Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

SBLC scientists all entered the city-wide flood safety poster contest and Caroline won 2nd place for her thoughtful design. We are all proud of her and enjoyed learning about central Texas geography! Breakfast and the Paper was a hit, as always! In ELA we finished a Bluebonnet nominee, Wedgie and Gizmo. One down, four more to vote! Keep reading over the summer! In project, we have been creating a new banner of individual flags representing our "legacy" in the SBLC. It's both heartwarming and inspiring to see the words and symbols they are choosing for themselves. Third Grade enjoyed a steamy walk to the Circle C Park -- fun, frozen treats, and friends! Summer is upon us! Stay cool in the heat, and we will see you on Tuesday!

We have been busy putting the final touches on our ecosystem games! They have created boxes by hand, crafted intricate game pieces, and artistically decorated their contents. They are very proud of their products! Enjoy these pictures of each group... Have a wonderful weekend and watch your email for a list of end of year events. May is busy and it's always helpful to double-check that you've got everything on your calendar. :) Jen and Jewellyn

Our SBLC students have been working hard on some authentic research and writing! We've been creating group board games to share with others on campus reflecting our learning about different biomes. We began researching last week, developing a deeper understanding about our biome. We spent time looking at board game design, color, goals, and strategies in order to model ours after an exemplar. This week we drafted, built prototypes, and then tested them in focus groups. In these groups, we were able to get kind, specific, and helpful feedback on how we could improve, smooth out glitches, and make our product better. Many fabulous struggles happening here! We love how responsive the kids were to each other and how the focus was on working together. We've learned lots of teamwork, communication skills, and ways to manage a range of feelings through this process as well as some great information about ecosystems on our planet! Remember that Monday and Tuesdays are STAAR te...

Seems like the weeks are flying by! A few more weeks to go and we're still working hard. In ELA we have been reading short texts and enjoying some picture books as well. One of the most fascinating articles we analyzed was an expository piece about how stress is actually positive -- and it is in our control how we perceive situations. It's so empowering to realize that we have control over our own thoughts and reactions to handle ANYTHING! We've also been using our reading skills to gather information for our ecosystem research. It's exciting to use our reading and writing in an authentic way! In math, we have been reflecting on how many topics we covered through the year so far! As we review each topic and related math vocabulary, it's impressive to realize how much we have learned over the past 9 months. We continue to become more proficient with logical reasoning and attention to detail as we analyze a few review questions and play a variety of math review ga...