Term 3 Week 2

Boost 2.

Welcome back to term 3.  This term we are working self management, and self soothing.  This helps us to better manage our emotions when we are upset.  We played a few team games that involved being out of your comfort zone and thought about what was 'going on in your head' when you were really frustrated, and what did you do to get out of that headspace.

We also continued our chess, learning about castling your king.  When you ‘castle’ your King, the unmoved King will either move two places to the right or move two places to the left. Immediately following the King’s move, the unmoved Rook closest to the moved King will then “jump” over the King and will land on the immediate open space next to the King. When you castle your King, you must make sure that there are no pieces, either yours or your opponents, on any square between your King and your Rook. Also, once the King has moved, that piece can no longer castle the rest of the game. 

On Monday 5 September there is a chess tournament at Donovan school, which we will attend.  We read through the rules of the tournament, and made sure that we were all using those same rules when we play here at school, even shaking hands with your opponent after a game.

Chess Tournament

There is a chess tournament at Donovan School on Monday 5 August.   I would like all Boost children to enter this tournament, which caters for beginners to experts.  The tournament runs for the whole day and each child will play 7 games.  There is an entry fee of $15 per child.  Make sure that you look out for the flyer in this weeks newsletter for more information!

Term 3 Week 1

Boost 1
We had a great time in Boost this week.  This term we are focusing on knowing ourselves, and we began by looking at different personality types.  Allison Mooney was a speaker at the ILT teaching conference in the holidays and the four personality types that she defines are playful, peaceful, precise and powerful.  (for more information go to www.allisonmooney.co.nz/ms/pressing-buttons).

We discovered which personality type we are and talked about how important it is to have all four types in society. 

We then talked a little about James Nottingham's theory of learning.  He talks about the need for confusion for learning to occur.  If we are never confused then we never actually build on our current knowledge.  James calls this confusion 'the pit'.  We want to put learners (of any age) in 'the pit' because getting out of the pit can be tricky.  You need skills such as persistence, finding humour, remaining open to other opinions/learning and drive, to make sure that you get past that point of confusion in to figuring out the new concept.  When we get out of 'the pit' and the new learning makes sense again, that sense of achievement at getting there on our own is a proud moment.  According to James, this is where children gain the most satisfaction and joy out of learning, and I agree with that theory.

 

So, today we started some philosophy questions.  Discussion and justifying of ideas is a great way to get kids into the pit!  The question this week was 'What is a toy?'  I had a great time with this discussion and the children loved it too.  The kids defined what a toy was to them but their statements were challenged.  For example they said that a toy is something you play with.  I started throwing a pen around and said that I was playing with the pen, does that make it a toy?  The response was, no, a toy needs to be something that you actually play with like a doll or a toy car, you actually use your imagination when you use it.  I asked them if that meant that skipping rope was a toy because I don't have to use my imagination with it.  You can see that the discussion became extremely interesting, and the children were becoming more confused as they tried to define a toy.

I think next time I will have to video the conversation as there were so many great statements about the kids thinking.  e.g. 'I thought I knew what a toy was but now I don't!', and 'I am sooo in the pit!' 

Term 2 Week 11

Boost 2
Today we looked again at creative thinking, and the challenge was to make a freestanding structure that would hold a marble out from a table.  The winning team would have the marble furthest from the edge of the table. 
The materials used were:
8 Popsicle sticks
3 straws
small handful of uncooked spaghetti
1 metre sellotape
1 metre string
2 marbles.

The boys had 20 minutes to complete the task, and only one group was able to finish their structure in that time.  We then talked about the importance of time management!  They were then given another 2 minutes to complete their task.  Here are the results.

We then looked at some new chess programmes on the iPads.  Chess solitare is a great problem solving game.

Individual Inquiries

This term Boost 1 have been working in Inquiries of personal interest.  We have learned about using the internet, finding information, sorting information, and using Keynote to present our findings.

Term 2 Week 7

Boost 2.

Today we looked at the Habits of Mind as a whole, and the children tried to match the titles of each Habit of Mind with the definitions.  This was a difficult task for the boys, both the group work and the definitions were challenging, but with continued encouragement and support, we finished the task together.

Chess is always a popular way to finish the  session, and today we learned about strategies for getting out of check.  There are three main things to think of if your king is in check.
1. Can I knock off the attacking piece?
2. Can I put another of my pieces in the way?
3. Can I move my king?

We also looked at ways to finish the attacking game.  We looked at how we can use a queen and a rook, (or both rooks), to cut off whole lines of the board, and effectively corner the king into check mate.

Term 2 Week 5

Boost 1.

The children have now finished their 'finding out' phase of their inquiries.  Much of this work has been done independently, and the kids have realised how difficult it can be to stick to finding information that helps answer their big question.  Sometimes they have found really interesting facts or information and have wanted to change their focus.  The purpose of inquiry to to strive to answer a question, and hopefully change your thinking a little.  We can't change our question or topic because it was too difficult to find information, that is not showing persistence - it's taking the easy track.  Boost isn't about taking the easy track, it's about challenging ourselves to think harder than we would normally.

We used two programmes to help sort our information.  The older children used 'Inspiration' on the laptops, and the younger children used the iPads.  There is an amazing application on the iPad which is called SimpleMind+.  It is an application that makes it really easy to make mind maps.  The children were able to sort their information into sections of relevance, so that they can make a Keynote presentation about what they have learned.  

Term 2 Week 4

Boost 2
The boys loved their Boost session today.  We continued with our Habits of Mind today, mainly persisting and managing self (overcoming obstacles).  I gave the boys a technology challenge, which really brings out their creative thinking side.  Today's challenge involved half a packet of uncooked spaghetti and 20 mini marshmallows.

Firstly, we put on our creative thinking hats and tried to think outside the box – what could we do with these items?  Here are some of the suggestions:
Make a marshmallow kebab on the spaghetti stick.
Make a back scratcher with the spaghetti.
Make drumsticks with the spaghetti.
Make an arrow
Make a slingshot to shoot marshmallows at you.
Make a nose picker.
Make a marshmallow chess set, they could be the pawns.

Practising this type of thinking is great for thinking of new ways to use old things, inventing, building and expanding the mind.

I then set a challenge for the boys, they had to make the tallest tower possible with the same materials.  We talked before we started the task,  and discussed the need for group work – what it will look like and sound like.  I was looking for things such as eye contact with the rest of the group, encouraging comments to their peers, encouraging someone to participate if they are standing back, talking with their group and agreeing on a plan/strategy.  We also talked about the need to manage your emotions/behaviour and catch yourself (or others) giving up.  We talked about what strategies we can use instead of refusing to participate.  The children loved the task and I really loved seeing them trying hard to work together.

After our tech challenge the boys couldn't wait to start playing chess.  Today we learned that sending a soldier out on it's own is not a good move, he'll be defeated.  You need to make sure that your chess pieces are protected, or 'covered' by another piece, as much as possible.  We also talked about the value of each piece, roughly speaking a queen is worth 9, a rook is worth 5, bishops and knights are worth 3 and pawns are worth 1.   This means that it is not worth taking your opponents pawn, if it means losing your queen!  It also helps figure out who won, when the game has to end early.

Term 2 Week 3

Boost 1
We have continued the finding out process of the childrens' independent inquiries.  The children have really impressed me with the amount of information they have been able to find out on their own.

We talked about the importance of using your critical thinking when looking for information on the internet, and how to check if information is accurate, or just someone's opinion.

We continued researching, adjusting our search terms in Google to get the results we are after.  Next session we will begin sorting our information.

Term 2 Week 2

Boost 2
We had a great start to our Boost 2 class yesterday. 
Firstly we looked at all the types of thinking that we will be learning about during Boost time.  We talked about the differences between Critical, Caring and Creative thinking, and also the importance of using the Habits of Mind.  To be successful we need to follow good practice, and yesterday we began working on persistence, and finding humour.  We played a game with a partner, which is designed to be difficult and make players want to give up.  We began playing the game, thinking about our own reaction to frustration and difficulty. Some children laughed to show they were uncomfortable and some children gave up playing.  We then talked about the ways that we can persist when things get difficult.  Partners were shown encouraging comments and actions to help others get through it, and we also talked about the fact that we can overcome giving up when we put our minds to it.  By the end of the game all children were persisting (and also finding a good lot of humour in their attempts to succeed).

We also began playing chess.  Chess is fantastic for a lot of reasons.  You need critical thinking to play the game, persistence to continue when you think there is no way out of check, you take responsible risks when choosing some strategies to play, and you also need to deal with losing a game sometimes.  Today was spent learning how each piece moves and the object of the game.  The boys were very impressed when they heard that chess is actually a war game and the object is to kill the king!  Chess takes a lot of practise, so if you have a chess set at home, don't be afraid to get it out and have a go.  We also have a chess club on Mondays at lunch time.

Term 2 Week 1

Boost 1
As should have been explained to you, this Boost class (Boost 1) will meet every second week on a Monday.  Your child has strength in the classroom with either literacy/numeracy or both, and this time will be especially dedicated to developing their skills and interests, while also helping them to work more independently.  Having a solid base of independent awareness and skills means that they can take on further work if required in their own classrooms, now and also in future. 

Today we embarked on independent inquiries.  The children had been asked to think of a topic or interest that they would like to find out more about.  I helped the children take this interest and form a big question for them to research over the next few weeks.  They then recorded all knowledge that they already have about the topic, so that at the end of their research they can look back and see how much their knowledge has increased.  We also made a mindmap, plotting all of the places where they can begin to look for information about their topic.  They will have a copy of their question and their mindmap to help keep them on track at home.

We will do this inquiry in specific steps, this fortnight I have asked them to just find any information that they can about their topic, and in our next Boost session we will look at sorting through that information.