Expert Projects and Gathering

This has without a doubt been a crazy week. Between expert projects, the half day, our share fair, our library visit, and gathering, our plates have been pretty full. Although it was busy, it was that good kid of busy. That kind that makes you think "wow, we did all that?" The kids should really be proud of themselves.

We spent the first half of the week really engrossed in expert project presentations. Overall, the papers were well-written, the kids were articulate, and the boards/powerpoints were well made. Of course, at times, we had some antsy-ness after sitting through almost 2 hours of presentations, but they were mostly pretty attentive to the presentations. I was mostly impressed by the questions the kids posed to one another. Brennen asked Blaise "What kind of storm does the most damage to humans?" after her project on Damage Caused By Weather. Harrison asked how wind was converted into energy after Hannah's presentation on wind. They were thoughtful and sincerely curious about other students' projects and often allowed the presenter to share important and interesting details that they hadn't shared originally.

Gathering is always different than you expect it to be. For me, it was even better than I anticipated. Because of the schedule this week, we really began preparing on Thursday, leaving us little time for practicing. Even though we had some glitches with our song, the rest of the gathering went seamlessly. They were prepared to speak when they needed to speak, had their notecards and other artifacts ready, and were confident in their information.

The kids each shared a fact from their weather projects. The rest of the time was split between 3 groups, each focusing on a particular area of study. One group shared the magic of Pascal's triangle and its many patterns; another group talked the school through our timeline of events leading up to the Revolutionary War; the third group explained the song "Yankee Doodle" and how it was transformed from a song made to mock the patriots to a proud rebel march. We then as a group led the school in our (somewhat off-key, admittedly) version of Yankee Doodle. It was a really special time to see those kids up there, confident and proud of their learning.

I am so excited by what's going on in this classroom. I hope you are, too.