The students were VERY excited to find out which enrichment cluster they get to participate in for eight weeks. You could feel the energy as they walked down the halls to their classroom Friday morning. You could even see some of the energy in some of our students. :) And the students were VERY excited and happy when they returned to their homerooms at 9:00. That is always a GREAT sign.
Also that morning, we had a visitor. Ms. Angel Ruppert-Stratton, who is a TAG specialist at Pond Springs, toured the enrichment clusters to see how we organize them at Laurel Mountain. We love showing off our students and teachers. She asked many questions and got to witness our world-class students in person.
Below are the summaries from these first meetings. Enrichment clusters are just one of the ways that we develop world-class talent at LME.
Help Save the Animals
There was a lot of excitement in the “Help Save the Animals” enrichment cluster on Friday! Students were eagerly sharing their knowledge about certain endangered animals and their passions to save them. As we talked about who our audience should be the students decided we should go straight to the top and write letters to the Governor and the President to help us save our animals!
Take One
The "Take One" enrichment cluster is excited about the next 7 weeks. We began by talking about why we chose this cluster. We have students who want to act, students who want to film, and students who want to direct or edit film. No decision has been made about final products yet. All students have added the WeVideo App from the Google Chrome store. LME has an educational account that the students have joined. This app will allow them to work on film anywhere they have access to their google Gmail accounts. All video will be saved to the students’ Google Drives. Our next steps will be working with flip cameras to collect video and saving the video to the students’ Google Drives. After the students have some original video to work with, they will explore the editing features available through WeVideo. Students are encouraged but not required to take videos outside of class time and save the video to their drives. Who knows? We may have the next “Steven Spielberg” at LME!
Gaming Academy
In our first meeting of our “Gaming Academy” enrichment cluster, we explored Scratch. Some students were familiar with the website and were excited about helping others who had never been to the site before. We created accounts for the site so students can save projects in their folders at home and school. Most students were very excited about learning Scratch. We are looking forward to the next seven weeks of clusters.
Sensational Science Experiments
Our sensational scientists had a tremendous first meeting creating a human chain to create an open and closed electrical circuit (with a side lesson on team work). We concluded that many times what people think is "magic" is actually scientific principles at work. We learned more about polymers as we each stuck a spear through a balloon without popping it. We can turn a cup of water over with an index card on the top without spilling it, shoved a straw through a potato by capping the strength of air inside the straw, and created wrapper worms that really wiggled and grew! We can't wait until next week when we study chemistry as we combine mentos and different soda drinks using the steps of the scientific method to determine "Which soda has the largest reaction with mentos?"
LME Energy Alliance
The LME Energy Alliance was off to an energetic start. We explored magnetic tools/toys, books on energy and electricity, and watched a couple Brain Pop videos on forms of energy and electrical circuits. We then attempted to make our own simple electrical circuits with batteries, alligator clips, and light bulbs. We decided we want to spend our time MAKING and DOING as we learn about lots of different types of energy, so will find experiments and activities to do that for our remaining seven weeks. Buzz buzz!
Flying Lion Travel Agency
We had a GREAT time learning to be junior travel agents during the first meeting of the “Flying Lion Travel Agency” enrichment cluster. First, we learned about what a travel agent does and brainstormed ideas for exciting travel destinations. Once we selected our destination, students started exploring! They looked at books on their state, visited the Culturegrams website on our iPads, and more! Finally, our cluster members came up with a name for their agency, designed business cards, and started to work on their travel plans. Lions love to travel! Welcome aboard!
Creative Cooking
In the “Creative Cooking” enrichment cluster we watched some video clips of children cooking, cooking shows and a brief biography of Chef Bobby Flay. Afterwards, the students explored cookbooks and books related to careers in the food industry. We discussed possible careers and then began planning for our cluster. We have many great ideas for creating a cooking demonstration and trying many different types of recipes. The creativity is amazing and we are excited to start cooking next week!
League of Extraordinary Crafters
We are a community of 17 crafters with varying experience on Minecraft but most of us have built on personal computers. We made a list of rules to live by and came up with a list of ideas for building. Mrs. Marshall showed a few YouTube videos of great builds and we played the tutorial world so that all of us were comfortable building on computers. Mrs. Gatson helped students sign on and create their icons. We named our flat world Creations 2015. Next week we will decide on our project and plan the space.
Games! Games! Games!
At our first meeting, we played games that were part of the E-Slot kits. Our favorites were Mancala, Jenga, Mouse Trap, Sorry and Uno. We also did some planning for our next meetings. Students will bring games from home that they want to share for meetings 2 and 3. Also, some of the students decided that they would like to create their own games, so meeting 2 will be used for planning and brainstorming.
Caring Crafters
On Friday, January 9th crafting enthusiast and caring kids met for our first “Caring Crafters” enrichment cluster. We began our time getting to know each other and sharing about crafts we’ve enjoyed making. Next, we used fabric markers and created our very own Caring Crafters t-shirts. We will wear them each Friday as we care and craft. During the remainder of our cluster meeting we talked about finding groups of people that we can spread joy to. We decided to make Valentine centerpieces for the senior citizens at The Pavilion of Great Hills. We voted on several centerpieces we thought would brighten the senior’s day. Next week we will begin working on these crafts and continue brainstorming to locate other people in our community we can share our joy with. We look forward to meeting again next Friday.
Clay, Clay, Clay
Today we learned the basics of clay creations. We found out that there are different types of clay, there are many places where clay is obtained and there are some wonderful ceramic artists all over the world. We were taught how to make a clay creation that will stick together. We learned how to score and slip to make our creation stick together. Our first creation is based around a pinch pot base. It is amazing to see all the imaginative variations our cluster created. We also started our potter’s wheel rotation. Each student will get a turn to learn the potter’s wheel and to create their very own pot. We had a squishy fun time!
Animal Helpers
The “Animal Helpers” enrichment cluster watched some videos about different animals helping people. We watched a group of children getting dolphin therapy, a little girl receiving hippotherapy, no, it's not about hippopotamuses. It’s about horse therapy! The girl learned to walk because of working with her horse! We also saw a dog helping a lady do her grocery shopping and a monkey helping a lady pick up small things and turn her water faucet on. We then made dog cookies to give to our guest that is coming next week from the Austin Dog Alliance. She is bringing her therapy dog and we wanted to give the dog some treats. We also discussed doing a fund raiser to give money to some places that train animals to be of service to others.
Passionate Painters The “Passionate Painters” spent our first meeting learning how to properly use water paint and painted a picture of a parrot. It’s amazing how a picture of the same bird can be interpreted in so many different ways depending on each painter’s interpretation. We are excited as we begin our journey to explore our hidden talent as a painter.
Dinosaur Academy
The Paleontologists in the Dinosaur Academy had a blast putting together a wooden replica of a Pteranodon, working on dinosaur puzzles, and reading dinosaur books. Some paleontologists cracked dinosaur eggs to discover different types of land and sea dinosaurs. Next week we will be excavating for dinosaurs!
Help Save the Animals
There was a lot of excitement in the “Help Save the Animals” enrichment cluster on Friday! Students were eagerly sharing their knowledge about certain endangered animals and their passions to save them. As we talked about who our audience should be the students decided we should go straight to the top and write letters to the Governor and the President to help us save our animals!
Take One
The "Take One" enrichment cluster is excited about the next 7 weeks. We began by talking about why we chose this cluster. We have students who want to act, students who want to film, and students who want to direct or edit film. No decision has been made about final products yet. All students have added the WeVideo App from the Google Chrome store. LME has an educational account that the students have joined. This app will allow them to work on film anywhere they have access to their google Gmail accounts. All video will be saved to the students’ Google Drives. Our next steps will be working with flip cameras to collect video and saving the video to the students’ Google Drives. After the students have some original video to work with, they will explore the editing features available through WeVideo. Students are encouraged but not required to take videos outside of class time and save the video to their drives. Who knows? We may have the next “Steven Spielberg” at LME!
Gaming Academy
In our first meeting of our “Gaming Academy” enrichment cluster, we explored Scratch. Some students were familiar with the website and were excited about helping others who had never been to the site before. We created accounts for the site so students can save projects in their folders at home and school. Most students were very excited about learning Scratch. We are looking forward to the next seven weeks of clusters.
Sensational Science Experiments
Our sensational scientists had a tremendous first meeting creating a human chain to create an open and closed electrical circuit (with a side lesson on team work). We concluded that many times what people think is "magic" is actually scientific principles at work. We learned more about polymers as we each stuck a spear through a balloon without popping it. We can turn a cup of water over with an index card on the top without spilling it, shoved a straw through a potato by capping the strength of air inside the straw, and created wrapper worms that really wiggled and grew! We can't wait until next week when we study chemistry as we combine mentos and different soda drinks using the steps of the scientific method to determine "Which soda has the largest reaction with mentos?"
Fur and Purr
During our first enrichment cluster session, we watched a Brain Pop Jr. video to introduce students to the topic of pet care. Then, Ms. Fredrickson and Mrs. Bretsch showed photos of their own pets and talked about their personalities. Finally, all students drew a portrait of one of their pets and decorated it with oil pastels. Next week, we will share our drawings and learn more about one another's pets.
2015 Reading Academy Awards
Mrs. Markle dressed up like the host of the Oscars and greeted all the students as they walked on the "red carpet." Next we learned about the different types of awards that are given to books: the Caldecott Medal, the Newbery Award and the Coretta-Scott King Award. She even showed us some of her favorite books and we watched trailers on the 2014-2015 Bluebonnet Nominees. After brainstorming, we decided to name the award that we would give to our books....the Golden Lion Award since the above-mentioned awards are named after a particular person and we wanted to include our mascot in the name. Next time the committee (the enrichment cluster participants) will bring their favorite books so we can decide on our categories.
During our first enrichment cluster session, we watched a Brain Pop Jr. video to introduce students to the topic of pet care. Then, Ms. Fredrickson and Mrs. Bretsch showed photos of their own pets and talked about their personalities. Finally, all students drew a portrait of one of their pets and decorated it with oil pastels. Next week, we will share our drawings and learn more about one another's pets.
2015 Reading Academy Awards
Mrs. Markle dressed up like the host of the Oscars and greeted all the students as they walked on the "red carpet." Next we learned about the different types of awards that are given to books: the Caldecott Medal, the Newbery Award and the Coretta-Scott King Award. She even showed us some of her favorite books and we watched trailers on the 2014-2015 Bluebonnet Nominees. After brainstorming, we decided to name the award that we would give to our books....the Golden Lion Award since the above-mentioned awards are named after a particular person and we wanted to include our mascot in the name. Next time the committee (the enrichment cluster participants) will bring their favorite books so we can decide on our categories.
LME Energy Alliance
The LME Energy Alliance was off to an energetic start. We explored magnetic tools/toys, books on energy and electricity, and watched a couple Brain Pop videos on forms of energy and electrical circuits. We then attempted to make our own simple electrical circuits with batteries, alligator clips, and light bulbs. We decided we want to spend our time MAKING and DOING as we learn about lots of different types of energy, so will find experiments and activities to do that for our remaining seven weeks. Buzz buzz!
Flying Lion Travel Agency
We had a GREAT time learning to be junior travel agents during the first meeting of the “Flying Lion Travel Agency” enrichment cluster. First, we learned about what a travel agent does and brainstormed ideas for exciting travel destinations. Once we selected our destination, students started exploring! They looked at books on their state, visited the Culturegrams website on our iPads, and more! Finally, our cluster members came up with a name for their agency, designed business cards, and started to work on their travel plans. Lions love to travel! Welcome aboard!
Creative Cooking
In the “Creative Cooking” enrichment cluster we watched some video clips of children cooking, cooking shows and a brief biography of Chef Bobby Flay. Afterwards, the students explored cookbooks and books related to careers in the food industry. We discussed possible careers and then began planning for our cluster. We have many great ideas for creating a cooking demonstration and trying many different types of recipes. The creativity is amazing and we are excited to start cooking next week!
League of Extraordinary Crafters
We are a community of 17 crafters with varying experience on Minecraft but most of us have built on personal computers. We made a list of rules to live by and came up with a list of ideas for building. Mrs. Marshall showed a few YouTube videos of great builds and we played the tutorial world so that all of us were comfortable building on computers. Mrs. Gatson helped students sign on and create their icons. We named our flat world Creations 2015. Next week we will decide on our project and plan the space.
Games! Games! Games!
At our first meeting, we played games that were part of the E-Slot kits. Our favorites were Mancala, Jenga, Mouse Trap, Sorry and Uno. We also did some planning for our next meetings. Students will bring games from home that they want to share for meetings 2 and 3. Also, some of the students decided that they would like to create their own games, so meeting 2 will be used for planning and brainstorming.
Caring Crafters
On Friday, January 9th crafting enthusiast and caring kids met for our first “Caring Crafters” enrichment cluster. We began our time getting to know each other and sharing about crafts we’ve enjoyed making. Next, we used fabric markers and created our very own Caring Crafters t-shirts. We will wear them each Friday as we care and craft. During the remainder of our cluster meeting we talked about finding groups of people that we can spread joy to. We decided to make Valentine centerpieces for the senior citizens at The Pavilion of Great Hills. We voted on several centerpieces we thought would brighten the senior’s day. Next week we will begin working on these crafts and continue brainstorming to locate other people in our community we can share our joy with. We look forward to meeting again next Friday.
Clay, Clay, Clay
Today we learned the basics of clay creations. We found out that there are different types of clay, there are many places where clay is obtained and there are some wonderful ceramic artists all over the world. We were taught how to make a clay creation that will stick together. We learned how to score and slip to make our creation stick together. Our first creation is based around a pinch pot base. It is amazing to see all the imaginative variations our cluster created. We also started our potter’s wheel rotation. Each student will get a turn to learn the potter’s wheel and to create their very own pot. We had a squishy fun time!
Animal Helpers
The “Animal Helpers” enrichment cluster watched some videos about different animals helping people. We watched a group of children getting dolphin therapy, a little girl receiving hippotherapy, no, it's not about hippopotamuses. It’s about horse therapy! The girl learned to walk because of working with her horse! We also saw a dog helping a lady do her grocery shopping and a monkey helping a lady pick up small things and turn her water faucet on. We then made dog cookies to give to our guest that is coming next week from the Austin Dog Alliance. She is bringing her therapy dog and we wanted to give the dog some treats. We also discussed doing a fund raiser to give money to some places that train animals to be of service to others.
Passionate Painters The “Passionate Painters” spent our first meeting learning how to properly use water paint and painted a picture of a parrot. It’s amazing how a picture of the same bird can be interpreted in so many different ways depending on each painter’s interpretation. We are excited as we begin our journey to explore our hidden talent as a painter.
Dinosaur Academy
The Paleontologists in the Dinosaur Academy had a blast putting together a wooden replica of a Pteranodon, working on dinosaur puzzles, and reading dinosaur books. Some paleontologists cracked dinosaur eggs to discover different types of land and sea dinosaurs. Next week we will be excavating for dinosaurs!
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