A lot of lately...

So many great things have happened in the last couple of weeks! Enjoy the updates below! 

On the Friday before we got out for Thanksgiving break, Mrs. Adams and I decorated the Central Office Christmas tree with many beautiful ornaments our sweet kiddos made. They all did such a great job!

Click the link below to check out some footage from our Mystery Skypes. During a Mystery Skype students ask yes/no questions to determine where the other class is located. We use all kinds of resources to help us locate them. Mystery Skypes are an engaging way to familiarize students with World Geography. They have a great time connecting with classes all around the world. Ask your student which states they have Mystery Skyped with. :)

--------->   Mystery Skype Footage   <---------

Our classes have also gotten the opportunity to Skype with professionals from Microsoft. Yesterday, 5th grade Skyped with Bryan Saftler a creative technology for Microsoft out Seattle, Washington. He is such a neat guy! He shared with us so many great aspects of his job. He talked about Xbox, Bing, Google and all types of technology our students use everyday. He also took feedback from our students about problems they have experienced with Mircrosoft products. He said he would make sure to let his team know! After our Skype, we discussed facts about Albertville. We told him that Albertville was the fire hydrant capitol of the world and that many fire hydrants are made right here in our city. Well, he proved us right, he took a picture of a fire hydrant right outside his office building. 

And guess what?!..It said Albertville on it! We were amazed! 

                                    

Skype with New Zealand

The students requested that I post footage of today's Skype with New Zealand. Well, the teacher from New Zealand recorded the WHOLE thing. We learned so many neat aspects of their culture and country. So neat! Technology is amazing! Ask your student what all they learned from today's Skype. 

Click here to watch -----> Skype with New Zealand

littleBits Blog!

5th grade is on the littleBits blog!! Check it out!!

littleBits Skype Session

Ryan Winter - Senior Program Manager from Microsoft

Today, 6th grade GATE got a chance to speak with Ryan Winter, a Senior Program Manager for Microsoft. How cool! Winter is located in Seattle, Washington where the population is over 4 million! Wow! He spoke to us about what it is he does at Microsoft and how he works in the "search" division - he works to solve problems one might have with the search engine, Bing. He also talked to us about how important math is in his daily routine, specifically about how percents play a role in his career.  Check out a few photos from today's session. 

Sneak Peek: Skyping with littleBits Engineers!

Check out a little video snippet from our Skype session with two engineers from littleBits Electronics, Inc. out of New York. These students did a great job formulating questions to ask the engineers. The engineers were very impressed with their professionalism. :) We can't wait to Skype with more professionals around the world.

Not sure what littleBits are? Check out their website ----->  Click Here!

A little bit of lately...

 The 4 pictures above are photos of the marvelous pipelines

the class created to represent the work of civil engineers. We 

learned the importance of why pipelines need to go through

the engineering design process before being created and used.

 These next 4 photos are photos of last week's crime scenes.

We worked as crime scene investigators to solve the mystery 

of the stolen bicycle. 

This is a picture of the 6th grade Student Ambassadors and

their homecoming trailer. They worked so hard and it looked 

so great!

Tech Toys

This week, each GATE class was introduced to a lot of new, fun and exciting technology toys. The links are provided below, just in case someone is looking for some additional information about each product. Click on the links and... Enjoy!

https://www.playosmo.com/

http://www.makeymakey.com/

http://meetedison.com/

http://littlebits.cc/

http://www.gosphero.com/ollie-official-launch-video/

National Chocolate Milkshake Day!

September 12th is National Chocolate Milkshake Day! What better way to celebrate then to have milkshakes in math?! We all enjoyed a chocolate milkshake while working hard on our Chapter 1 math test. They think a chocolate milkshake may be the secret to getting an A on all their math tests. :)

Paper Airplane Extravaganza

Last week, 5th grade GATE worked as aerospace engineers. They were challenged to create a paper airplane that would go the farthest distance. They looked at all types of building designs and then built the paper airplane that best suited their idea. They found that this was a bit challenging. Some had to test drive a few planes before heading out to the landing strip. :) They had a lot of fun. Drew Shankles' paper airplane went the farthest distance, traveling 45 feet and 5 inches. His plane was called "The Moth."

This was our measurement crew, they worked so hard getting the exact measurements of each flight.

More Spaghetti Tower Adventure Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the Spaghetti Tower Challenge.

These 5th grade students were the winners! Their tower was 16 1/2 inches tall!

Spaghetti Tower Adventure

Yesterday, we researched and learned all about the different types of engineering. From industrial engineering to food engineering. Each student was given one field to research. After discussing each type of engineering, we became civil engineers. Each team of engineers was given one big marshmallow, one yard of yarn, one yard of tape and 25 pieces of spaghetti. Students were given 30 minutes to design and build the highest spaghetti tower possible. What an engineering challenge this was!  The tallest was 15 inches!

Welcome to GATE- Group Fun!

We have had a successful start to the year! Students began the year building relationships and learning how to work successfully in groups. As an introduction activity, students were given the task to build the biggest index card house possible in 10 minutes... while being completely SILENT! They enjoyed the task! We talked about the challenges and successes of each building process. They loved it, even the being silent part!! :)