STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 9

It was a big week for Arts Education at Piney Point!

The Alley Theatre brought their show Oskar and the Big Bully Battle to the whole school on Monday, Kinder and 1^st grade attended a Musiqa performance at the Hobby Center and 4^th grade had their second meeting with their Arts Partners from MET Dance.

In the STEAM Lab we started a new rotation that focuses on integrating literature. The primary students read the Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns and made their own BeeBot mats to practice retelling the story. The 3^rd grade broke into groups based on their choice of story and created literal story maps for their Robo-retells! They used the OZOBOTS to retell stories from Chris Van Allsburg and Eric Carle.

Students continue to work towards their programming goals in Code.org; the 5^th grade in particular made really outstanding progress this week!

Next week 3^rd-5^th grade will be working through the practice session for the Bebras Critical Thinking challenge!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 8

Another week of learning adventures in the Piney Point STEAM Lab!

This week we completed our first cycle through the STEAM Lab – all classes have now completed the introduction to the lab/ and initial Code.org activities.

This last set of classes included Ms. Bell’s Kindergarten, Ms. Pineda’s 1^st grade, Ms. Keahey’s 2^nd grade, Ms. Accavallo’s 3^rd grade, Ms. Alanis’ 4^th grade and Ms. Purvey’s 5^th grade.

Classes set goals on their class Padlet, learned to use Classroom Q, and made great strides in problem solving with their Pair Programming strategies in Code.org. This week saw our first campus-wide IIM fair where classes presented their research to each other. A lot of very remarkable class and individual work was shared, and students were justifiably proud of their hard work!

Monarch Heroes -

The year’s first cold snap coincided with a big influx of caterpillars emerging and Monarch Heroes were out in the gardens monitoring the situation. Lots of larvae had to be relocated from bare sticks inside until we could get more milkweed supplies! Ms. Thormodsgaard’s class taped this week’s Monarch Money PSA in the TV studio and all 1^st grades presented topic related to their Monarch Hero project at the IIM Fair. This group received word that their hard work has been recognized and they have been named a Mayor’s Proud Partner!

Recycling Heroes – 

Mr. Arzola’s class filmed this week’s Recycling Reminder in the TV studio and all eight teams were out in force Thursday collecting and educating their peers about the importance of recycling!

UIL -

Our UIL team had their first contest of the year 10/13! Read all about it HERE

Next week begins a whole new set of learning experiences focused on Language Arts integration!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 7

There was so much happening this week! 

Ms. Tran’s Kinder, Ms. Thormodsgaard’s 1^st grade, and Ms. Thompson’s 2^nd grade got acquainted with their Code.org course and learned how to navigate to the site, log in, and pair program. They will be coding superstars in no time!

Pre-K - 1^st grade attended Houston Grand Opera’s Storybook Opera presentation by Ms. Sandra Campbell. Ms. Campbell won hundreds of new opera fans here at Piney Point last year with her wonderful Chrysanthemum Storybook Opera! We were thrilled to have her return and share Opera Cat!

1^st grade started their Monarch Money announcements in the TV studio this week – so far they have collected 1/5^th of their fall goal!

Also, our 2^nd grade Recycling team started their public information campaign – broadcasting recycling reminder on the morning announcements and hanging their reused material posters in all the hallways!

1^st and 2^nd grade Name That Book club members had their first Book Buddy visits on Friday as well – each club member has a partner class that they will visit to read aloud their favorite story from the week’s reading!

Mr. Garza’s 3^rd grade and Mr. Torres’ 4^th grade got up to speed in Code.org almost immediately! They learned the new lab procedures, set goals on the class Padlet, and mastered the use of Classroom Q too! Both these groups had very special learning experiences this week as part of our campus Arts Integration initiatives:

3^rd Grade to Houston Ballet Studio Series – Dance in Texas

4^th grade Met Dance residency – a writing workshop exploring the history of America told through music and popular dance!

You can read about and see highlights from the experiences HERE

Ms. Limon’s class had a short week, but still got their new Code.org class set up, started work on a research project, and had our first Skype-a-Scientist session! They had a digital visit to the TAMU field lab in Galveston to talk with Ms. Janelle Goeke, a PhD candidate specializing in coastal ecology! They learned about what a life scientist actually does all day, challenges our coastal region is facing, and lots of fun facts about marine creatures!

3rd grade G/T - created personal Scratch accounts and began the process of uploading their Biome projects and 4th grade G/T completed their Bio Bottles. They are planning to display their mini interactive history museum next week.

Our UIL team is attending the first meet of the year at Pin Oak Middle School Saturday - Go Panthers!

STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 6

Another wonderful week in the Piney Point STEAM Lab!

The lab hosted:

Ms. Caro’s Kindergarten – who made amazing progress in their Code.org course! They quickly got the hang of Pair Programming and their excellent collaboration helped them solve a remarkable number of puzzles this week!

Ms. Pesce’s 1^st grade learned to navigate to Code.org, sign into their course as partners, and work together using the Navigator/ Driver strategy.

Ms. Greenhouse’s 2^nd grade learned how to sign into the universal password and access all their grade level resources through the PANTHERS page! They did a great job communicating and collaborating to solve problems!

Mr. Briceno’s 3^rd, Ms. Martinez’s 4^th, and Ms. Mulry’s 5^th grade had a very good 1^st week in STEAM Lab. Mr. Briceno’s class learned to use all the new organizational tools: the goal setting Padlet and the Classroom Q digital help function. 4^th & 5^th split their time between Code.org and their Genius Hour Bio Bottle projects.

Genius Hour:

3^rd grade didn’t meet this week, but completed their Arts Partnership with Houston Ballet's Dance to Learn program.

4^th & 5^th grade  made a very strong start on the Bio Bottle projects!

Eco-School’s Green Heroes: 

Our Monarch Heroes launched the Monarch Money campaign this week to raise funds for new gardens! They also prepped their ambassador butterflies for their Journey North Symbolic Migration to Mexico.

2^nd grade Recycling Team made their recycling pick-up rounds on Thursday, and artist teams from each class visited the lab to make their reused material recycling reminders for their hallways!

No Place For Hate:

 Our Student NPFH Coalition and especially the Erasing Hate sub-committee did a fantastic job hosting our 1^st event! Congratulations team! See highlights HERE

Name That Book: Our K-2 club is in full swing! Readers from Ms. Brown, Ms. Leal, Ms. Thormodsgaard, and Ms. Ballentine’s classes have read their first books, practiced their read-aloud techniques, and have made an all-around fantastic start.