APEXBlog

Week of February 16–Presidents and Leaders

j2watson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:51:48 +0000

The fourth and fifth grade APEX classes spent this week doing research. The fourth grade classes learned some interesting things about the presidents:

Who was the heaviest president? How much more did he weigh than the average 4th grader?

Who was the oldest elected president? Which president was the youngest person to become president? What was the difference in their ages?

Which president and his wife were in Hollywood movies at one time? He was known as the “Great Communicator.” How would a career as an actor help someone as president?

The fifth graders analyzed the recent ranking of the previous presidents by historians. They also brainstormed a list of famous leaders from their Social Studies book. Each student chose one of these leaders to research.

Week of February 2–APEX Super Bowl results

j2watson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:47:45 +0000

Official scoreboard:

Steelers 8, Peaceful Animals 7

Tigers 22, Blazing Bees 8

Dragons 12, Steelers 6

Goofy Goober Munchers 21 (Does that include the last-minute touchdown?) Goofy Goobers 13

Week of February 26–Super Duper Ads

j2watson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:24:54 +0000

It was a short week (yea! a snow day!) but the fourth and fifth graders started a new project-creating a commercial worthy of the Super Bowl. Since ads this year are selling for $3 million, the students worked in groups to pick a product, decide which advertising technique they want to use, and develop a 30 second commercial. The fourth graders will videotape their commercials next week, and the fifth graders will use iMovie to edit their video.

Week of January 19-Presidential Inauguration Activities

j2watson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:27:01 +0000

The APEX students knew when they put away their election scrapbooks in November that they’d complete them in January. The time to finish the project finally arrived, and after watching the Inauguration on TV, the students were ready. Besides printing photos from the ceremony, parade, and/or balls, the students had the opportunity to make presidential decisions at a website called “If You Were the President.” The toughest part was balancing the budget! They liked seeing the newspaper article that included their cabinet choices and quotes about their presidential priorities.

Each student practiced writing a friendly letter (TCAP skills are never far away, even in APEX) to President Obama with congratulations, observations from Inauguration Day, and their concerns for the future.

Using Appleworks, students created a table of contents to complete their scrapbooks. To give it a more polished look, we learned to use some tools and features such as centering titles and tabs.

Each student reviewed their project rubric with Mrs. Watson to double check that the scrapbook was completed. Many students were ready to take their projects home this week, and others should finish up very soon. These scrapbooks are definitely something they will want to keep!

Week of December 8–Christmas Activities!

j2watson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:01:05 +0000

The Fourth Grade students wrapped up their Christmas “shopping.” They figured sales tax, wrote checks, and balanced their personalized checkbooks. Four students (all boys!) successfully finished the assignment by spending all of their money. After buying six gifts for family and friends, each of them had less than $1.00 left. Congrats to Emmanuel, Austin, Sam R. and Kyle!

The Fifth graders are writing poems using similes and metaphors and will be finishing them this week.

We are proud of the APEX students who participated in the Spelling Bee: Camryn, Jake, Victoria, and Nick, who came in second place.

Week of November 24–Happy Thanksgiving!

j2watson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:41:42 +0000

The APEX classes had a good time doing some Thanksgiving problem solving. The Fourth Graders had to decide what eight essential items their group/family would take on a trip to the New World (warm clothes and blankets and the Bible were high on most lists.) They also worked in small groups to create a boat that could successfully take their “pilgrim” across the ocean.

The fifth graders enjoyed solving some unusual problems–what to do when a cat licks the turkey, should you tell Grandma you spilled her prized cranberry relish, and how to handle icky food situations (Aunt Gertrude’s spinach corn lettuce cabbage casserole, anyone?) Some of the students were excited to use the eBeam to decorate some internet coloring sheets! Try them at home at

www.surfnetkids.com/games/thanksgiving-cb.htm

Week of November 10–The Ends of the Earth

j2watson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:59:36 +0000

The election scrapbooks have been put away until Inauguration Day, and it’s time for some new APEX projects! The fourth graders explored atlases and globes to answer questions like these:

1. If you drove from Mexico to Columbia, you would pass through Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama- in which order?

2. Only one of the following countries–India, Madagascar, Mexico, Paraguay, the Philippines–lies completely within the Tropics. Which one?

3. If you fly due west from New York City to the Pacific Ocean, will you pass over California?

And our favorite question: When this island gained home rule in 1979, its official name changed to Kalaallit Nunaat, and its capital’s name changed to Nuuk. By what name is the island better known?

Stumped?

Week of November 3–Checking Our Predictions

j2watson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:21:19 +0000

Like the analysts on the TV news, the APEX students predicted who would win the presidential election. After studying the election process last week, each student made a prediction about the electoral and popular vote totals. This was a tough decision for some student because their choice for president and their prediction weren’t the same.

Once the election was over, we compared our guesses to the actual results:

Holst’s homeroom: electoral vote: Grace (336,) popular vote: Andrew (63 milllion to 59 million,) honorable mention to Kyle for being close on the electoral vote and Danielle for being close on both the electoral and popular votes.

Randall’s homeroom: electoral vote: Sam P (310,) popular vote: Sam R (80 million to 55 million)

Abernathy’s homeroom: electoral vote: Madeline (330) and Simone (367.) The totals actually changed in the middle of our lesson when North Carolina’s votes were added to Sen. Obama’s totals. Popular vote: Matthew (61 million to 60 million)

Nuthak’s homeroom: Grace (350,) popular vote: Becca (69 million to 67 million)

Week of October 27–Choices and Predictions

j2watson — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:03:10 +0000

The APEX students wrote persuasive paragraphs and essays about the candidate they hope will win the election. Here are a couple examples of the Fourth Graders’ work:

McCain for President by Jordan

On elction day I want Sen. McCain to be president. Sen. McCain would make a wonderful president because he is a very up beat, happy person. He is a very friendly person. He gets everything finished . On election day I want Sen. McCain to be president because he is up beat and happy, very social, and gets everything finished.

My Choice by Sydnie

Here are many reasons why I think Senator McCain should win. The first reason why I want Senator McCain to win this election is because he has a lot of experience with goverment things. Secondly, he was very, very loyal to our country in one of the wars. Lastly, I think senator McCain should win is because (in my opinion) is very wise. That is why I think Senator McCain deserves and should win this election to be the president of the United States.

My Choice by Lila

Here are three reasons why I think Senator Barrack Obama should be president. The first reason I want Senator Obama to be president is that he will stop wars. The next reason is that he is passionate about being president. The last reason is that he wants to bring change in America. Those are the reasons why I think Senator Obama should be president.

Sen. Barack Obama For President by Emmanuel

On Election Day I would like Sen. Barack Obama to win. First, reason is that he has good jobs. If he had good jobs he would know how to lead the country. Next, reason is that he can raise the economy. Our economy is low and he can raise it by raising taxes people don’t like it but it has to happen. Final, reason is that he has a new vision for the future of America. He might have good ideas for us like making new technology for us. He might make more schools and could give us more education and new rules. Sen. Barack Obama can be a excellent president.

Week of October 20–Creative Election Thinking

j2watson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:16:35 +0000

This week the students finished their campaign buttons.

Click on each thumbnail to see all of the designs. The completed buttons should be ready next week.

Also, one of the classes was able to create and record podcasts to encourage people to vote. The students used persuasive techniques we observed in the second debate. The groups wrote and recorded their podcasts with very little help–great job, Fifth Graders!

vote1 (slippery slope technique)

vote2 (celebrity endorsement technique)

vote3 (celebrity endorsement technique)

vote 4 (celebrity endorsement, bandwagon techniques)