it!  Congratulations, Tanner!  You'll go down in school history!

Not sure what the Impossible Shot is? Students and teachers try to bounce a tennis ball into the Impossible Shot - a tall, festively decorated PVC pipe.  They get the opportunity to take a shot by earning  I See IB tickets when teachers see the IB attitudes, for Gold Star behavior, or awesome cafeteria behavior.  We've had a lot of students try in the last two years, but Tanner is the first to make it!

Music + Spanish= Fantastico!

Kindergarten, first and second grades have learned a great song! It is about what is in the classroom. They learned sign language for the objects listed in the classroom. They also learned a very important word that is used in Spanish, which is “hay” (pronounced like eye). It means “there is” or “there are.” In this song they are answering the question “¿Qué hay en la clase?” which means “What is there in the classroom?”  The verses respond with – There is a table(mesa) , there is a teacher (maestra), there is a pencil (lapiz) and there is a clock (reloj). See if you can figure out the sign language that goes with those items while you watch Mrs. McCant’s class sing this song entitled “La clase.”

Kindergarten Investigates: Cheetahs

Kindergarten students have been sharpening their research skills!  The past two weeks, Mrs. Morehead's class has been working together to create a research project.  The children voted on a topic (Cheetahs), did all of the research (some in books, some using on-line resources), took notes of their research, compiled information in small groups, and then independently created a 3D display of their part and recorded their voice using Easi-speak microphones.  This is the movie that they made. What a great way for kinder students to share their knowledge with others!

5th Grade Inquires About Rights

5th grade recently created some Tagxedos (word clouds) about human rights.  Students were delving into the central idea "Conflicts within societies arise from disputes over human rights and cultural values."  They were asked to brainstorm what they thought human rights were.  That list was input into Tagxedo and students created a visual representation of their ideas.  Check out a few examples from Mrs. Walker's class! What a great way to illustrate the concept of human rights!

3rd Grade Gets a Visit from the Police!

No, third grade students aren't in any trouble!  They've been studying the central idea "Work happens when a force causes change."  Students have been learning about different kinds of forces- energy, physical forces, and even social forces and then investigating ways that change can occur. 
A police officer (who is also a COE parent) stopped by to talk about both the social forces that they deal with on a regular basis- such as Occupy Austin- and the physical forces that are sometimes necessary on the job. Students got to see a real world example how the word force can take on a variety of different meanings!