2019-20 STEAM Lab week 6

So much amazing happened at Piney Point this week!

I kicked off the week with the first meeting of the new Name That Book Teams,

followed 30 minute later by Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd graders presenting their work with Houston Ballet Master Teacher, Mr. Paul in the Dance to Learn program to the administration team.

Both groups did an amazing job!

Another set of classes got started on their new @code.org courses, were introduced to Wonderopolis, and explored the maker materials.

Houston Grand Opera’s Storybook Opera was on campus for four days presenting to all 28 of our PK-2^nd grade classes. They LOVED the performances of The Dog Who Sang at The Opera! We are so grateful to be an Arts Connect campus and have such incredible Arts Partners!

Speaking of incredible Arts Partners, Thursday was Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd graders last session of Dance to Learn and they presented their science ballets on the outdoor stage. They created their own choreography (under Mr. Paul’s supervision!) to explain magnetism, polarization, attraction, repulsion, and other concepts related to forces. Again, we are extremely grateful for our partnership with Houston Ballet and treasure these opportunities to let our students learn from their artists.

Our Eco-Schools USA heroes were busy as well! Ms. Caro’s Green Heroes did a campus clean-up, Ms. Pham’s Monarch Heroes finished their wings, all 8 Monarch Hero classes made their ambassador butterflies and class folders for the Symbolic Migration to Mexico, the Recycling Team was out collecting, and Ms. Ballentine’s Water Wardens had new plants to tend to thanks to a generous donation from Joshua’s Native Plants!

Plant donation from Joshua's Native Plants collected by Ms. Ballentine (cat not included!)

We wrapped up with Free Build Friday!

2019-20 STEAM Lab week 5

A lot of great work was accomplished in spite of yet another shortened week!

The lab hosted: Ms. Nesmith’s Kindergarten, Ms. Flores’ 1^st grade, Mr. Arzola’s 2^nd grade, Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd grade, Ms. McCord’s 4^th grade, and Ms. Mulry’s 5^th grade this week.

Everyone was introduced to their new @code.org course and the lab procedures. K-2 got settled into their Eco-Schools roles, and 3^rd-5^th got acquainted with Wonderopolis and Classroom Q. Everyone worked on shadow stories – 3^rd-5^th researched self-selected science topics in BrainPOP to create their own stories, while K-2 worked on a story retell.

Eco-Schools: Ms. Bell’s class earned their capes and joined Ms. Nesmith’s group outside Thursday for a campus clean-up. Ms. Flores, Ms. Brown, and Ms. Pineda’s classes passed the Monarch ID tests and earned their wings! Our 2^nd grade Recycling Team after being shut out by weather the last two weeks was finally able to get started!

Arts Partners: Houston Ballet completed week two of the Dance To Learn Residency with Ms. Ballentine’s 3^rd grade, and Houston Grand Opera brought Opera To Go’s fantastic production of Strega Nona for 3^rd grade and half of 5^th grade.

The half day Friday disrupted regular lab schedules, but we were able to have a little Free Build Friday!

2019-20 STEAM Lab week 4

A wild, weather impacted week, but students were incredibly productive with only three days to work!

Ms. Almanza, Ms. Montoya, Ms. Lugo, Mr. Torres, Ms. P. Guzman, and Ms. V. Martinez’s classes were in the STEAM Lab this week and impressed me with the speed at which they mastered all the procedures and jumped straight into making and learning!

Monday started off with a fantastic meeting of the No Place For Hate student coalition. 

The subcommittees presented their recommendations, and everyone voted on the campus-wide events, the climate survey questions, and the Resolution of Respect pledge signing and activities. They got straight to work after the meeting and the survey was created and the link shared to both computer labs, the pledges went out to all the classes, and the first set of morning announcement No Place For Hate Moments were filmed and aired!

Thirty minutes later I had a group of Ms. Hernandez’s Green Heroes in the main conference room to open the Monday administration meeting with a presentation of their theme song and explanation of their Eco-Schools USA mission. 

On my way to collect the presentation team from the Marathon Kids morning work-out, I ran into a lovely group of Ms. Colmenero’s Green Heroes who had picked up all the litter around the track as they logged their daily half mile run!

All this awesome occurred before 8:30 Monday morning!

Clearly, we were on track for an excellent week and it was, until Imelda apparently decided that we were having too much of a good thing. Students K-5 made outstanding progress in their Code.org courses, researched, wrote, and performed wonderful science shadow stories, fell in love with Wonderopolis, and created fantastical environments, creatures, and courses with Keva planks, LEGO, and OZOBOT. Monarch Heroes earned and made their wings, and all the Green Teams practiced their theme songs. 

All my classes did fantastic work and stayed engaged through threatening skies, deafening thunder, uncomfortably close lightning strikes, and rapidly rising waters. Thursday was challenging, but our school community definitely rose to the occasion!

This week also saw Houston Ballet on campus for our first Arts Partner residency of the year. Ms. Ballentine’s third grade will be exploring physical science concepts through movement with the marvelous Dance to Learn program. The class loves it and has already awarded instructor Mr. Paul rock-star status!

Friday’s closure was especially disappointing as 5^th grade was slated to visit the Houston Ballet’s beautiful Center for Dance for the Behind the Scenes program. We were privileged to take a group to this last year and it was an incredible experience! Houston Ballet is incredibly good to us and have already reached out to try to reschedule despite the program being fully booked! We love our Arts Partners!

2019-20 STEAM Lab week 3

More wonderful student work! This week Ms. Allende, Ms. Dipersio, Ms. Mosquera, Ms. White, Mr. M. Torres, and Ms. E. Guzman’s classes were in the lab.

We kicked off Monday with a presentation of one of last week's super Science Shadow Stories for the administration meeting. then this week's students were introduced to the expectations and procedures, and  their new coding classes. K-2 love the addition of Flipgrid and 3rd-5th did a great job with their Wonderopolis Daily Wonder and using Classroom Q to request help.

Eco-Schools update: Ms. Allende’s Green Heroes were joined by Ms. Almanza and Ms. Caro’s classes for campus clean-up and cape making thanks to Ms. Roesch and Ms. Wheatley. Ms. Pham’s Monarch Heroes came to the lab to test for earning their wings and passed with flying colors (orange and black)! Ms. Dipersio’s Monarch Heroes got their wings finished and proudly wore them back to class on Friday. Our 2nd grade Recycling Team had their first collection day and did splendidly!

No Place For Hate: Our coalition had their first meeting and discussed the Resolution of Respect, distributed the pledge to every classroom and office, and created a schedule for the new No Place For Hate Moment of the Morning News. They were assigned creating the campus climate survey and choosing this year’s school-wide events. I am so excited about next week’s follow-up to see what they decide! Strella and Joshua have already filmed their first No Place for Hate Moments and they are already airing!


Wednesday I met with all the teachers to share the updates to G/T for this school year and some of my favorite classroom tools and strategies to promote higher-level thinking and authentic engagement for all students such as Wonderopolis, Flipgrid, and Scratch. I am so happy to see so much interest and look forward to their use in more Piney Point classrooms!

We finished up with an awesome Free Build Friday!