All About Us!

Hello, followers! We've had an amazing start to our year in REACH and wanted to share what we've been up to. Every year, Mrs. Deyamport has us explore our strengths and intelligences to learn more about how we learn and work best. Part of this process involves demonstrating our interests, intelligences, and dreams in not so obvious ways. Here are some ways we have shared about ourselves this fall and throughout the school year.

Show & Tell 

Each week we are given the opportunity to share a special talent, hobby, or special artifact that tells more about who we are. We get to present our Show and Tell to our classmates to also practice our communication skills. Check out our twitter feed at @reachrocketeers to view some interesting presentations we have had so far!

Photography Projects 

Every year we like to flex our creative muscles and tell more about ourselves through photography projects. This year two of our favorite projects have been our Inner Selfies and Photo Wall. With our Inner Selfies, we had a chance to show things such as our intelligences, personality, career goals, and interests through a "selfie." We had to think about elements such as what props to include, our backgrounds, and even our facial expressions. For our Photo Wall Project, we used those same elements but dug deeper into how we can reflect these with only one word! Next, we researched some famous quotes to go along with our word and wrote our life statements. Although they look simple, these projects involved many steps a lots of reflection! Have a look below at our final products. 

Photo Wall 

Inner Selfies 2016-17 

Let's Make It Happen!

Our school year is winding down quickly. But just because our days in school are coming to an end,  doesn't mean that our learning has to! To end with a bang, we are immersing ourselves in the Maker Movement and several challenges. Here's a recap of what we have in store and completed so far: 

Current Projects 

So far all our grades made corner bookmarks and tinkered with computer programming through programs such as Scratch and code.org.  Our 4th graders are hard at work in finalizing their Paper City, where they are creating their own 3D city display to reflect their personalities, wishes, or hopes for the future. 

Maker Challenges 

We are excited about our bi-weekly Maker Challenges and tasks! These challenges are unique in that they are practical and allow us to come up with solutions to everyday problems. From creating a stand for an electronic reader or device to using cardboard to organize our classroom, we are putting some recyclables to use- just in time for Earth Day! 

Earth Day Celebration 

Speaking of Earth Day, we also enjoy helping out our school by participating in school-wide projects. For this year's celebration our school is decorating paper bags for a local grocery store. We had a blast designing these!

Here are more pictures of our projects. Feel free to follow us on Twitter at @reachrocketers for updates. 

We Are Makers! 

Channel One Meets Creativity

REACH is a fan of Channel One! Thanks to our teacher Ms. Carter, Channel One is a fixture in our program and how we start our day.  Our students like the fact that this kid-friendly news source provides in-depth coverage on different topics that affect our world today.

Recently, we have added to our discussion of topics by tapping into our creative sides. One segment we especially enjoy is the "Next Big Thing," which introduces new products. We love to debate whether the item featured will be a hit or a flop. This week, our teacher Mrs. Deyamport challenged us with creating a jingle for this week's next Big Thing: The Ruggie. Check it out below.

We came up with some catchy tunes for the Ruggie and the self-filling water bottle from last week. Check them out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

Peyton- Self-Filling Water Bottle (SFWB) Jingle 

Kameron- Self-Filling Water Bottle 

Isaiah- Ruggies Jingle 

Madelyn- Ruggie Jingle

Madison- Ruggie Rap 

Cardboard Challenge!

Our 3rd graders were featured on our local news channel this week about  their Cardboard Challenge! This project has helped us get organized, problem solve, work in groups, as well as get creative! It was a pleasant surprise to find out that our local news station was interested in interviewing us about our work. Overall, we were thrilled to share our creations and test out out games, all while putting our communication skills to practice. Our next goal is to prepare our arcade for our 1st grade classes. Stay tuned for more! 

To read the full report, click here. 

And in case you missed it, here is our segment!