ELP Mo. Valley

The 5th Grade ELP have been working on coding and creating original scripts/storyboards/games at www.code.org.  Below is a link created by Brody Lager, Miss Larson's 5th Grade class, about the importance of teamwork.  He took our character education and Family Group lesson on teamwork to design a "video game" themed storyboard. The 20th Century Learner in me isn't quite sure how to activate the link within this blog.....so, please copy and paste the link in to your web browser and ENJOY!  I love the amount of learning/collaboration and problem solving I witness in this group of scholars.  I also, LOVE, the amount of learning they share with me, so I can become a more 21st century thinker too : ) copy and paste: https://studio.code.org/c/282516767 Brody, in the yellow, was the creator and navigator for the visual script created.  He collaborated with Dane Janssen, Ben Hansen and Vincent Larson on character emotions and dialogue.   TEAM--Togethe...

At the end of last year, I have several students who kept talking about this "coding thing" and www.code.org.   Not one to be left out, I decided I needed to learn about this coding thing.  In early October I attended a code.org training class and left feeling completely "hooked"!   The 1st-5th grade ELP students will be working their way through the various stages of www.code.org (a free website established to strengthen computer science skills in a fun, sequential and visual way).  The students and I work our way through building visual coding scripts to complete a variety of tasks.   Below are a few pictures of our current endeavors.  And the link at the bottom is my very first attempt at coding a storyboard/game.  You can cut and past the link into your web browser and, hopefully, it will play the short message I programmed. Stay tuned for further coding adventures...... 5th Grade students brainstorming the next step in creating their first...

The 2nd grade ELP group began the year with the folktale "John Henry" and discussed how John had a problem......he could break the rocks faster than the machine BUT the demolished rocks couldn't be cleared away faster enough...SO, engineers design a process or product to solve a problem or meet a need..... Below are a few photos showing how we have brainstormed solutions, revised our plans using feedback from others, tested the ideas and begun the creation of a solution with the resources we have available. A very special thanks to Mrs. Jenny Stessman, our Instructional Strategist, for co-teaching and helping our students develop even stronger questions, strategies and products.  Our problem and the original creations/solutions What is an Engineer? "Thank you, Mrs. Stessman" for helping us rethink our thinking! With COLLABORATION we can create amazingly strong solutions! Below are standards in Mathematical Practice/Reaso...

The 3rd Grade ELP group has begun its first service learning project.  Students are creating informational posters letting the MV Elementary students know we are collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House charities.  The pop tabs collected will be sent to a recycling station where, based on the overall weight, money will be donated to the local Ronald McDonald House.  We have currently collected 957,000 pop tabs and they have set a new goal of 1,000,000! The following standards are being addressed through this service learning project:  3.L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 3.W.4 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. The Ronald McDonald House charities serve in the following ways:  Providing stability and resources for families everywhere Helping a sick chil...

The 4th Grade ELP students are delving into a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) project to begin our year.  The students collaborated in small groups to create a series of mazes for their robotic mouse to maneuver.  Students utilized basic coding/programming skills to move their mouse from the start to the finish.  Our next step will be to write the coding script for one of their mazes, then exchange the scripts.  Another small group will use the coding script to see if they can program their mouse to follow the steps.   In the future, the 4th ELP group will be meeting in the computer lab with a coding program (code.org) where we will build on their basic programming skills.  

2nd Grade ELP scholars created their own basic coding scripts to move a Bee-bot from one good deed to the next.  Students collaborated to create their own good deeds, then using basic coding commands, they programmed their mini-bot.  Once completed, students exchanged boards and scripts and "tested" the validity of the coding scripts. 2nd Grade ELP scholars presenting their Bee-bot and coding scripts to the Missouri Valley School Board (March 2016). In addition, MV ELP had 3 scholars p articipate in the Iowa State Fair Youth Spelling Bee on Friday, August 11th.  They were:  Bobby Barnard, Noelle Rand and Kate Graeve.  These 3 students represented themselves, their school and their community with great skill and poise.  I was so very proud of their extra efforts and enthusiasm! During the 2016-2017 school year our ELP blog will be much more student directed.  I have no doubt their learners in our group will have plenty to say about ...