Tracey@ODC: Week 1

We began our first session of Term 2 with some creative thinking. For this session the children
had 10 minutes to draw for me a CROCODOODLEBUGGABOO.....a what you say?? The creative juices began flowing immediately with this one!! Once the 10 minutes were up, they then had 5 minutes to elaborate their ideas by adding detail, labels and distinguishing features. They also had to describe their character. Creative Thinking is all about flexibility, fluency and elaboration.

Here are some examples...

Judah decided that a Crocodoodlebuggaboo wasn't a thing, but a place. Here is the land of Crocodoodlebuggaboo.

For Affective this term we are unpacking 2 'experts' ideas on Giftedness. Joseph Renzulli and his 3-Ringed model and Francoys Gagne's Differientated Model on Giftedness and talent. We began today though by discussing what we thought giftedness was and what it 'looks' like. I got everyone to draw a picture of how they think other people see gifted people and it was interesting to see that many of them drew boys or girls with glasses.

I then asked them to write their thoughts on what gifteness is. I was going to type some up, but some of them are quite personal. Ask your child what they think it means to be gifted.

This afternoon we got right in to THE BRAIN!!! In 2 weeks we are heading to UCOL for a dissection, so we need to know lots before we get there!!
We had 4 activities to complete as a bus stop rotation.
1. Read, read, read!!! What interesting things can you find out about the brain?? The children had the choice whether to write interesting info down or to just read. Wednesday Class also got to look at an awesome 3-D brain puzzle and a pop out book on the brain.

2. Brain Word Glossery. The children to find out the meanings of the following words. I am in the middle of typing them all up for our Discovery Topic Board!
axon, basal ganglia, brain stem, cerebellum, dendrite, cortex, cerebrum, frontal lobe, glial celis, memory, mind, myelin, neuron, occipital lobe, parietal lobe. Some very tricky words indeed!

3. Visual Brain. Using plastercine and reference books, the children had to create a model of a brain, and then label all the parts. I will post pictures of these next week, as not many were completed.