All posts by lspady
#54: Bitsbox-Make your Own Stamp
Spark your thinking!
1. Set up your STEAM mini spark recording page:#54: Bitsbox-Make your Own Stamp
2. Read the Website Directions for coding challenge: Creating your own stamp in Bitsbox
3. Watch the video directions for this coding challenge
4. Step 2 gave the information in a written format and step 3 had you watch a video. On your recording sheet, write 3-4 sentence about how you like to get information
5. Log into Bitsbox.
6. Make 3 of your own stamps. Add a picture of your stamps to your recording page.
7. Share your STEAM mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
2021-22 EY Challenge #3
Prosthetic Hands
Please follow these steps to complete this challenge:
1. Read the article and answer the quiz questions.
2. Watch the video on 3D Printed Prosthetic Hands
3. Create a product based on your learning. Below are a few tutorials if you need an idea. NOTE: Always ask for adult permission/supervision when using tools like hot glue guns, scissors, etc.
Make a video of your product and/or take pictures of it in use. Upload your project to your drive and make it sharable. Copy the link and paste it in the Google Submission Form: https://forms.gle/YDo6t5MDXW8vA1q58
This challenge closes October 15.
#65: Spelling Bee Prep
Get ready for spelling bee season by reviewing some strategies to help you spell new words.
Spark your thinking!
1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #65: Spelling Bee Prep
2. Watch this video, pause to write the word on your recording page that you think is correct. Check your work as you go. Spend at least 3 minutes doing this activity.
3. Make sure you know how to pronounce all of the top 10 commonly misspelled words. Number your paper from 1-10. At Safari, type in the word in the search bar and then word”dictionary” and the pronunciation will pop up for you. Put a checkmark on your recording page after you have listened to the word a few times.
Advanced Option-
If you know all of the pronunciations, record the pronunciation with diacritical marks for each word. Type the word in the search bar and the word “dictionary” and under the word you will see the pronunciations typed out with diacritical marks. Record these for each of the words on this list. For those of you typing , from Google Docs, go to Insert > Special characters to find the special characters.
4. Write each word from the list on your recording sheet two times.
5. Learn to spell all 10 words.
Start with the first five words.
Step 1-Write each one 2 times on your recording page
Step 2- Whisper spell each one 3 times.
Step 3-Look at one word quickly then close your eyes and spell the word in your head. Open your eyes and check your spelling from the list.
Step 4-Keep practicing until you can spell all 5 correctly.
Repeat with the next 5 on the list.
Step 1-Write each one 2 times on your recording page
Step 2 -Whisper spell each one 3 times.
Step 3-Look at one word quickly then close your eyes and spell the word in your head. Open your eyes and check your spelling from the list.
Step 4-Keep practicing until you can spell all 5 correctly.
6. Write the word on your spelling page that was the hardest for you to remember.
7. Share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Check out the Super Speller Set badge at the EY webpage.
2021 Nebraska Severe Weather/Preparedness PSA Contest: due November 19, 2021
2021 Nebraska Severe Weather/Preparedness PSA Contest
If you are interested in this contest, please email Dr. Spady and we can meet during Warrior Time to come up with a plan.
The winter severe weather season is quickly approaching and it’s time for a new Nebraska Severe Weather Awareness/Preparedness Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest. The contest is sponsored by Nebraska Association of Emergency Management, the National Weather Service and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency. The purpose of the PSA contest is to receive a variety of multimedia products from middle school students that promote preparedness, storm readiness, tornado safety, fire safety or other emergency topics.
The PSA contest is open to all seventh and eighth grade media classes in public and private schools and combined home school students. The infograms, short videos (3-5 minutes) and PSAs (30 sec. to 1 min.) should be on anything regarding preparedness including, home fire safety, home disaster preparedness (kits, plans, drills), safety tips for severe weather (tornadoes, severe winter weather, lightning, flooding)
The winning class infogram will receive $100, the winning class PSA will receive $250, and the winning class short video will receive $500. The prizes will be awarded to the teacher for use in the classroom.
Contest rules are as follows:
- The contest is open to all middle school (seventh and eighth) media classes in public and private schools along with combined home school students in Nebraska. Please one entry per category per school.
- Entries must be related to the theme of severe weather safety/preparedness and will be judged on originality, effort and accuracy. Entries may be a 30-60 sec. video PSA; a 2-5 minute Instructional video or digital image ensemble, Facebook cover image, educational infographic, etc.
- Each school is encouraged to conduct the contest. All submittals are to be made electronically to knoxema@knoxcountyne.org by November 19, 2021 by a link to either YouTube or Vimeo. All submittals become the property of NAEM upon submittal.
- Each entry MUST INCLUDE the following information:
All winners will be contacted by phone by December 20, 2021.
Any questions regarding the 2021 Severe Weather PSA should be directed to the local Emergency Management Director/Coordinator or to Laura Hintz (402) 288-5613, email knoxema@knoxcountyne.org
Contest rules and other information can also be obtained at the Nebraska Association of Emergency Management website at www.naem.us. Judging will be done in December by representatives of the contest’s sponsors: Nebraska Association of Emergency Management, National Weather Service and Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.
21-22 WMS Spelling Bee
Heads Up!
21-22 WMS Spelling Bee Details
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All 7th and 8th graders will take a qualifying spelling test in their LA class the week of Oct. 25
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The top 10-12 scorers on the qualifying test will be invited to participate in the District Spelling Bee on Nov. 12 in the WMS PAC
image source: https://thenounproject.com/term/head-up/339589/
Innovation Seminar September 27
Attention 7th and 8th Graders
Have you ever wanted to have your own business? There are 9 spots available for students to spend a day at ESU #3’s Makerspace and Innovation Lab to help develop entrepreneurial ideas!
When: Monday, September 27 from 9am – 2pm. You will miss periods 2-9 so it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check with those teachers to see what you’ll miss.
You will need to bring a sack lunch
Email Dr. Spady ASAP if you are interested.
#64 Misplaced Modifiers
Modifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence—which is usually helpful. But when modifiers aren’t linked clearly enough to the words they’re actually referring to, they can create unintentional ambiguity.
Spark your thinking!
1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #64: Misplaced Modifiers
2. Look at this example of an incorrectly placed modifier and write it on your recording page.
Perched up high on a tree branch, I yelled at the cat to leave the sparrow alone.
Meaning: I don’t tangle with a tabby unless I am perched 10 feet up in the air.
3. Look at this example of a correctly placed modifier and write it on your recording page.
Seeing a sparrow perched up high on a tree branch, I yelled at the cat to leave him alone.
Meaning: ohhhh….the sparrow is up in the tree. Watch out little sparrow!
4. Read this teaching page to look over some modifier examples. Record 5 details on your recording sheet.
5. Watch this TED Ed video and record at least 5 notes about modifiers and their placement, dangling , and squinting modifiers.
6. Create a teaching page explaining modifiers along with with examples of how they are used. Include your own sentence with a misplaced modifier and then correct the sentence so that the reader understands the meaning.
7. Optional: Do more research about misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers. Include what you learned in your visual.
8. Share your language arts mini spark recording page and your visual with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Math Counts
Math Counts is a national middle school mathematics competition that builds problem-solving skills and fosters achievement through four levels of fun, in-person “bee” style contests.
Math Counts Sample Problems
Bob is exactly 34 inches taller than his son, Tim. If Tim is 3 feet, 2 inches tall, how tall is Bob, in feet?
The digits 3, 4 and 8 can be used to make six different three-digit numbers in which each digit is used exactly once. What is the average of these six numbers?
If 36 + 64 + 45 + 55 + 56 + 44 + 67 + 33 + 78 + N = 500, what is the value of N?
2021-22 EY Challenge #2
Another Bitsbox Challenge
Thank you to those of you who tried the first EY Challenge of the year. If you did, this challenge is an extension of that. If you didn’t do the first challenge, no worries. This video should help you get started. Also, here are some basic steps:
1. Draw a picture on paper or using an app on your iPad. Start with something simple like an animal. I drew this cow using Drawing Pad. Take a picture of your drawing or take a screenshot.
2. Go to Safari and type in bitsbox.com and in the upper right corner select “kids sign in” and use your Westside Google Account to sign in
3. From there, the video below should walk you through the steps.
