Today groups coded a path for our robot.  This seemed easy at first, but became significantly more complicated as we realized we left out specific details such as how many steps forward or which direction or to simply write END at the end of our line of code. We will test our code paths next week by having other groups follow our code.  

Today we worked on our precision of language (necessary in coding) and also our following directions (necessary for life)! Students were divided in groups of 4 and were blindfolded.  One caller from the group led the entire group through a course.  It was imperative for the caller to give clear directions and the listeners to follow the directions (and also know their left from their right).  Please continue to work on coding in Scratch and share your coding with us!  We'll look at student examples in class next week.  We will also need to start collecting cardboard for our maze designs for our Robot (to be named at a later date). 

Today in class we worked on non-computer forms of coding.  We played a game to learn the conditional language of coding.  The game was called If/Then.  We practiced writing conditionals and then acting those conditionals out.  This proved difficult if we didn't write a conditional for stopping the first action. 
Then we spent sometime learning how to use Scratch coding blocks to build computer codes.   This week, please play around in Scratch and be prepared to show us what you coded! 

Today we worked on team work and cooperation, which will be necessary for our final STEM challenge.  We also  discussed The Last Human.  Here is the schedule for The Last Human: 

Week 1 (3/30-4/6): pg. 1-61
Week 2 (4/6-4/13): pg. 62-124
Week 3 (4/13-4/20): pg. 125-182
Week 4 (4/20-4/27): pg. 183-end 

Wow!  I am always impressed on gallery day and today was no exception!  It is wonderful to see so many students participating in the challenges and pushing themselves creatively!  There were some great games being played on Thursday.  Next time, we'll start working on The Last Human and our new STEM skill (coding).  

Today we continued working on our Golden Spirals and adding color to them.  Next week is a maker space day, so make sure you bring all of your materials to continue building and creating your math board game.   Once we return from spring break, we'll begin reading our final book of the year, which is The Last Human by Lee Bacon. 

Today we worked on discovering the diameter of circles and pairing that with the Fibonacci sequence.  We used two different kinds of compasses to draw circles with diameters of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, which is the first 6 numbers in the Fibonacci sequence.  This was about as large as our paper would allow us to go.  Then we learned how to make the Golden Spiral from the Fibonacci Sequence.  We used graph paper to measure the area of squares for 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 5x5, 8x8, 13x13, 21x21, etc.  Some students made it to 55x 55 today.  We will continue these next week and illustrate the Golden Spiral. 

For HW: Search for and find examples of the Golden Ratio in the real world. 

Today we thought outside the box a bit with our book and tried to determine which character or math problem did not belong with the other three.  This required some higher ordered creative thinking and most everyone had great reasons for excluding their choice.  Then, we discussed the Fibonacci Sequence and how to complete it.  Students then created a "homemade" compass (the mathematical tool) to create circles.  We discovered that this homemade tool was not very reliable!

We also discussed what was required for our Math Game.  We will have a classroom workday on 3/2 and our gallery will be on 3/16 when we return from spring break.  Please do not wait until 3/2 to get started on your game!
HW:
Read pg. 75-152

Today we read the first two chapters of Lightning Girl.  Most students have already finished the book.  If you have finished it and you would like to read something else similar to this one, Millionaires for the Month is a good one to try (by the same author).  Secrets, Lies, and Algebra also looks to be a promising choice.  We also learned how to measure angles and the different types of angles.  We then measured the angles in our name.  Our STEM project for this book will be a game to teach a mathematical concept.  Students are free to choose a card game or a board game (there are TONS of templates online), but it should utilize the fun things they like about their favorite games (strategy, skills, luck, speed, etc). 
FOR HW:
1. Lucy wonders what it means to be a friend.  Write a short paragraph explaining what you think it means to be a friend.
2. Write your game proposal.  You need to tell me the following information:
card game or board game? What mathematical concept will you be teaching? How many players?  What materials are needed? What is the object of the game?  How do you win?  What are the steps for game play?  Draw a picture of your game.

Today we started off the class by completing a Graph about Me worksheet.  This is in preparation for our reading of Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, which we will officially start on Thursday, so please bring your copy if you have it.  The Graph of Me page was an introduction to graphing on a coordinate grid with four quadrants.  There were several students who had never seen four quadrants before, so this was a great way to familiarize themselves with it before hitting Algebra I classes :)
We also played through a few more Room Escapes!  We've had such a great time working on those!  I hope your kiddos will continue to build them for fun! 

Today was VERY FUN!  We had a blast playing through three room escapes!  We learned a lot of things about how design works and how effective puzzles are.  We also learned how to consider our players as well.  :)  Students are welcome to play those at home this week.  They can go to the Room Escapes and play around with their peers games.  We will continue to play test games for the next couple of classes.  We'll get to Miscalculations of Lightning Girl hopefully by 2/9 or 2/ 16 at the latest.  I know some students have already read it!! 

Welcome back!  Today didn't quite go as planned!  Because of the storms during the day, the wi-fi was out, so we were unable to play test our room escape games.  We will play test those as soon as we are able.  Students can still make changes to them since we have yet to see them! 

Instead, we played a game called "Bring Your Own Book."  It's a very fun game and is a similar to Apples to Apples but using books instead.  We will probably play it again at some point in the future!  We will begin Miscalculations of Lightning Girl after play testing our room escapes!  

Today we had a fun day of Reindeer Games!  I challenged students to two rounds of secret drawing.  This is a very fun game to play at your holiday gatherings!  I hope they will show it to you.  We started playing Passing Pictures, but we ran out of time!  We really had so much fun!  Over the holiday break, students need to work on completing their puzzles and putting them in their room escape.  I am here to help if you need assistance!

EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEND THEIR FINISHED ROOM ESCAPE TO ME BY JANUARY 11th!  Gallery day will be on January 12th and we will play the games in class and vote for our favorites!

After the break, we'll be reading a fabulous book called The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty.  If you would like to work on procuring that book over break, that would be great!  

I have seen so many great room escape designs and I cannot WAIT to see the final products! Today we finished up talking about the main types of puzzles that many room escapes have.  We also started storyboarding our puzzles!  The main thing that everyone needs to remember is that the puzzles need to stay consistent with the narratives they are creating!  I have created some videos to help students on their room escapes.  Please watch these as you begin building your puzzles (Check back--I hope to have these posted by Monday).
Adding object in to a picture
Jumble Puzzle
Map Coordinate Puzzle
Linking puzzles slides to the main room.
Including a narrative box
Creating a google form for "locks"

Students should have the following complete for this week:
Read Click Here to Start pg. 1-116 (12/1)
117-235 (12/8)
236-end (12/15)

Today we discussed everyone's digital room escape and elaborated on what would and would not make a good opening "room."  Our general consensus is we need a room with a lot of "things" to click!  For HW this week, everyone needs to open their google account, start a slides presentation, add a good opening "room" image and then share it with me (katierowe722@gmail.com).  I have walked everyone through how to share, but it really is quite simple.  You click the share button in the slides document and then insert my email address.  Next week, we'll develop our story a bit more for our room escape and I will teach everyone how to start linking puzzles and slides.  

Today, we had our roller coaster gallery!  It was so much fun to see everyone's inventions! 

Please bring your Click Here to Start book with you when we return from break.  Also make sure you have signed up for a google account so that you can participate in our STEM challenge this book, which is to build a digital room escape.  The majority of this build will be done at home, but I will walk you through it in class!  You will have the entire Christmas break to build your room escape and we will have our gallery when we return in January (I will pull your room escape up on the projector for everyone in class to see!)

Today we had a maker space day and spent the class period building our roller coasters.  I save some AMAZING designs.  We were also able to test many of the designs that were there and readjust the design based on what was missing.  It was truly what STEM is all about!  We will have our gallery next week, so make sure you have a roller coaster design in order to compete! 

Today we worked on literacy response stations to Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.  Students investigated science terms, shared personal responses, and collaboratively wrote creative responses.  We also started designing and building our roller coasters.  Next week, we will devote the entire hour to maker space, so please bring in your roller coaster and materials to continue to build.  

Today was a HEAVY notetaking day so we can attempt to learn the physics behind how rollercoasters work.  We learned the following terms:
friction, acceleration, decelleration, momentum, centifugal force, potential energy, kinetic energy, gravity, resistence, chain dogs, velocity, and inertia.  We also discussed Newton's Laws of Motion.  Please have students bring their notes back to class next week, as we will be adding to them. 

Another thing we discussed were our specifications regarding our rollercoaster project.  No legos, Knex, or other construction-type material should be used.  Students will use goods such as paper/cardstock, small cups, cardboard, popsicle sticks, rubberbands, toilet paper or paper towel tubes, or paper plates.  In addition, students should have the following elements in their designs: at least large hill (to produce speed), a loop, and a spiral.  Rollercoasters should also be affixed to a base.

Other elements and ideas may be added after we have our first maker class, which is next week!  Please read to the end of chapter 15 this week, and begin sketching out your rollercoaster design.  You may bring materials in for maker class starting next week. 

If you have time, check out the rollercoaster simulators to practice concepts discussed in class this week.
Simulator 1
Potential and Kinetic Energy in Coasters
Simulator 2
Launch Systems

Also spend some time watching to POV rollercoaster videos.  Here are a few I like!
Velocicoaster (Launched Coaster)
Hulk (Launched Coaster)
Wild Eagle (Chain Lift Coaster)
Big Bear Mountain (Multi-Launch)
Hagrid's Motorbike (Multi-launch--it has 7!! A world record!)
Rip Ride Rockit (Vertical Lift Launch)
Expedition Everest (Chain Life Launch)

Today we started reading Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.  In it, our protagonist, Aven, likes to make up stories about how she lost her arms.  So, we pretended to be Aven and wrote stories about how we lost our arms.  Then we voted for the most outrageous stories!  We also discussed our next STEM project, which is a roller coaster!  Students voted to make their own roller coaster for their final gallery day.  We'll talk about the physics of roller coasters and concepts such as inertia, acceleration, kinetic, and potential energy.

For this week, please reading Chapters 1-9 in Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. 

Wow!  What an amazing gallery day!  I am so impressed with the designs, creativity, and circuitry of the city maps!  This was an ambitious first project, but this class delivered!  This makes me truly excited for the upcoming plans.  When we return from break, please have our next book ready for class.  We'll be reading Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling. 

We continued to work on our cities.  Many students had multiple light up elements and were ready to start building circuits on their boards.  These are coming along nicely!  Students may continue to work on cities at home this week, but there will be no in class time for building next week.  Instead, we will have our gallery showing.  Parents are welcome to attend and participate in our gallery showing (It's a fun experience!).  After fall break, we'll begin reading Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling, so please make sure you have a copy of that for class when we return. 

Students worked on completing the elements for their city today in class.  Next week, students should have the 3-dimensional houses, buildings, landmarks, etc. ready to add to their posters.  We will work on attaching them in class AFTER we have figured out the light up elements.  We have to make our circuits first, then we can glue our structures to the board.  Please spend some time working on this project at home! 

We worked on translating our maps and grids from our smaller scale to a larger scale.  We worked on mathematical terms such as scale, coordinate grid, area, dimensional, and measurement.  Students were also asked to build a 3 dimensional house from a 2 dimensional paper.  Next week, students should come to class with their map grid complete (including Sharpie).  In class next week, we'll begin constructing the 3 dimensional elements, so students should also have printable designs ready (see info below).  Lastly, students should be finishing up their reading of City of Ember this week.  

Grading Rubric for City of Ember Project
Resources: Copper Tape, LED bulbs, Batteries (I suggest purchasing some of your own for your design--I have very limited amounts left!  Please do not rely on my supplies.  We used most of mine to build our simple circuit robot!).  I purchase all of mine on Amazon and everything can be purchased for $10-20 for 20+ batteries, 100+ bulbs, and plenty of copper tape.  If you'd like to get together with a friend and share, that's fine with me too!  
Paper structures designs: Design 1, Design 2, Design 3, (you can also do a google search using key words: paper house (building) template printable-some of these already have the circuit path drawn)
Images for inspiration!

We had such a great time today in class!  We learned about a simple series circuit and then built a cute, little robot paper circuit with copper tape, LEDS, and a lithium battery.  Having a light up component is a requirement on the first project we'll be doing in class.  Our first project will be due on 10/7, but we'll start working on it next week.  Students should bring a posterboard to class to start construction of their three dimensional city.  It does not need to have anything on it yet (it can be blank).  Students will be creating paper models of buildings on their grids and they should have a light up element of some kind (again, we will start working on this in class and final gallery day will be on 10/7).    

Today we worked on story elements from City of Ember and then we had some open planning time on our cities.  This week for HW, please read chapters 4-6.  Also work on your city maps.  Bring your completed map to class next week.  

Today we observed the map inside the cover of our City of Ember books.  Then we listened to the first chapter and Dr. Rowe did a think-aloud model.  After that, we began planning our first project for this class--A city!  We started by making a coordinate grid to plan our city.  For HW, students should read chapters two and three for HW.  They should also finish making their one-inch grid and bring it back to class.  Please do not draw anything in the grid!!!! Simply leave it blank!! Students should also have their books in class next week as well.  

Today was an amazing first day of class!  We discussed the expectations for the class and what some of the class activities will be.  I also shared the first book we'll be reading.  Students need to have this book next week, so please make every effort to have it for class next Thursday.  You are welcome to use library books or purchase used books.  You are also welcome to listen to the audio version, but be prepared to write about the book in class.  After we discussed those housekeeping measures, we completed a STEM challenge, which required students to work cooperatively, think quickly, and communicate clearly.  I'm looking forward to everything this class will do this year! See you next week!