What's Happening at LTSA?

What a lovely time we all had at the Trunk or Treat yesterday! Thank you to all the volunteers who made it happen. Happy Halloween! 🎃

This past Thursday these students finally got to take a field trip that in previous years has been a Spanish class favorite. Typically when Spanish 1 students complete their unit on food and restaurant ordering, we take a field trip to “Mi Tradición”, a Mexican bakery and restaurant on Peyton Gin and Research Boulevard. Due to our special circumstances last school year, these three students were not able to take that field trip, but we finally rectified that this past Thursday. Students ordered tasty treats and snacks from the staff at the restaurant speaking completely in Spanish. This bunch got to try aguas frescas ("fresh waters", or fruit juice), huaraches de nopal (cactus on a black corn and flour tortilla) and Tinga (shredded chicken with chipotle and adobo sauce). We also ordered traditional pastries including churros and conchas.  After our visit to the restaurant, we visited El Mercado, a food market specializing primarily in imported Mexican foods. These guys had th...

 Last week, kindergarten and first grade students had their first Technology class with Ms. Cheyenne. We read a book about electricity and began creating paper circuits. We are using conductive tape and LEDs to create light-up cards! 💡

 In 4-5 math, we have been exploring how to compare fractions, how to find equivalent fractions, and how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. We have used a variety of manipulatives and representations to make sense of these concepts, including models built in Minecraft Education.

 This week our older elementary Spanish group played “Pesca”, our own version of the card game, Go Fish. Students have learned two of three verbs in Spanish which all can be used like the English verb, “to be”. We have learned “ser” and how to pair it with adjectives that describe things about ourselves that don’t change easily. We also learned how the verb “tener” which in many cases means “to have” can also be used like the English verb “to be”. In this lesson, students practiced using the verb to ask “do you have” and to answer, “Yes, I do have…” or “No, I don’t have..,”.  In the game, the students practiced numbers from 2-14, and will be using this eventually to ask and answer questions about their age. In Spanish, the question, “How old are you?” translates to “How many years do you have?”

Our Learning Phenomenon this year is Striving to Survive and Thrive. We are exploring many aspects of surviving and thriving throughout all of our classes. In HUB and FACS classes we are starting to discuss being prepared for emergencies. Today, middle and high school students were able to participate in First-Aid and CPR Training. Our students impressed the instructor with their curiosity and questions. All students were able to practice CPR on adult, child, and baby models. Students also practiced methods for assisting choking victims and how to deal with other emergency situations. 

 Some of our members of our Yearbook Club are becoming great Drone operators!  We are learning the controls and the technology so that we can take some pictures at different perspectives especially when we are out on a field experience! They have also put together a slide deck on safety and FAA rules and regulations! 

Students in 8th grade and above took the PSAT today. There were a lot of nerves for sure, but several students took a turn at the piano playing a variety of familiar and original songs to relax and lift everyone's spirits in the morning before testing began. 

 In 2-5 HUB, our current driving question is, "How can we design a solution that will help an animal thrive?" We kicked off the unit by learning about an animal who was not thriving, Winter , a dolphin who lost her tail. As we learn about Winter, our inquiry has centered around the question, "How can we design a prosthetic that will help Winter thrive?" Students investigated ways that animals move through water and learned to use a new tool, TinkerCAD , to design a prosthetic tail for Winter.  As we move deeper into this unit, we will begin researching endangered species, and as a final project for the unit, students will design a solution to help protect an endangered species of their choice. This week students are also starting a new Technology class with Ms. Cheyenne, where they will be exposed to even more new technology tools that they can opt to use in this or future HUB projects. 

 We have been exploring gears in elementary robotics! We learned about how gearing up and gearing down can be helpful in simple machines and built our own gear trains, identifying driver and follower gears. Some students were even able to explore some of the more advanced gears in their kits, including worm gears and rack gears!

  As we dive into the school year, we have been doing a lot of problem solving in 2-5 math. We will typically focus on deeply exploring just one or two rich word problems in a class period rather than doing lengthy worksheets/workbook pages of drill-type problems. When someone quickly solves the problem, that student is prompted to think more deeply about their approach and elaborate in their communication of their reasoning to clearly prove their answer. Students are encouraged to use a variety of tools and strategies. They present their thinking to their classmates and ask questions to understand each other's strategies. We build off of what they intuitively understand to develop a variety of approaches to problem solving and work to develop flexibility in the types of strategies we use based on the unique numbers and problem context.  We have also been playing a wide variety of math games to get extra practice on basic operations and rounding in an engaging way that in...

Our first month of learning new tools and techniques during our Makerspace Engineering classes has been such a blast. Students have explored a variety of maker skills and materials and I enjoy watching their creative minds and hands so hard at work. I love this time where students get to choose what they want to learn and as a result, we have SO many different projects going on at any given time. Students have jumped right into learning how to use sewing machines, Motosaw, Zipsnip, and pyrography pens! And wow do these kids love textiles! Some current projects include blankets, pillows, Halloween costumes, needle felting, pot holders, friendship bracelets, crochet, and knitting.