All posts by Jenny Henningsen

Welcome back!

August 23, 2015Henningsen Blog, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

The beginning of the school year is always busy-but I have met with all of the students. I am so looking forward to spending time with them in the classrooms, in small groups, and at seminars.

Seminars-There will be seminars offered throughout this school year. The seminars topics offered can be found at this link. These will be 1/2 day or full day events held at the Westside Community Center. We will transport to that event and back to school. If your child is interested in participating, he or she will need to complete the ticket and submit it by the due date. There will be some seminars where we have a more interest than spots, so please encourage your child to turn in his/her best work on the tickets and to get them in by the due date.

Seminar ticket posted for a coding seminar ticket-click for info

Ticket posted for the invention convention ticket-click for info

All tier 2/3 students will be attending a seminar on Sept 3. The students will be creating his/her online portfolios. This is a 1/2 day event and will be held at the Westside Community Center.

Reading-We are creating accounts in Storybird and the student have started making an “All About Me” book. This resource is amazing, and we will be using it this year to create projects.

Math-We are dusting off our khan accounts and spending time exploring the resources found here. please encourage your child to spend time working at khan during the school week. Khan is lovely, since can children work at his/her own pace.

Please contact me with any questions

Jenny

A New Adventure!

August 13, 2015Nordquist BlogJenny Henningsen

As summer draws to a close, the adventure of a new school year awaits! I am so excited for all that this year will bring! From seminars and competitions, to small group meetings and blogging, there will be a lot of enrichment going on!

I will continue to be at Oakdale and Westbrook this year, and will split my days in order to be at each school on a daily basis. This is exciting for me as I will be able to check in with students more consistently. We are on a 4 day rotation this year, which is similar to the other specialists in the district. If you would like more information, check out our EY calendar here.

The beginning of the school year is always exciting as so many opportunities await! Students, please explore the blog and take advantage of the many seminar and event opportunities that will be presented. Parents, please encourage your students to take part in these things and inquire as to what opportunities they have participated in. Don’t ever hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns. Together we will make this a fantastic year!

#6: Book Spine Poem

August 11, 2015Reading Enrichment, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #6: Book Spine Poem

2. Have you heard of “a book spine poem?” It’s a kind of poetry that you don’t really write from scratch – instead, you “find” it by arranging book titles to make a poem. This type of poem can be serious or funny, just like in regular poetry. Write the poems you see her on your recording page.

3. Watch this video to see the process. Record 3-5 details from the video.

4. Okay, ready to make your own book spine poetry?

You need is a stack of at least 8 books with interesting titles from around the house, your classroom, or your school library.
Place a few books on top of each other.
Play around with the titles to create a short poem, words that create an image, feeling or scenes.
Write down the titles when you find a combination you like.
As you write down titles, you might notice some that seem to go together to tell a funny or interesting story. Switch them around to get a poem you like.
If you are doing a digital recording page, also take a picture of your work in progress

5. Keep working on your final project. Your finished spine poems should have at least 4 book titles included. Document your poem by taking a picture and adding it to your recording page or typing the titles in a poem format.

6. Share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Lesson adapted from :http://www.brainpickings.org/tag/book-spine-poetry/ and http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2015/04/book-spine-poetry/

Early Enrichment #1: Pebble Go or Pebble Go Next

August 7, 2015Early Enrichment, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

EXPLORE ANIMALS, FAMOUS PEOPLE, SOCIAL STUDIES, and DINOSAURS

Do love to learn new things? Pebble Go or Pebble GO Next is your go-to for facts, pictures, videos, and games!

Choose a topic to learn about
Learn 10 things
After doing research at Pebble Go, create a pic collage, apple clip, explaineEverything, or your favorite presentation tool to share your findings.
Share this presentation with your teacher. Respond to this post and share what topic you choose to research.

Create-a-Plant

August 7, 2015Early Enrichment, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

CREATE-A-PLANT

Research to find out more about the parts of a plant

1. Watch this video

2. Study the parts of a plant at this site- kids growing strong

Show What You’ve Learned

You are a botanist who has just discovered a new type of plant. As every good scientist does, you will document your exciting finding. Design a fact sheet highlighting your new plant discovery. Be sure to include the following key pieces of information:

• your plant’s name
• your plant’s basic needs
• your plant’s parts
• where your plant lives
• a colored illustration of your plant in its natural habitat

Your fact sheet might have text features like labels, captions, maps, bold words, subheadings, and more.

lesson idea adapted from ilove2teach.blogspot.com/

Teach the World!

May 19, 2015UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

If you’ve ever said to yourself as you watch an online video lesson, “There has to be a better video on this!” now is your chance to make that happen. The Khan Academy team is looking for teachers to share their lessons online through video. Check out the video below and go for it! It would be awesome to have Westside students, as well as students all over the world, learning from you!

A World Without…

May 15, 2015UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without certain modern day conveniences that we often take for granted? Consider this, the first bicycle was invented almost 200 years ago in 1817. It didn’t even have pedals! You had to scoot it along with your feet! How would the world be different today had the bicycle never entered the scene? What about other modern day conveniences that make life easier today? Comment below with a list of your top 3 inventions that would have the greatest impact on our lives today had they not been invented.

Have invention ideas that you think just might change the world? Check out this video for some inspiration and remember, “It’s okay to make mistakes! It’s not okay to stop!”

Share your ideas in the comments below!

2015 Summer Opportunities

May 9, 2015Nordquist Blog, Other Events & Contests, ParentsJenny Henningsen

It is hard to believe that the last bell will ring soon and summer fun will commence! The EY team will continue to provide a variety of learning experiences through our blog to keep those summer minds sharp! We also wanted to pass along other opportunities available outside of our team and/or district. We hope that these resources provide a starting point for your search into further enrichment opportunities. Please note that these are suggested resources and are not endorsed or extensively researched by the Westside EY team.

TenMarks Online Math Summer Program As you know, students lose an average of 2-3 months of math comprehension
over summer break. TenMarks offers a Free Summer Program that is proven to
reverse the loss. Students that participated in the program last year not
only reversed their learning loss, they showed an 11% gain in math
proficiency!
This summer, TenMarks is making the Summer Math Program available to your
students for FREE! (previously $39.95/student)
Register at summer.tenmarks.com

Nebraska Association for the Gifted website list This list has various opportunities around the metro area and state. Please be sure to contact the sponsor for availability and further information. http://www.negifted.org/4995.html

Metropolitan Community College – College for Kids and Teens http://mccneb.edu/collegeforkidsteens/

Arts For All is a nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to making the arts available and affordable for all ages throughout Metro Omaha. In 2013, over 1,500 students participated in Arts For All’s quality culturally-enriched programming. http://artsforallinc.com/

Summer Kid’s Music Clinic 2015 Sponsored By The Papillion LaVista Community Theatre Contact MONIKA PETERS AT mpeters@paplv.org for more information.

Camp Wonderopolis (online) Camp Wonderopolis is headed to new frontiers this year with a theme of Mission to Wonder. Camp will enable programs, families, and individuals to customize their experience to their needs while campers explore different tracks of STEM-based exploration. Along the way they will build their vocabulary, background knowledge, and literacy skills http://camp.wonderopolis.org/

Leap Ahead in Math This Summer! (online) Research shows that students who are not exposed to stimulating, educational activities over the summer months easily lose a couple of month’s worth of math skills. Instead of losing skills, sharpen skills and leap ahead in math this summer with LeapAhead!. http://www.noetic-learning.com/summermath/

Student Created Wonderopolis Pages

May 6, 2015Henningsen Blog, UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

The grade 4, 5, and 6 students have spent the last several weeks creating Wonderopolis pages to share. Each student picked a topic, came up with question to answer, researched this topic in great detail, and set out to work on creating an informational product.

This is the link to find the projects– > EY WIKI

Please check out these projects. They turned out wonderfully!

Wonderopolis has a Online Summer Enrichment Program that I am going to check out for my own kids http://camp.wonderopolis.org/

We have many children who will be invited to attend the Extreme Math Day on May 13th.

Look for invites towards the end of this week. It will be a fun day of math puzzles!

If you are looking for some math problem solving, Noetic math has a few free online math contest practice resources @ http://www.noetic-learning.com/gifted/sam ple.jsp,

If you like those you could consider subscribing to the summer program @

http://www.noetic-learning.com/summermath/

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns

Basketball, Bouncy Ball, and Golf Ball + Supernova = Physics!

April 16, 2015UncategorizedJenny Henningsen

Have you ever wondered how a basketball, bouncy ball, and golf ball are like a supernova? Well, probably not, but this video will explain how they are alike using physics. After watching, try this experiment for yourself and leave a comment on how it went. For an added twist, try it with different types of balls too! Physics is awesome!

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Talent & Interest Development for All Learners