Is a Horse an Authentic Audience?

Is a horse an authentic audience?  She is when she received a special treat from Treats for the Tweets and Puppies and Pals, one of our 4th and 5th grade enrichment clusters. This enrichment cluster is interested in cooking, but cooking for animals. 

Throughout the cluster meetings, the students make all sorts of animal treats from different recipes.  The students decide what animal they want to cook for, find a recipe and create!  This past week the students decided on horses.  A recipe was found and the treats were made.  Now, the next step was to find a horse to partake in the delicious treats. 

Mrs. Myrick, one of our 5th grade teachers, owns a beautiful horse named Fannie.  Fannie was the lucky recipient of the special treats.  And as you can see from the pictures below, I think Fannie approved and gave the work of the students two hooves up. 

Continuing to develop the whole child...

Batty about Research

In second grade, Ms. Rumpf's Respectful Bats researched bats.  They followed the Independent Investigative Method (IIM) research model. IIM is an easy to use method that helps students organize and learn the research process.  The students made a variety of products to show what they had learned about bate.  These included dioramas, a game, a poster, a KPAW script with props, a brochure, a word search and a maze.

The students learned about so much about the research process and about bats.  The best part was that their research was displayed at the Zilker Botanical Gardens on November 3-4, 2012 for the Austin Community to see.  The Respectful Bats won the First Place Prize in the educational information category!  Way to go bats!

Continuing to develop the whole child...

Gears and 3rd Grade

Over the past several weeks, I have been making my way around the third grade working with the students on one of the simple machines, gears.  We are using LEGO kits to help teach us the concepts of gears and see how gears work.

The students have or will learn that a gear is a toothed wheel and that gears work when they are meshed with something else (like a chain or another gear).  We also talk about the terms drive, driven, gearing up, gearing down and idler gear.  My hope is that the students can use this knowledge for a better understanding of simple machines and when building with the NXT kits in 5th grade.

Continuing to develop the whole child...

THANK YOU!!!

The Schoolwide Enrichment Model at Laurel Mountain is a group effort. It really does take a village (teachers, paraprofessionals, students, parents, administrators, community members) to make it all happen. Thank you to our family and community SEM supporters. Continuing to develop the whole child...

Karen Bendelman, LME community member and helper in LME Computer Institute, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Polly Chan and Winston Chiang, LME parents who donated the awesome umbrella for the 3rd grade garden.

Wendy Chan, LME parent and presenter on Hong Kong cuisine to Global Food Expedition, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Eric Deal, LME parent, webmaster for our SEM website, enrichment cluster sorter for 4th and 5th grade students, helper in LME Computer Institute AND presenter in Webmaster Workshop, 4th and 5th grade enrichment clusters.

Loraine Gatson, LME parent and presenter on Irish cuisine to Global Food Expedition, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Dan Herman, Firefighter and LME parent, who talked to Kindergartens about fire safety.

Joyce Hewett, LME parent and helper in Mrs. Nguyen’s 2nd grade class with the LEGO WeDo.

Pete Hewett, LME parent and presenter to Mrs. Miranda’s kindergarten class on juggling.

Andrea Loomis, LME parent and presenter on German/Austrian/French cuisine to Global Food Expedition and helper in Printing Imagination Station, 4th and 5th grade enrichment clusters.

Chunyan Pei, LME parent and presenter to Mrs. Trejo’s 4th grade class on Chinese culture.

Dolores Rumpf, Ms. Rumpf’s mother and presenter to Ms. Rumpf’s and Mrs. Nguyen’s 2nd grade classes on the voting process.

Teresa Nusbaum, community member from the Williamson County Museum and presenter to Endangered Texas Animals, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Jenny Shepherd, LME parent and help with Webmaster Workshop, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Wei Li-Sialm and Clemens Sialm, LME parents, who donated a wagon to the 3rd grade garden.

David Swofford, LME community member and presenter to LME Computer Institute, a 4th and 5th grade enrichment cluster.

Traci Wallace, LME parent and presenter to Mrs. Hieronymus’ 3rd grade class on cooking with Swiss Chard from the 3rd grade garden.

Seth Wallace, LME parent who donated his time to put the wagon together for the 3rd grade garden.

Becca Wassmuth, LME parent and presenter to Mrs. Nguyen’s 2nd grade class on Yoga.

Whole Foods, LME supporter and Fish Monger presenters during 1st grade’s Ocean Day.