Wishing Everyone A Wonderful Holiday Season

 Hope your holiday is filled with lots of fun and relaxation....I will see you back in January, when I will be working with students in the  "Astronomy Adventures" Challenge Centre.

 Two great Christmas happenings in Vancouver....1.  The Hyatt hosts an annual Christmas Gingerbread design contest.  Many of the regional high schools with culinary programs have teams who create wonderful gingerbread designed villages, homes, and scenes. Not only are the high schools involved, but Culinary Schools and very talented individuals, as well. 

2. The VanDusen Festival of Lights:  every year the garden in the middle of our city is sparkly and bright with thousands and thousands of lights.  It is wonderful to walk around, hear the music, and enjoy the sights.

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, have a safe and relaxing winter break!

Wishing Everyone A Wonderful Holiday Season

 Hope your holiday is filled with lots of fun and relaxation....I will see you back in January, when I will be working with students in the  "Astronomy Adventures" Challenge Centre.

 Two great Christmas happenings in Vancouver....1.  The Hyatt hosts an annual Christmas Gingerbread design contest.  Many of the regional high schools with culinary programs have teams who create wonderful gingerbread designed villages, homes, and scenes. Not only are the high schools involved, but Culinary Schools and very talented individuals, as well. 

2. The VanDusen Festival of Lights:  every year the garden in the middle of our city is sparkly and bright with thousands and thousands of lights.  It is wonderful to walk around, hear the music, and enjoy the sights.

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, have a safe and relaxing winter break!

The Built Environment: Frank Lloyd Wright Design Your Dream Home Challenge

 One of the challenges during the Architecture program is to have the students create, in a 3 dimensional manner, their dream home.  In order to do this, we learned a little about Frank Lloyd Wright and the homes he designed, and why his homes are so famous and endure.  As well, we looked at our needs...what do we like to do, and what is important to us.

 We looked at the design process, and planned, drew, and built our homes to scale, using a cardboard figure to represent size

 We created site plans with different angles

 We built our 3 dimensional plan using materials in class:  cardboard, model magic or plasticene,  staws. sticks, tubes, cards, tape, egg cartons, string

 Below, this student used cardboard and a glue gun to create a small scale home

This student, below, created a haunted house

Important elements in our dream homes were flat screen tv's, trampolines, couches, and soccer fields

This student created a hotel:

 

Students began the activity by writing about themselves: who will live in your house?  When?  

Then, they brainstormed a written list of verbs to complete the phrase, "In my house I need places and spaces to...."   (sleep, work cook, store things, grow things, etc)  "So I will design a ......."  (sleeping loft, kitchen closet, greenhouse, painting room, etc.)

My goal is to have the students design and create, and think as they go along, and modify and strategize....during the process, I had many students say:

"How will I get from one floor to the next..."

"How will keep this wall up?"

"Where will I put....?"

"What can I use for windows?" 

"I'm thinking of using..."

The most important thing is that they were strategizing and using their hands to create things...often activities we don't have time for in the regular classroom (imagine doing this with 30 students....I was "exacto knife teacher" running around helping them cut things out as I did not allow them to use this contraption because it is too dangerous at this age!)

Then, we presented our projects to each other....they loved sharing their hard work and each student had their own ideas and different concepts on how to live in their dream home!  

This makes me want to design my own...

The Built Environment: Frank Lloyd Wright Design Your Dream Home Challenge

 One of the challenges during the Architecture program is to have the students create, in a 3 dimensional manner, their dream home.  In order to do this, we learned a little about Frank Lloyd Wright and the homes he designed, and why his homes are so famous and endure.  As well, we looked at our needs...what do we like to do, and what is important to us.

 We looked at the design process, and planned, drew, and built our homes to scale, using a cardboard figure to represent size

 We created site plans with different angles

 We built our 3 dimensional plan using materials in class:  cardboard, model magic or plasticene,  staws. sticks, tubes, cards, tape, egg cartons, string

 Below, this student used cardboard and a glue gun to create a small scale home

This student, below, created a haunted house

Important elements in our dream homes were flat screen tv's, trampolines, couches, and soccer fields

This student created a hotel:

 

Students began the activity by writing about themselves: who will live in your house?  When?  

Then, they brainstormed a written list of verbs to complete the phrase, "In my house I need places and spaces to...."   (sleep, work cook, store things, grow things, etc)  "So I will design a ......."  (sleeping loft, kitchen closet, greenhouse, painting room, etc.)

My goal is to have the students design and create, and think as they go along, and modify and strategize....during the process, I had many students say:

"How will I get from one floor to the next..."

"How will keep this wall up?"

"Where will I put....?"

"What can I use for windows?" 

"I'm thinking of using..."

The most important thing is that they were strategizing and using their hands to create things...often activities we don't have time for in the regular classroom (imagine doing this with 30 students....I was "exacto knife teacher" running around helping them cut things out as I did not allow them to use this contraption because it is too dangerous at this age!)

Then, we presented our projects to each other....they loved sharing their hard work and each student had their own ideas and different concepts on how to live in their dream home!  

This makes me want to design my own...

Getting Ready for Winter Break

Winter vacation is almost here...the Christmas tree is up and I am ready for a relaxing break.  Maybe I will find time to read and organize my life a bit...but before that, I am figuring out the next group of students coming to the Challenge Centre in January:  Astronomy Adventures!

Astronomy Adventures is a science based program for students who are interested in learning more about space, and the universe.  Students will work on a project about space and will create a learning centre about their research. 

So, if you haven't sent in your referrals, teachers, please do so as I need to make decisions before the end of the week; I will be emailing contacts to let them know if a student has been accepted.

And, a little about traditions, for those of you into the Christmas Tradition Theme (I'm a bit obsessed about this!)... Above is my fake Christmas tree that looks like a real tree, with bark and pine cones!  I love this crazy tree that we bought about 14 years ago....it has held up over time!

So, have a great holiday, filled with lot of rest, fun, and family, and make some new traditions!
 

Getting Ready for Winter Break

Winter vacation is almost here...the Christmas tree is up and I am ready for a relaxing break.  Maybe I will find time to read and organize my life a bit...but before that, I am figuring out the next group of students coming to the Challenge Centre in January:  Astronomy Adventures!

Astronomy Adventures is a science based program for students who are interested in learning more about space, and the universe.  Students will work on a project about space and will create a learning centre about their research. 

So, if you haven't sent in your referrals, teachers, please do so as I need to make decisions before the end of the week; I will be emailing contacts to let them know if a student has been accepted.

And, a little about traditions, for those of you into the Christmas Tradition Theme (I'm a bit obsessed about this!)... Above is my fake Christmas tree that looks like a real tree, with bark and pine cones!  I love this crazy tree that we bought about 14 years ago....it has held up over time!

So, have a great holiday, filled with lot of rest, fun, and family, and make some new traditions!
 

A Resource for Teachers

A common question I receive is "Could you recommend a book for classroom teachers on how to enrich their program for gifted learners.  A hands on, practical book would be best."

The best book to use as a starting point is Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom

by Susan Winebrenner.  The book is a classic in gifted education, because it is practical, easy to read, and has implications for all learners.   Each chapter presents a specific strategy, and there are step by step instructions for implementing each strategy.   I highly recommend this resource as a place to start, and I encourage teachers to look at Susan Winebrenner's website in general as there are other resources and a few handouts.
You can find this book locally, or order through Amazon.  I have extra copies that I will lend out to teachers in Vancouver - you can email me or contact me here!

A Resource for Teachers

A common question I receive is "Could you recommend a book for classroom teachers on how to enrich their program for gifted learners.  A hands on, practical book would be best."

The best book to use as a starting point is Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom

by Susan Winebrenner.  The book is a classic in gifted education, because it is practical, easy to read, and has implications for all learners.   Each chapter presents a specific strategy, and there are step by step instructions for implementing each strategy.   I highly recommend this resource as a place to start, and I encourage teachers to look at Susan Winebrenner's website in general as there are other resources and a few handouts.
You can find this book locally, or order through Amazon.  I have extra copies that I will lend out to teachers in Vancouver - you can email me or contact me here!

The Built Environment

 Brought together 12 boys ages 8 and 9 with a serious interest in building and design...

 Their first challenge was to design their dream school....I encouraged wacky and strange ideas....just to have them leave the idea of school being a rectangular room, with windows, two doors, and desks. 

 What kind of school would you create and why?

 Lots of fun ways to enter school were explored...slides, ramps, and telaportation were a few...

 School in trees....

 School with a conveyor belt around the perimeter, to move you from class to class...

 Superjet elevators, and a time machine will make history lessons all the more exciting....

 Solar panels here, to heat the building...

 Robots to do the work...

A super rope climber contraption...so students can climb while they learn.  

Thanks boys...your ideas were brilliant, fun, and inspirational!  As well as planning our dream schools, we also learned a bit about architects, and we started looking at:  building design, structural issues:  compression, tension, bending, and finally, climate and geography in design. 


Our next challenge:  design a dream house and a 3 dimensional model, and present ideas to the team.