Maximizing Learning Potential: Productive Day!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Productive Day!

Aside from Hunter not willing to sing in his preschool program, today has been very productive so far! Hunter woke up this morning and told me he was NOT going to get up on stage. I really wasn't in the mood to witness a full-blown tantrum in front of all the parents of the school, so we kept him home. He was in bed taking a nap by noon, so maybe he is fighting off a bug.

The girls have been finishing up on their rainforest animal research. They are ready now to put it in paragraph form. Haley organized her notecards and figured out that she could organize them into about 5 or 6 different topics. I think she'll be able to write a pretty good report. Maddie will just work on rewriting her notes in her best handwriting.

We have been discussing different scientists that may work in the rainforest such as botanists, herpetologists, ornithologists, and mammalogists. Haley thought she might like to be a herpetologist when she grows up because she loves animals and would enjoy living in a warm climate :)

Haley is learning to multiply variables with negative and postive exponents. She was a little confused at first, but seems to have grasped the concept today. Maddie is nearing the end of her 5th-grade math workbook. She has mastered most concepts, but still makes a lot of careless mistakes. I always struggle with the question of holding her back until she becomes more accurate or continuing to teach her more.

The girls went to factmonster.com today to find answers to a bunch of questions I made up. Part of their challenge is to figure out what resource they need to find their answer. ie: atlas, encyclopedia, dictionary, etc. Maddie is struggling with this a little, but Haley's pretty good at locating information.

I was really excited to find some really cool CD's at the library today! They took classical symphonies and put catchy words to them to help kids recognize them. For instance, for the Trout Quintet by Schubert, the song lyrics center around the theme, "Schubert Fishing for Trout." Some of the songs are really corny, but beneficial for helping kids remember and appreciate famous classical works!

The girls are eating lunch now, but I anticipate them being done with their work shortly. They are anxious to complete their bromeliad plant art project :)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Is it a Cheetah?

When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting.

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.

However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.

Exerpts from Stephanie S. Tolan ©1996

Work Samples

Manatees (unedited)
By Haley
05/14/09

Manatees are very different than other animals. Manatees are aquatic mammals. They are also endangered. Manatees live in warm waters. They are very slow. Manatees are related to elephants. Manatees never hurt any other animal.

Manatees are funny looking creatures. Manatees are a grey- brown color. They are known as sea cows. A baby manatee weighs about 60 pounds. A grown manatee weighs about 1000 pounds. Sharp propellers from motor boats scar the manatees back.

Manatees have to lots of things after they have a baby. A mother manatee always stays near her calf. Manatees always teach there calf which plants are safe to eat. Manatees usally have one baby at a time every three years. The first thing a baby manatee does after it gets born it rises to the surface to breath. Last, a female manatee becomes an adult when it is five.

Manatees were used in lots of different ways. Its skin was burned as fuel. Also its bones where used as medican and jewelry. Its skin was made into shoes. Manatees fed many people.

Manatees are endangered animals. People need to protect them and not hurt them so they don’t dye out!