2nd and 3rd Grade Enrichment Cluster Summaries

Last Friday, March 1, was the last meeting of our 2nd and 3rd grade enrichment clusters. We are very excited to show off all of our hard work and learning tomorrow at the Enrichment Cluster Showcase. The 3rd grade classes will be touring from 8:15-8:45 am and the 2nd grade classes will be touring from 9:00-9:30 am. We hope that all of our parents and community members can make it to see the journey we have taken over the past eight weeks. Below are the summaries from our 2nd and 3rd grade enrichment clusters. Continuing to develop the whole child...

LME Computer Institute 

The LME Computer Institute has had a fun and productive 8 weeks. Since the field of computers is so wide, we kicked things off with a group discussion where we determined student interests. Using that information, we started out with the basics of how a computer works, opening up a few to look inside at the various parts and how they all operate together. We also briefly looked at keyboarding and the history of computers, illustrating the speed at which things change. Our cluster members then sketched predictions of what computers and cell phones might look like in the future. Other topics covered included making your own computer from parts, computer recycling, and keyboard shortcuts. 

A big interest that students expressed was learning how to make games on a computer. So we had LME community member David Swofford come by to discuss Austin’s important role in the national technology scene. He also highlighted different career opportunities available in games including design, art, programming, marketing, AI, and more.

To introduce our cluster members to computer programming essentials, everyone had a chance to create something with the program Scratch. (http://scratch.mit.edu/) Scratch was developed at MIT, and is an easy way for children to program and share their creations using a drag and drop interface. It allows for the creation of interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. We hope you enjoy the fruits of their labor at the Enrichment Showcase! 

Pet Lovers Group 

The “Pet Lovers” had a great time during their cluster. Dr. Davies from Arbor Animal Clinic came to share with the Pet Lovers about what she does every day as a veterinarian. She brought in samples of heartworms, ticks, and fleas for us to see. She even brought in a real gallstone that had been removed from a dog. She brought her 3 legged dog, Georgie, who of course was the star of the day.

The “Pet Lovers” made homemade organic dog treats that they gave to Logan the Great Dane and Georgie. Several Pet Lovers made water mats to go under their dog’s water and food bowl. Lots of Pet Lovers brought their own pets in to share with their fellow Pet Lovers! 

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My! 

In “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!” students learned all about the process of creating a production from start to finish. Early on, students decided that they would perform mini-plays for their friends in second and third grade. They participated in auditions, worked together in a cast, and rehearsed their lines and blocking during each session. We also focused on vocal techniques, movement, and got our creativity flowing with various theater games. Finally, we created animal headbands to wear as costumes and filmed the plays so they could be viewed at the showcase. Our final performance is sure to be a magical experience! 

Stop Motion Animation 

In the first couple of meetings, students were engaged in making backgrounds for their movie. Then, they created their characters out of clay, LEGOs or paper. Some brought characters from home. Students spent 3 meeting shooting their story with a still camera. The last 3 meetings they put their movie together by using Movie Maker. Students are very excited to show-off their movies at the showcase! 

Caring Crafters 

The “Caring Crafters” cluster started with an introduction about crafting, and brainstormed service products we could craft to address a variety of needs in our community. Students made heart-shaped sachets to give to a loved one and hand-made Valentine’s cards to donate to a program in Austin collecting cards for children in local hospitals. Since our crafters were most interested in helping animals within our community, they decided to spend our remaining weeks crafting fleece dog and cat beds, dog chew toys from towels, bean art for decoration, and “thank you for choosing me” cards for families who adopt or foster an animal from the shelter. Our last meeting was a great way to “pay it forward”… We hosted a panel of three animal organizations in our community—Don’t Bully Me Rescue, Cocker Spaniel Rescue, and Williamson County Animal Shelter. In addition to donating our crafts to these organizations, we learned about how to approach and walk a dog, why animals end up in shelters or rescue organizations, all about the foster process, and what services are offered in our community for animals in need. We hope to share our enthusiasm with you at the Enrichment Cluster Showcase on March 8th! 

Magnum Opus 

The eight weeks we have been together we have studied Paul Klee. We learned he loves colors and had many different talents. First, we created a cat with oil pastels and learned how to blend. Then, we created a castle where we used both paints and pastels on these beautiful works of art. Next, we drew fish and learned how to blend paint and pastels. Last, but not least, we created beautiful symbols. We had a fantastic time in our cluster! We can’t wait to show off our masterpieces at Zoe’s Kitchen on Tuesday, March 5! 

LEGO Engineers 

Wow, the “LEGO Engineers” were hard at work during our eight week exploration. We began by practicing building and programming together and then off they were to explore Lego building and programming on their own. Many engineers built cars and spent a lot of time exploring how to program their cars to move on their own. They discovered that although the complex cars looked really neat, it was the simple cars that they could program more easily. Some of our engineers decided to use their builds to write a story and they built a giant, a sailboat and an airplane and then created a magical story about their characters. Another group of engineers decided to build a soccer scene and programmed the three parts to work together so that a foot kicked the ball, the goalie tried to block it, and the fans cheered. We also had some engineers that were interested in Beyblades and discovered that they could make them with their LEGO pieces. The list goes on of all of the creative building and program we did throughout our time as “LEGO Engineers”. We can't wait for everyone to see our products in the showcase! 

Just Desserts 

The bakers of the “Just Desserts” enrichment cluster have been busy each week creating delicious desserts. We have mixed, stirred, blended and baked to create some of our most scrumptious recipes. We also spent time sharing our favorite recipes from home as well as discussing things we enjoy baking and eating. All the bakers are excited to keep cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.

Hey, hey, hey! It's clay, clay, clay! 

What a blast we've had using our imaginations and skills to create unique works of art from clay. Our creations range from sculpture to potter’s wheel pots to pieces made with clay slabs, coils and pinch pot creations. Many of our pieces have been glazed and fired and are waiting to be seen by others. We have produced over 70 works of art. Not only have we been busy learning how to make different clay products, we have had a lot of fun creating and sharing with each other. We are also sharing with the community by donating several of our bowls to the Empty Bowl Project Auction, which provides financial support to the Round Rock food bank. 

Life in the Ocean 

“Life in the Ocean” was very fun. We liked making the dioramas and drawing ocean life. We used clay, paint, butcher paper, colored cellophane, sand, and even rocks from the playground. We really liked this cluster! 

Creative Cuisine 

The “Creative Cuisine” cluster spent eight weeks cooking dishes from around the world. Led by 3rd grade student chef Andrew Bailey, they learned and practiced countless cooking techniques while creating Swedish meatballs, chicken chow mein, Tiramisu, homemade tacos, croque monsieur, black bean soup, bhuna gosht, dahl, cucumber raita, strawberry Napoleons, and two kinds of fudge. 

Scratch the Surface 

At Laurel Mountain, our "Scratch the Surface" enrichment cluster met each Friday morning for eight weeks. The students learned how to use the "Scratch" programming language.

The Scratch program makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share creations on the web. Our students created scripts by dragging and dropping code fragments containing conditions and actions onto selected agents to create interactive animations, stories, presentations, and games.

As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Advocates of Scratch suggest that young people who use it develop a solid foundation of knowledge that helps prepare them for the use of higher level programming languages. 

Ornithology Cluster 

We have been soaring through the sky in our cluster. Our main goals in the past few weeks have been to explore our fields for birds and to make a variety of bird feeders. Unfortunately due to the cold weather, most of the birds have not migrated back yet. We weren't so successful on most mornings but we learned that patience and silence are two important qualities to have as a bird watcher. By the end of the cluster, we began to hear and see more action as birds were coming home. We were able to differentiate the sounds, named a few birds and located several nests around our campus. To celebrate the end of our cluster, we had a feast. Guess what was on our menu. If you guessed duck, quail and Cornish hen, you guessed right. We had a blast!!! 

Help Save the Animals! 

We have had a great time in our enrichment cluster! We each created our endangered animal out of clay, we created its habitat in a diorama, and we made posters with our research findings of how we could help our animal. We also went on a walk through the Preserve with Mr. Hance to discover animal habitats and how we can help protect them. Then, an added bonus was to have William Burch, from Canyonlands Preserve lead the children in games and creating puppets to help them discover even more about protecting our animals. The children came into the cluster with a passion about helping the animals, and they left with an even greater passion! 

Global Craft Cluster 

In the “Global Craft Cluster” we explored the crafts and culture of many countries including Greece, Pakistan, China, Ireland, Russia and the crafts of Native Americans. Students had the opportunity to research, create and explore as they learned about how various cultures express themselves creatively. Two of our students gave presentations about their cultures and shared crafts indigenous to their country. We look forward to the enrichment showcase to display some of our crafts and share what we learned.

Game Masters 

We completed the “Game Masters” enrichment cluster by exploring the history of several popular board/card games. The students created new games based upon some of these popular games. They also created Power Points sharing some of the information learned about these games, and explaining their newly created games.