All posts by Jenny Henningsen

3rd Quarter Review

March 9, 2014Nordquist BlogJenny Henningsen

Wow! I know I’ve said this before, but this quarter sure flew by! There is definitely some truth to the old adage “time flies when you’re having fun”! I love science, so this quarter was a lot of fun for me, and hopefully for my EY students as well!

We started off the quarter with our SCAMPER exploration and tasting – yum! Then the inventors of long ago and today, such as Thomas Edison, Rube Goldberg and Maya Penn, began to kindle the inventor flame in all of us. We went on to create our own inventions to solve simple problems such as getting a ping-pong ball across a zip line, or building the strongest straw bridge from 25 drinking straws. Some of the EY students with an interest in robotics took a trip to the high school to take part in a robotics class. Other students spent time programming the CEENBoTs to follow paths they designed. We also got to explore science related apps on the iPads such as Chemist and Froguts (virtual frog dissecting).

Our culminating project for the quarter was either researching and creating a report on a favorite inventor, or becoming the inventor. The path of the inventor was definitely the road more traveled! We have had some amazing inventions created by these innovative students! They have been presenting this week and I believe these students have ideas that can change their world! Just ask them!

This quarter wraps up with conferences on Tuesday the 11th and Wednesday the 12th. I will do my best to attend as many conferences as possible, however with 3 schools it has proven to be a challenge…I might need to create my own invention to solve this one! For those conferences that I am not able to attend, I would be happy to chat through email or over the phone. Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

I truly enjoy working with your students and look forward to a great 4th quarter!

Innovation Updates, Conferences, and Contest Opportunity

March 6, 2014Henningsen Blog, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

Update Grade 4

The end of the quarter is here, and we are wrapping up our 3rd quarter science theme “innovation”. Grade 4 students have been exploring innovations and inventions. They are also working very hard on grade 5 math concepts using Khan and mini lessons taught by me during our EY time. Each week the kids set a personal goal on Khan. Our final goal is to have all 100 % of the grade 5 concepts mastered by the end of April. When you get a chance, ask your child about his/her Grade 5 Khan %. We finished up all of our fraction lessons last week, and will spend the month of March working on decimals. We will do the 5th Math Olympiad Contest next week. Wordly Wise units will continue during the 4th quarter. Please remind your child to complete the “Fields of Science” assignment on the EY blog if he/she is interested in attending the science event at the CCC on March 25th.

Update Grade 5/6

The grade 5/6 students have been learning about science using the innovations presented in Nova’s “Making Stuff” series . The grade 5/6 students will share keynotes outlining new learnings. The grade 5 and 6 students have also been working on lessons in Wordly Wise. I like correcting the units with the children since we spend time on the problems that might not have one right answer. This time gives the children a chance to support his/her answer and do a bit of debating. We will do the 5th Math Olympiad Contest next week. Please remind your child to complete the “Fields of Science” assignment on the EY blog if he/she is interested in attending the science event at the CCC on March 25th.

Conferences

I will split my conference time between Prairie Lane and Swanson. I plan on being at Swanson on Tuesday from 1-4:30 and PL from 5-8:00. On Wednesday, I will be at Swanson from 1:00-4:00 and will be at PL in the evening. I will try to make as many of the classroom conferences as I can. These times may not work for your family, so please send me an email if you would like to set up a time to meet, or we could also do a phone conference if you would like! jhenningsen@westside66.org

Contest Opportunity

Google is offering a doodling contest for students that connects with our theme “Innovation”

This year we’re asking K-12 students to create their doodles based on the theme “If I Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place…” To enter the competition simply download the application form, print it, doodle your version of the Google logo based off this year’s theme and submit online or by mail.The due date for submission is March 20th.

This would be something fun to check out over the weekend.

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html

Thank you for all of your support!

Jenny

EY Update Feb

February 22, 2014Henningsen Blog, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

******Science and Math Opportunities*******

Opportunity # 1

EVENT: EY Science Olympiad at CCC

Date: 4/25/14

Fee: To attend students must complete the assignment

“Fields of Science” found @

https://ey.westside66.org/tag/innovationq3/

Due date: March 3rd, 2014

I plan on going over the “Field of Science” assignment with the kids this upcoming week. Attending the Science Olympiad is not mandatory, but if your child wants to attend on the 25th of March, the assignment above is the “ticket in the door”.

Opportunity # 2

Young Scientist Challenge

Who knows…we may have a young scientist out there ready to change the world! Check this out if your child has an interest in this area.

It looks like the contest is due April 22 and there are several resources on the site including previous winners, insider tips, science lesson plans, and experiments.

http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/?utm_source=DE1MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CallforEntries2014 ]http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/?utm_source=DE1MM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CallforEntries2014

Opportunity # 3

PhET

PhET is a site filled with free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math simulations. Find a simulation or two or three or four by clicking on the link below. When you leave a comment, list the name of the simulation(s) you explored and then share something new you learned. Playing the simulation might also prompt you to do a little more research on the topic. List that information as well!

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

Click on a simulation and then click Run Now! Have fun exploring!

EY Math Opportunity

We took the 4th Math Olympiad this week. We will work through strategies to solve the contest problems next week, and I will offer follow up problems that will allow the children to practice!

Sample problem from the contest:

Science Burrito

February 11, 2014Nordquist BlogJenny Henningsen

Hmmm…do those two words even go together? They do in EY! This week we took a turn from inventions and moved towards science. We explored the seven layer density column (or “science burrito”) to test the density of various liquids. Prior to the testing phase, we researched density and how it affects an item. The students were presented with 7 different liquids and then asked to make their own hypothesis about how the liquids would “stack up”. When making the hypothesis, we took into account the weight and thickness of each liquid. After the hypotheses were made, we tested them. Here are the results…

Honey, Karo syrup, dish soap, water, vegetable oil, rubbing alcohol, and lamp oil = SCIENCE BURRITO!

Inventions Invented!

February 11, 2014Nordquist Blog, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

We have been turning out some amazing inventions over the past couple weeks. From Natural Powered Robo Hands to zip line drink carriers, we have broken into new frontiers in the world of invention! One of our focused invention builds was based on “junk” items found around the house. The students were asked to use at least 10 items and create a unique invention from those items. It is amazing to see what can be produced from the simplest of objects!

View “junk” invention in action: IMG_2933

The students jumped into the role of structural engineers in order to design and build the strongest bridge possible from 25 straws, tape, and paper clips. We focused on the engineering design process (an 8 step process) to find a solution to the challenge. Their design creations were all so unique and all withstood the test of weights ranging from washers to dictionaries! Here are a few examples…

Diff Tip-Welcome!

February 10, 2014Diff TipsJenny Henningsen

This blog space will give us a chance to share ideas and resources to assist you in the task of differentiating for learners in your classroom.

The next several posts will be from Ian Byrd, an educator from California who is on the list of presenters at the Nebraska Association for the Gifted (NAG) spring conference at the end of the month. His website, Byrdseed.com, has tons of resources to help teachers differentiate for students.

In the video lesson below, Ian shares a few ways that he teaches idioms in his classroom and how he extends his lesson for high ability learners. Go beyond spelling and vocabulary lists and enrich your students’ language with an in-depth study of idioms!

Please watch this short video (8:02) and then post an idea/thought/response. All teachers who respond will be entered into a drawing for a gift card at the end of the month!

http://www.byrdseed.tv/an-idiom-study/

EY Update

January 24, 2014Henningsen BlogJenny Henningsen

Hello!

We did the third Math Olympiad this week. There are 5 questions on the contest, and each one presented a different challenge. The last question was a logic problem where letters represent numbers, and it was extra tricky! We will work on strategies for tackling this type of problem, as well as the other contest problems next week.
This is an similar problem to work out at home!

Solution can be found at http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/60417.html

The EY blog will have a new science link posted each week during the third quarter. This week the direct link is http://wp.me/p4amXn-8K

Accessing the blog will be the same each week. The link above will take you right to the post, but you can also go to ey.westside66.org and then click on Concepts -> Q3 Innovation and find the newest post at the top.

Stay warm and enjoy your weekend.

Jenny

SCAMPER

January 23, 2014Nordquist BlogJenny Henningsen

Not a verb for mouse-like actions, but rather an acronym for innovation!

Substitute, Combine, Adapt or add, Modify maximize or minimize, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse or rearrange

SCAMPER is a creative brainstorming tool used in a variety of settings including companies looking to create new ideas and products. Virtually anything around you can be put through the SCAMPER process. We put the process to work on various everyday items to see what new and innovating products we could create. One group of students were given an umbrella which soon became a boat for small animals. The everyday baggie was turned into a biodegradable icing design bag. We also SCAMPERed the Oreo to create many amazing new products definitely worthy of the famous cookie’s name! Some of our most popular products were: The Oreo Popsicle (winner in one group), Oreo dispenser hat, computer software to create and order your own personalized Oreo, giant sized Oreos, cream on the outside Oreos, an Oreo dispensing machine, an Oreo sphere, and an Oreo burger. Oreo definitely has some competition on their hands…or some future inventors!

Problem + Solution = Innovation!

January 16, 2014Nordquist BlogJenny Henningsen

So many problems in the world…so many solutions yet to be discovered! We have spent the first part of the 3rd quarter jumping into the topics of science and innovation. With so many topics falling under the science umbrella, we are focused on narrowing the field to ideas that intrigue and inspire a quest to know more. During the past week, students were given a problem and asked to be solution innovators.

The problem: Take a ping pong ball from one end of a zip line to the other in 4 seconds or less.

They were given a variety of materials such as cups, tape, cardboard, washers, straws, fishing line and more to combine together to create the solution. It was amazing to see the variations that emerged through the same set of materials…many solving the problem. This was also a lesson in determination and perseverance, as often times the first attempts failed. Sometimes a hard lesson, but one that even the greatest of innovators have learned.

See video examples here: zip line zip line Oakdale zip line Oakdale 2

2nd Quarter Update

January 7, 2014Nordquist BlogfeaturedJenny Henningsen

Wow! The past two months sure flew by! It has been such a great experience getting to know all of the EY students at Oakdale, Hillside, and Westbrook. We have been focused on getting into a routine, consistency with EY assignments, and challenging our brain!

Our learning focus this past quarter was Communication. We began the quarter with a brainstorming session that produced a large web of communication topics. It is amazing how many forms we use on a daily basis and some without even knowing!

The sixth grade students took part in a writing contest as part of the communication study. They were given the prompt: An Unusual Superhero and were asked to write a paper/story no more than 2,500 words in length. They brainstormed lists of possible superheroes and their powers, created story maps to organize their thoughts, and produced some amazing stories! We went through the peer editing and revising process to polish the stories and also had a day that each student could read their story aloud to the group. I look forward to reading some of their books someday…we have authors in our midst!

Another part of our communication study led us into the different aspects of language. We explored figurative language, figures of speech, parts of speech, and codes. We created our own onomatopoeias and drew cartoons containing the new words. It wasn’t as easy to create all new words as we thought! We also experimented with various codes and had our classmates try to crack them.

This quarter was also filled with a variety of contests available to various students. We had the school spelling bees during November, followed by the school geography bees in December, and the Westside District Spelling Bee on December 6th. Congratulations to the winners and participants! Sixth grade students had the opportunity to attend the McMillan Math Contest on Thursday, November 7th and fourth grade students qualified to attend the Marrs Math Contest on Monday, November 18th. The Science Olympiad on November 5th provided a great learning opportunity for those students with an interest in science related topics. Thank you so much for supporting your students in their quest for excellence at these competitions!

It has truly been an exciting quarter and I am looking forward to working with your students as we explore our next topic of study: science and innovation. Please never hesitate to contact me with any questions, thoughts or concerns.

Westside Excellence in Youth

Talent & Interest Development for All Learners