Flexible Thinkers.... Learning to Bend Our Brains

Busy week for me!  I'm sorry this is so late.

We started our day working on our creative problem solving skills.  We reviewed/were introduced to the Components of Creativity:

• fluency
• flexibility
• originality
• elaboration

We discussed how we can strengthen each of these skills and how they help us produce quality work. The students were given three small squares of paper with a "E" shape in the middle.  They could rotate the paper in any manner.  There task was to create three different pictures incorporating that shape.  They did a good job and came up with several very elaborative and original pictures.  Ask you child to tell you about his or her pictures.

In the computer lab, the students continued exploring Microsoft Power Point.  They reviewed how to add and format a text box for size, color and style.  Next, they learned to insert rectangles, ovals, squares and circles as well as Autoshapes.  They can resize, reposition, flip and rotate the figures.  They also learned to use the fill bucket to color the figure and to format the lines for color, thickness and style.  

After recess and lunch, we had our Spanish lesson.  Senora Gates worked with the students on the following vocabulary:

1.     Classroom expression-¿Me permite ir a tomar agua?

2.     Colors search game

3.     Birthdays-Cumpleaños

4.     ¿Cuántos años tienes?

5.     Vowel sounds

At the end of our day, the students were introduced to our newest Quirkle, Kitchen Chemistry Kal.  We began our lesson by reading our book and discussing the vocabulary words which included concoction, extracted, casein, keen, curds and whey.  

 This week, we had a kitchen chemistry demonstration where we created glue using 1% milk, vinegar and baking soda.

The students then recorded their observations and conclusions on their experiment log.  The day goes by way too fast!  It seems like I am always wishing we had 15 minutes more. This one was no different!