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.