Getting Our Glow On!

Have you heard the buzz about our recent EPIC Glow Day classroom transformation experience? It was a day filled with interactive, student-centered math activities in a high-engagement setting (dark classroom room, blacklights, and neon math games). What better way to review this year's math concepts and skills?

We asked students to reflect on the value of their Glow Day experience and how it fits in with The Hive's learner profile. Here's what this week's guest bloggers had to say. Enjoy!

The Glow Day experience was helpful because it taught us how to play games and be flexible and helpful. If one of our group members answered a question incorrectly, other people in the group could explain how to get the correct answer. - @Cheeto111 and @Strawberry!

The Glow Day experience fit in with The Hive learner in a couple of ways. It fit in with Habit of Mind #2 (we support one another in reaching our goals) because my group let each person have enough time to think about how to solve the problems and we also helped each other if one of us didn't know how to do the math. It also fit habit #7 (we own our learning) because my group tried our hardest to get through all of the problems successfully. We never quit. This experience was really fun. - @G-Money

In my opinion, habits #1 (we are kind and respectful toward ourselves and others), #2 (we support one another in reaching our goals), and #7 (we own our learning) came in to play during Glow Day. We needed to own our learning and be our best to be able to complete the math challenges and we needed to support each other during the games. Saying things like "good job" was helpful to make everyone feel like they were being successful. Being kind and respectful is how you play games. - @Koala333

The Glow Day experience was very helpful for me because working in groups helps me understand math better because sometimes other people might know more or have better problem-solving strategies. It was also really helpful to be able to talk out our ideas and share strategies with one another. - @Soccer101

One of the seven habits that I put into action during our Glow Day experience was #3 (we seek out, listen to, and value each other's ideas and perspectives). I really listened to my partner's ideas and I valued how they were thinking about solving some of the problems. I also made some new friends in my group and we worked together so well! - @Moon_Drop

The Glow Day experience helped because I could review some of the math concepts that I thought I forgot. Also, working in groups was really helpful because we could help each other when we got stuck. It was really fun! - @Dream

The Glow Day made math more fun. It was also really useful because I got to practice math that I hadn't done in a while, like addition and subtraction with regrouping. Glow Day made end-of-the-year math review fun! - @M&M

Exploring Energy Through the Design Process

Just when we thought we were ready to wind down our interdisciplinary investigation of Viking culture and evidence of their early encounters with Native people in North America, things were actually ramping up! 

As we learned about the Vikings, their motives for exploration, and how Viking sieges influenced history, we were presented with the perfect opportunity to explore some of the types of siege engines they used and the science behind them - catapults (or trebuchets) in particular. Learners explored the types of energy within different types of systems, the forces and motion that play a role in designing simple machines, the relationship between potential and kinetic energy, and the role energy transfer plays in each stage of launching a catapult's payload. This offered a unique opportunity for an engineering design challenge that required learners to investigate how kinetic energy influences the design of simple machines. Learners were tasked with planning, designing, and testing their own prototype for a catapult (given limited materials and time) that would later be used in our very own Viking siege - SKOL!

Expanding our Reading Palates

Just before the April break, we began preparations for our upcoming Hive book clubs with a surprise book tasting. Our book tasting event offered an opportunity to introduce students to a wide array of books from a variety of genres. These carefully curated book selections would become the choices that students could consider for their book clubs. 

The Hive classroom was transformed into a café, with waiters (aka teachers) serving up trays of scrumptious books for customers (aka students) at each table to sample. Customers were able to move about the café to sample each of the books - reflecting on the book covers, book jacket summaries, and tasting the author's writing style and character introductions by reading the first few pages of each book. They were later given time to reflect on their literary consumption and ranked their preferences according to their abilities and interest. The result was an individual list of just-right books for each student from which we used to unveil a widely anticipated book club announcement. The kids COULD NOT WAIT to start reading their new books.

This week's guest bloggers reflect on their book tasting experience. Enjoy!

I found the book tasting helpful in selecting the book I am reading because I am not the type of person that would just pick up a random book and start reading it for weeks. I am picky about the books I read and I need to sample them first. Also, when I have too many choices, I don't know where to start. The book tasting helped me to choose a book I would like and would actually read. Finally, I don't really like thick chapter books because they take a long time to read and I get bored, but the book tasting offered thin and thick books that I liked.    - @EarthySmurf

The book tasting experience will help me in the future choose my just-right book because I will know the steps to choosing a good book, like reading the back of the book and then sampling some pages. I could also show others how to choose a just-right book when they need help. It's great that we will get to connect with people that have similar book interests when we have our book club groups.  - @Lightning24

I usually don't have an interest in reading. I look at the covers of books, but don't end up reading them. Now that I have done the book tasting, I am really enjoying the book we chose for our book clubs and want to read more. Now I know what types of books I enjoy and what I want to read in the future. In the future, if I were standing in front of a big stack of books, I would use what I learned from the book tasting and read the backs of them and then read the first few pages to decide what catches my interest and which ones I would want to read.    - @PickleKitty

I found the right book from the book tasting which was great because I kept reading the same books over and over. I chose the book "A Song for a Whale" as my book club book because it reminded me of me. I am deaf and I know a lot of sign language, just like the main character in the story. Also, it is a really good book so far!     - @Polly

I think the book tasting experience was helpful because recently when I was picking out a book, I was able to find SO much better books. It also helps me find books that are a good reading level for me. How to sample books will be very useful when I'm choosing just-right books for me.    - @Noncat

I found the book tasting experience helpful to find a new book. One way I found it helpful was looking at the back and reading what it said as well as reading a little snip of the book so I could rate it and so that I know what the books are actually about.   - @Soccer101

The book tasting helped me choose a just-right book for my personal reading choice. If our teachers always picked out our books to read, I would be upset. I am picky with books and food. When we get to choose our own books, it's way better. There is really only one book I have liked and I still love it because I picked it out. I knew it was the right book because it had a good vocabulary and an addicting topic to read.    - @Ham

The book tasting experience will help me in the future to choose books because usually, it's hard for me to choose chapter books. Now I know how to sample a couple of pages of a book and then read the back. If I didn't know how to do that, I never would have chosen "A Boy Called Bat" for my book club group. It suits my reading level. I'm glad I didn't choose a book just by its cover.    - @Koala333

I think the book tasting experience will help me in many ways. First, I think it will teach me how to find books that are just right for me. Another reason is that I can maybe teach others how to find books just for them.   - @Wolverine12

The book tasting was really, really helpful because I have been reading too many graphic novels this year and I thought that I'd never find a chapter book that I could really get into. During the book tasting, we sampled many different kinds of books and one really stood out - "A Boy Called Bat". It caught my eye from the start and that book kind of changed my thinking about chapter books and now I love them. I really recommend this for people who aren't reading chapter books. The book tasting changed my whole future of reading.   - @Kiwi222