Chapin Elementary Principal - Harriet Wilson 940 Old Bush River Road 803-575-5900 803-575-5920 (fax)
Last updated: 2/7/12
Welcome to AGP
Ms. Rogers
The Green Book
We begin our science fiction adventure this week as we travel out to colonize a new planet. The colonist are allowed only one book each for the adventure. Check out the BLOG to see what books others would take. Then add YOUR answer!!
This week we talked about the Roman numeral system. Students enjoyed learning the
value of the symbols that are still seen in so many places. We also learned about ancient Egypt, hieroglyphics, and investigated the Egyptian number system. Egyptians had seven different symbols. There were symbols for one, ten, ten tens, ten ten tens, and so on. Numbers were created by repeating symbols of similar value so that the total number of symbols summed to a quantity. Students quickly deciphered the values of the symbols. Next week, we will emphasize the need for zero. We will also discover that large numbers were hard to write, record, and compute as we add and subtract quantities using the Egyptian numeration system.
We will be talking about inventors of the distant past this week to include ancient Chinese inventions like gunpowder and the compass. Here is a link to learn more about Leonardo da Vinci to explore. Make sure to take a peek at the Inventor's Toolbox.
Sixteen (16) state winners will each receive a $50.00 cash prize. Each winner will be required to provide a Social Security number so that a savings bond can be purchased in the winner's name. All winners, their parents and teacher sponsors are invited to the SC Economics's annual awards luncheon on May 18. 2012.
This week, we are interviewing 3 to 4 people of various ages to ask them-
"What invention has come about in your lifetime that has made the biggest impact on you?"
Students can report their responses here. Be sure to add your first name and school initials! SOES, LMES, CES, OPES
"Inventions" will be our project-based unit for this nine weeks! Student will create an invention to share at the Invention Convention!
SCRATCH is a computer programming application that the students are using to create their own projects and is a good way to improve several 21st Century skills! It is safe to download on your home computer as well. Check the sidebar to find the link to download and learn more about this program from MIT. To login to our SCRATCH account to upload and dowload programs, use "agpisfun" as the login and "password" as the password.
We continue to examine an unusual artifact, the MoLi Stone. We will be connecting what we learn about Egyptian and Chinese symbols to decipher the MoLi Stone number system.
Recent lessons had our mathematicians thinking about our Arabic number system. We discovered patterns by exploring the different combinations of pennies and dimes that make $0.47. As students found the connection between tens and ones they were able to jump to the concept of regrouping. Using unit blocks, we discussed the importance of place value and the role of zero. These concepts will be valuable as we compare number systems throughout the week. We played Card Game Capers, combining the concepts of probability and "greater than, less than".
We also thoroughly enjoyed playing Some Sum. Students explored probability as they determined which place to put their cards. They then practiced regrouping as they determined sums and differences. The students are amazingly adept at grasping complex concepts quickly.
Gifted Girls: It Comes Naturally This video is about the challenges and benefits of being a gifted girl in education today.
Happy Halloween! Check out one of my favorite websites for Southern Ghost stories...
We are learning about the organizational benefits of classification. Here is great game to play with someone or against yourself. You might find you love Quiddler as well:
After taking a peek into ancient Chinese civilization, we worked on the age old puzzle, Tangrams. Using tangrams gives students an opportunity to use a manipulative set to construct a more intuitive understanding of geometric ideas. Using tangrams can help students develop spatial skills. They can move the pieces around to note the relationships, and learn about flips, slides and turns (reflections, rotations, and translations). They create vivid images for students who are visually oriented and engage both sides of the brain. Besides moving the pieces around, they can be combined to create other shapes. This is the beginning of our exploration of area and perimeter, congruency, similarity, and symmetry.
We are off to a great start in AGP! We are using the Junior Great Books series "Starting Off Strong" to introduce the children to an inquiry and discussion based approach to literature. We have also enjoyed the story "The Warlord's Puzzle" as we start to explore Tangrams. These spatial puzzles are proving to be very challenging! Students used their creativity to writa about an animal that they created by combining two or more animals together. We watched this clip about an inventor who is trying to create self-sufficient "strandbeest" to roam the beach dunes of Holland!
We are excited about a great year together. Our primary focus for the first nine weeks is to teach the students how to think critically while being allowed to express creativity in a variety of outlets.
Are our students critical thinkers and problem solvers?
Are our students globally aware?
Are our students self-directed?
Are our students good collaborators?
Are our students information and technology literate?
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»Sudokus Come try your deductive reasoning skills! »Make a comic strip Make Beliefs is a free comic strip creation tool that provides students with a variety of templates, characters, and prompts for building their own comic strips. It allows users to write their comic strip's dialogue in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portugese, or Latin. »Show USA Show USA and Show World are good reference tools and good tools for creating visual representations of demographic, economic, and scientific data. »Storyline Online Famous actors reading famous, spectacular childrens' books... Check out Romeow and Drooliet!! »Aunty Math Math Challenges for K-5 Learners »Math Brain Teasers 3-8 grades- these are GREAT! »National Library of Virtual Manipulatives Best Math site around »free rice Help learn new vocabulary and..For each word you get right, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. »world geography IQ challenge fast paced game with different levels of challenge »Google Finance Loads of information about your stocks »Stock Market game »Stock Market resources »Ticker Symbol Finder »Elements of Reasoning We will work to incorporate these elements into our learning. »Multiple Intelligence Test for Children Come learn more about your strengths »Interactive Tangrams »Set Game Daily Puzzle »Analogy of the Day Fun and challenging analogies- a new one each day. They even have a hint for you if you need it...
