I missed seeing my fifth grade students this past week, but I hope all of you enjoyed thAT long weekend. While the students were off, the teachers at NPES had our second full-day training on Project-Based Learning with a representative from the Buck Institute for Education. My first TAG "PBL" project for the year was Stock Market. The students' driving question was "If you had $100,000, what would be the best thing to do with it?" This next week, they will demonstrate what they have learned by creating a product that answers the questions below.
How do consumers and businesses in the United States work together?
How does the stock market influence people’s behavior over time?
How do prices of products (not stocks) influence decisions about money?
How does competition between businesses affect people’s behavior?
Why are the decisions made about spending and saving important?
There is finally some good news for the students regarding their stock portfolios. Without spilling the beans completely, I will tell you that three of the four teams are now showing a gain. In fact, one team is in 10th place in the region. Considering these students are competing against students in 4th - 12 grade, that is amazing!
When we come back together after the Thanksgiving break, the students will have one last week in the Stock Market Game. We will then begin another "PBL" unit: EPIDEMIC. In this Higher Order and Critical Thinking unit, students will take on the role of epidemiologists as they solve a mystery to discover the source of a deadly illness in a simulated town. They will then develop a plan to analyze what causes disease outbreaks (like the flu) in their own community in order to prevent future outbreaks. The students will learn about Typhoid Mary and participate in a Socratic Seminar to determine whether she was a villian or a victim. There will lots of gross and disgusting things in this unit!
You may be starting to think about middle school TAG placements for your child. We will have a meeting will all fifth grade TAG parents to discuss this after the first of the year (probably late January or February). So, just enjoy thoughts of elementary school for now.
FOURTH GRADE NEWS:
Last week, the students chose eight people from history who had the character traits needed to be the first crew to live and work on Mars. The Crew: Einstein, Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Herschel Walker, Rohan's great-grandmother, Neil Armstrong, and George Washington. WOW!
The students continued their work of designing a Mars colony. Next week, they build it (out of recycled materials). I will share pictures. National Geographic is showing a new series, MARS, beginning on November 14th. I've only seen the previews, but it looks fantastic and may well be something you and your child will enjoy watching together. channel.nationalgeographic.com/
After Thanksgiving, we will begin our unit “Dollars and Sense in TAG Town.” In this Higher Order and Critical Thinking Skills unit, students will simulate real-life budgeting and money management decisions. They will be randomly assigned jobs with correlating salaries and families for whom they must provide food, shelter and other support as they try to make sense of how to best use their money. You will probably have some interesting discussions with your students as we progress through the simulation and your child begins to see that:
- People must make decisions because they can't have everything they want.
- Spending less than one earns is important to financial freedom
News for All:
On December 13 and 15, the students will have a White Elephant event in TAG.
“White elephant” is an expression used to describe a possession that someone has that they cannot get rid of, something that is not useful or of value to them. The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam were accustomed to make a present of a white elephant to common people who were obnoxious. No one could refuse a gift from the king. The cost of maintaining the elephant would then ruin the person financially because it was so expensive to feed and take care of an elephant.
Our modern day “white elephant” gift is much more pleasant. Each TAG class will have a white elephant gift exchange. Each TAG student should bring a wrapped present to TAG class during the week of December 12th. The gift should be something that they have at their house that is no longer being used, something that is of no value to them anymore. The “thing” should be in good condition. Funny gifts are always welcome. Please don’t go out and buy anything new.