STEAM Lab 2018-19 Week 23

Another huge week at Piney Point! Arts, academic, and social/environmental action excellence were all display this week with Alley Theatre, Da Camera, Monarch Heroes, Recycling Team, Name That Book teams, and the No Place For Hate student coalition.

Monday saw our 3-5 Name That Book team presenting their Scratch interactive book review programs to the administration team, then taping their first reviews for the Piney Point morning show in the TV studio, our 4^th grade No Place For Hate video subcommittee filming the first four videos in their STOP the Hate series that have begun appearing weekly on the morning announcements, AND Da Camera percussionist Mr. Brady was here to lead the Landfill Harmonic Music Encounter with our second grade Eco-Schools USA recycling heroes. Also our K-2 Name That Book team arrived early to practice for their contest this Friday! All of this happened before my first class at 9:20 - fortunately Ms. Tran’s Kinder cubs arrived and re-energized me!

Wednesday started off with our 2^nd Alley Theatre Oskar performance – this time it was Oskar and the Curiously Colorful Clash. It was another fantastic show – universally loved! And it shared an important lesson mixed in with the hilarity – one that resonated deeply at a school as beautifully diverse as Piney Point.

K-2 classes focused mainly on Code.org this week; as my lab is shutting down for TELPAS testing all next week I need to pack up as much as possible! We saw a lot of progress and even though I was out Friday for the K-2 Name That Book contest, we still had our Free Build Day!

3-5 split their time between Wonderopolis, Code.org, and Scratch. This was 3^rd grade’s introduction to Scratch so they worked offline with the tutorials. 4^th grade worked on their Scratch Bookshelf projects, and it was impossible to get 5^th grade away from fighting with creating functions for Minecraft in their Code.org course! Most popular Wonders this week for all 3 grades were the Coliseum and Unusual Pets, although Gargoyles had a strong fan base as well. Thursday was also a Free Build for these grade – they almost ALL chose digital “building” with 3^rd grade ransacking the Scratch sound library, 4^th grade making wild, strobing games featuring a lot of rainbow unicorns, tacos, and their own remixed sound effects, while 5^th grade took the opportunity to revisit the Code.org Hour of Code Dance Party

Monarch Heroes are still hard at work starting seeds and collecting Monarch Money – we will be moving everything outside in the next week or two. Butterflies are already back and looking for sustenance!

We closed out the week with our 1^st grade Name That Book reading superstars’ at the competition. We are so proud of all their hard work and leadership. Congratulations to all the teams that participated in the event!