Monday, August 29, 2011

LET THE THINKING BEGIN!

Earthquakes! Hurricanes! New Building! Oh My!


Last week provided many wonderful opportunities to get our children to ask questions. Questioning and problem solving are two skills that we, as adults, take for granted. Through Inquiry-Based learning in Maury's Think Tank , we will work to build your child's Habits of Mind and use their Multiple Intelligences to enrich their educational experience.


This week's Focus Theme is: How many kinds of smarts are there? All students in grades K-5 are making "Smartags", name tags that identify their top three smarts (or multiple intelligences). Stay tuned for pictures of these Smartags, but in the meantime I encourage you to discuss the topic of different intelligences with your child. Even better, take a multiple intelligence quiz yourself! If you don't want to print one out, try this online inventory.Does it turn out how you expect? Feel free to come and make your own Smartag with the results. Like all members of the Maury Community, you can use our "Smarts Symbols" to represent yourself. I'm sure your child would get a kick out of it!
OUR "SMARTS" SYMBOLS




Today, Ms. Kelly's class made their Smartags. During our reflection circle, students were asked to reflect on one thing they enjoyed or learned during our time together. One student raised his hand and stated,"One think I learned is that everybody is smart in different ways". When he asked for questions or comments, another student added, "I also think this. People can also be different in skin color, eye color and things they like to do. Differences are good."


These statements by 1st graders already show that our students are ready to look beyond what is on the page in a book and make their own understanding of the world around them-- with a little focused guiding from us.


Please come visit the Learning Lab and I look forward to all of the thinking this year will bring!


Until next time....


Vanessa Ford