Mrs. Husack's TARGET Class
Weekly Newsletter
1st Grade - Around the WorldBrain Stations have been a hit with the 1st grade TARGET students! This has been a fun way to introduce some of the different convergent thinking skills we utilize in TARGET. This week's Brain Stations focused on visual-spatial reasoning: Noodlers, pattern blocks, tangrams, Q-bitz, and pentominoes! We've enjoyed "traveling" to different countries for this unit! We had a guest speaker from my 5th grade TARGET class come and share about her travels and adventures in Northern Ireland! What an exciting treat this was for students to hear from another student! 1st graders were a captive audience too! After leaving Ireland, we ventured on towards Paris, France. We've visited several remarkable buildings and studied the history and architecture of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Cathedral of Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysees, and of course no trip to Paris would be complete without "visiting" some of the cafes, chocolateries, and patisseries! Students are building a 3-D paper Parisian city that we'll finish before traveling to the outback of Australia after Spring Break! Au revoir! 2nd Grade - CubismSecond graders are studying the life and work of famous Cubist painter, Pablo Picasso. We began working on another masterpiece using Picasso's Bouquet of Peace as inspiration! Students studied and drew their hands to hold the bouquet and we'll use watercolor paints to create flowers after the break! Students found it fascinating that Picasso could paint better than he could write! Most children learned to draw with a pencil, but he actually learned to "draw" with a paintbrush in his hands. Our unit also incorporates lots of other activities with cubes, so we spent some time studying and creating optical illusion cubes. The cubes appear to be moving different directions based on where the shading is located. Students also assembled Sudoku cubes from nets containing different patterns. This tricky puzzle to arrange the cubes in a 2x2 square so that no pattern repeated on the top, sides, or bottom layers was challenging! Those who were able to solve the puzzle and find a solution should feel very proud of what they accomplished and the perseverance they demonstrated by not giving up! 3rd Grade - Mini-SocietyThe citizens of Logictopia are hard at work creating products to sell for Market Day! Students have shopped for supplies at our community store and are learning to use their resources and materials wisely to cut down on production cost. There are various methods of production taking place from mass assembly of parts to quality control and inspection at every step. It's been enlightening to watch students divide and conquer this multi-step assignment! Students are also working at their jobs of paymaster, treasurer, and money cutters to ensure currency is circulating within the economy. There have been bonuses awarded for jobs well done, and unfortunately, some lost wages due to errors of employees. Citizens with dependable and above-average workmanship have also been awarded raises! Keep up the good work, 3rd graders! 4th Grade - National ParksOur "Create Your Own National Park" project is underway! Fourth graders are completing several steps to think critically, logically, and creatively about the national park they wish to create. So far, students have created maps of their national parks and written a brief history about the early inhabitants of their park and how it came to be a national park. Students are in the process of writing about the flora fauna and wildlife in their parks. In addition to creating their parks, we've been practicing our survival skills! Students completed a cooperative learning challenge on outdoor safety and survival. We've discussed common dilemmas and potential challenges when hiking or camping in the woods and also discussed and debated the essential items students would pack to ensure survival. Our novel to accompany this unit is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Although students are certainly not required to do so, if they would like to bring in a personal copy or one borrowed from the library to follow along as we read each week, they are welcome to do so. 5th Grade - ShakespeareAs we immerse ourselves weekly in Elizabethan culture found at the time of Shakespeare, students are beginning to see just what a lyrical genius he was! We completed a Pop Sonnet Mystery Lesson where students were given lyrics to modern day music rewritten in Shakespearean English to decipher, decode, and identify the songs. This was a lot of fun! Taylor Swift sounds much different when written in old English! We also spent time discovering the correlation between Shakespearean Sonnets and hip hop music. Iambic pentameter is the driving beat behind both works and the students found the similarities fascinating!
The performance aspect of our Shakespeare unit involves Reader's Theater "plays" of two of Shakespeare's works that students decided upon: Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet. Students are working in small groups to read and recite the scripts and also create minor props and costume accessories to enhance their performance. As Shakespeare would say, "All the world's a stage!"
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1st Grade - Around the WorldOn Thursday in TARGET, 1st graders traveled to Ireland to learn about the traditions, customs, and culture, of the Irish and also have some St. Patrick's Day fun! Students used their knowledge of Vietnam from our last trip to compare and contrast with what they learned about Ireland. They worked with a partner to complete a Venn diagram to compare countries by location and terrain, culture, language, economy, and climate. Students were taught a creative thinking technique called SCAMPER that we utilize frequently in gifted education. Today's SCAMPER was on Lucky Charms. This was definitely a fun (and tasty) activity! 2nd Grade - Cubism2nd graders worked really hard this week as we integrated art into our unit with some work on tiling and mosaics! This was a difficult task and required a lot of visual and perceptual stamina and reasoning, but students persevered and I'm so proud of them and the masterpiece mosaics they created! We read and discovered more about Pablo Picasso's life in our unit novel: Who Was Pablo Picasso? by True Kelley. This week, we focused on the obstacles and successes he encountered on his journey as an emerging artist travelling between Spain and France. 3rd Grade - Mini-SocietyThis week was Market Research Day in our Mini-Society Unit. The citizens of Logictopia joined with Teasley's Kidville (Mrs. Herbel's class) to put their prototypes on display and conduct research before beginning production. Students asked whether consumers would buy the product, how much they were willing to pay for it, if they had any suggestions for product improvement, and ideas for optional related products and accessories. This experience was invaluable! Upon discussion following Market Research Day, we talked about competitors in the market and also how to respond to negative reviews. I feel confident that students are prepared with valuable feedback and ideas for improvement as we begin production next week! Any supplies that students have at home should be brought to TARGET next week. There will be supplies for sale (using Smartcash that students have earned) in our Logictopia Supply Store next week too. 4th Grade - National ParksAlthough Wednesday was a short day with Early Release, we managed to get through all the National Park presentations! I was very pleased with the time students put into their research as well as the quality and variety of products to "show what they know" about his and her National Parks! We had everything from puppet shows to jigsaw puzzles, board games and interactive posters to PowerPoints, Reader's Theater, and photo booths! Very impressive, 4th graders! I also introduced our next big project - Create Your Own National Park. Students should have brought home the information on a bright green piece of paper but the important dates are listed below.
5th Grade - ShakespeareFriday in TARGET, 5th graders participated in station rotations reading through a variety of information and completing graphic organizers focusing on the theatre, the works, and the world of William Shakespeare. This important information was very helpful to give show students the contextual significance of England under the rule of Elizabeth, during the Bubonic Plague, and then under King James' rule. Students were shocked (and slightly appalled) at the entertainment at the time of Shakespeare: bear baiting, fencing, and public executions. Plays, dances, and feasts were a ]highlight of their entertainment scene as well. Next, we decided to use English creatively as Shakespeare would've done so after a review of the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives), students wrote their own Shakespeare Mad Libs. These were hilarious! According to students' writing, Shakespeare had a budding career at Starbucks and then retired to flipping burgers in China. The humor of 5th graders is always appreciated! :-) Another favorite activity today was Lingo BINGO! Students were to study the modern translation of many Shakespearean vocabulary words and deciphered BINGO clues accordingly.
1st Grade - Around the WorldOur first stop on our journey around the world was to Vietnam. We visited the Mekong River and learned about the water markets and why fish is such a dietary staple for the Vietnamese. We also discussed the climate and how that impacts what they are able to grow, harvest, and eat. We read Everybody Cooks Rice and took a virtual field trip to a rice paddy. We finished our travels by making Vietnamese puppets and watching a traditional water puppet show. Next week we'll travel to Ireland - just in time for St. Patrick's Day! 2nd Grade - Cubism2nd grade students are enjoying exploring the artwork and life of Pablo Picasso! Students have several choice activities that they are completing: "Roll a Picasso Portraits" where a dice is rolled and that number indicates what type of facial feature is drawn, "Mystery Mosaics" where a hidden picture is revealed after colors are added to a coordinating position on a grid, and "Interactive Lap Books" about Pablo Picasso's life. Students are advancing well on their Rubik's Cube work each week! Most have solved the white cross and several have already solved the white face and are moving on to Stage 4, solving the red and blue faces. 3rd Grade - Mini-SocietyThe citizens of Logictopia have interviewed for positions and are now gainfully employed! They've completed their first day's work and have met with me individually to have their Prototype Report approved before starting production. Next week we will conduct market research with both 3rd grade TARGET classes so students can receive feedback and suggestions on their ideas. Students should bring in a sample prototype that's ready for market research next week. 4th Grade - National Parks4th graders have been researching a National Park of their choice and preparing for a "Museum Walk" presentation next week. We've spent time in the computer lab exploring the www.nps.gov websites and all the resources our National Parks have to offer. Students created brochures of their chosen National Park to showcase the things tourists must see and do, warnings of potential dangers inside the park, and also what conservation efforts are in effect to preserve the parks and their natural beauty. To compliment their brochures, students worked on additional projects of choice based on their preferred product style so they can show what they know to the class! 5th Grade - ShakespeareWe started our second unit of the year with an introduction to Shakespeare's life and works through a Webquest. Students constructed models of the Globe Theater and we began a virtual field trip traveling back in time to Shakespearean England to submerse ourselves in his writings and culture. Students completed an Inductive Reasoning activity matching Shakespeare Lingo to Modern Lingo. We were surprised to find that many of the words commonly used in Shakespeare's writings are still found in the dictionary, although students agreed that they seem a little "out of date." Next week we'll play Lingo Bingo, create Shakespearean Mad Libs, and begin working on a Pop Sonnet project! Students, don't forget to look over your Shakespeare Translation Guide for Lingo Bingo!
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Mrs. HusackGifted Specialist Teacher at Teasley Elementary Archives
May 2018
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