Eagle's Night Out

     Last night Eisenhower Elementary held Eagle's Night Out.   For those unfamiliar with what this night is, the students are invited back to school in the evening to spend the night and have a great time together enjoying some special programs.  

     The night started off with a National Champion BMX bike rider named Matt Wilhelm.  Matt is a world class bike trick specialist.  He was a three time X-Games champion as well as a National Champion bike trick champion.   The things he could do on a bike were truly amazing.  What I liked most about Matt's performance was the message he had for our students.  Matt shared how he was picked on and bullied as a child because of his ears and his small physique.  He shared a particular story about a time when he was pushed off his bike from the top of a ramp by a rather large bully. Matt shared that this was the event that almost made him quit BMX forever.  He recalled that a week after this incident, he met a rather large friend whose name escapes me at this point.  He told how this friend, a fellow BMX rider, invited him into his group of friends and became his "super hero."  The very next week Matt went back to that same ramp that he was shoved down the previous week.  He told how the same group of guys were there that had shoved him the previous week.  Although this time, Matt was with his "super hero." The kids that had bullied him the previous week, said nothing to him and left him alone.  Matt's message to the students was that everyone can be someone else's "super hero."  He had an amazing story to share. I hope the students took it to heart. 

     The next performance the students got to see was Mike Himelgarn. (Not sure I spelled his last name correctly. ). Mike is a ventriloquist and a juggler.  He has the energy of a man on twelve cups of coffee.  He entertained the students for an hour with his array of puppets and juggling. He even got Mr. Parker on the stage to help him.  We all got to see some of Mr. Parker's dance moves.  Mike  is very quick witted, and had the students rolling in the aisles.  My favorite line of the night was when he was just about ready to juggle a bowling ball, a sharp garden tool, and an apple. He told the student who was going to toss the apple to him not to worry because "I've done this trick thousands of time, but not to worry because it has been successful twice."

   After a quick snack of hot dogs, chips, and a soda, the final show of the night was the laser show. The students packed the gym and were amazed by the pictures that were created on the screen by the lasers. I think their favorite part of the laser show was the music.  Much singing was heard in the gym.  

     The students night concluded by watching a movie.  They could choose between Star Wars: A New Hope, or the new version of the Karate Kid.  It was a great night for all the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders at Eisenhower.  This was my 20th Eagle's Night Out.  Even though I didn't spend the night (gym floors and my back don't mix) I had a great time.

 

3-D Printer

Last week, our school received two 3-D printers for the students and staff to use.  We decided to put them to use this week by creating miniature versions of our Biography Bottles.  In case you are unfamiliar with what a 3-D printer can do, here is a little information about them.  When I say little, I mean little because I am still learning about them and the best ways to use them in the classroom.  A 3-D printer can take any three-dimensional object and create a replica of it sometimes actual size, and sometimes a scaled down version of it.  This is done by creating a digital scan of the object on an iPad and then downloading it onto software on the computer.  The software allows you to upload the 3-D image into a program called MakerBot and print it.  It is an amazing thing to watch happen.  The printer has reels of plastic that it constantly feeds into the printer and then melts it down and begins to layer it in the shape of the scanned in object.  Depending on the size of the object, this can take from a couple of minutes to many hours.  
     This week I taught the students how to scan in their Biography Bottles that we created earlier in the year on an iPad.  I then taught them how to upload the image into MakerBot and print their bottles.  The students loved the programming aspect of the printer as well as seeing the finished product.  Check out some before and after photos of the original and its 3-D printer version below.

Quipus

     Last week in social studies we studied ancient civilizations located in Middle and South America.  One of the civilizations we studied was the Incan Empire.  The Incas were a group of people who established a great civilization high in the Andes Mountains on the west coast of South America in the 1400s and 1500s.  The Incas were known for their unique farming technique of terrace building.  The Incan road system ran for nearly 2,500 miles from Ecuador down to Argentina.  The Inca had a system for getting messages spread all over their vast empire.  They used relay runners that would carry necklace like objects known as quipus. Quipus are a group of knotted strings that the Incas used to keep track of information in the empire.  Each quipu had a main chord with several colored strings attached.  The colors represented different items, and each had knots of varying sizes that stood for numbers.  The Inca kept track of things such as births, deaths, and harvests. 
     Each of my students last week used yarn, and their imagination to create their own personal quipus.  They thought of numbers that were important to them in their lives, and tied knots of varying positions on the colored chords to represent those numbers.  Check out our quipus in the photo below.

This is an actual Incan quipu.

Mystery Google Hangout

     On December 16, 2015, we participated in our first Mystery Google Hangout.  In case you don't know what this is, here is a brief summary of the concept.  Basically two schools from different parts of the United States (or world) call each other via Google Hangouts.  No information is known about each school.  The two classes take turns back and forth asking each other yes and no questions.  An example of a good starting question is, "Are you east of the Mississippi River?"  Then the two classes compete to see which class can identify each other's location first.  
   So we started our Mystery Hangout with a good old-fashioned game of rock, paper, scissors to see which class would ask the first question.  We won, and decided to ask them first if they were located in the United States.  After a brief period of thinking, the other class answered to the affirmative, and we were off and running.  It was a spirited battle back and forth between both classes to see which class would guess the other school's location first.  We decided the best question they asked us was after they learned we were east of the Mississippi River.  They asked, "Do you touch a great lake?"  Of course the answer to that question was yes, and we knew we were going to get guessed.  We had their class narrowed down to being in the Midwest, being east of the Mississippi, and also that it touched the Mississippi River.  Once we finally established that they didn't border Canada, we narrowed it down to Nebraska or Missouri.  Unfortunately, they had already figured out we were from Indiana with their last question.  We were correct in out thinking, and were going to guess Missouri on our next turn.  
     We found out that they were a 4th grade class from Missouri. We then shared some facts about our state, town, and school with them, and they did the same.  The students had a blast participating in the Mystery Hangout.  It is something we plan to do again in the future.  Check out our photos and video clips below.

Will Bus Learning

This week we got to spend three days on the WILL Bus (Warsaw Inquiry Learning Lab) with Mrs. Baird.  After some introductory lessons on technology and engineering, the students were challenged to build a knee brace to support an injured knee.  They were told to think like an engineer.  The students discussed, planned, and created their knee braces in groups of four.  The students had a wonderful three days and learned a lot about how engineering and technology are inter related.  Check out the pictures below to see the students in action.