National Lunch Week inspires Open Doors Students

Open Doors classes really practiced Dr. Bowen's message of "Having Fun as They Learn" this week. As the students prepared for National Lunch Week with the theme All Star Lunches; they also had the opportunity to review skills that will be tested on the District Test next week. Students discussed what it meant to be an All-Star. The students worked in groups to create a FLOW MAP that demonstrated Cause and Effect. Nautica and Maisie had fun explaining the chart to Dr. Bowen. Students in the fourth and fifth grade painted posters and banners that will be used to decorate the cafeteria for National Lunch Week. Wow!!! Learning is so much fun!!!




One center for the second graders was to compete in placing the chess pieces on the board correctly and quietly. Students had no trouble with accuracy....but practice was needed on the quietness as they got so excited about the center.




Travis, Jamal, Jalisea, and Jameia worked hard on the Cause and Effect chart.

A Little Tasty Experiment

WOW!!! A comparison and contrast of the same cake mix made two different ways. The Open Door students enjoyed this healthy and tasty lesson. Students created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two of the same cake mixes made with different ingredients. A survey among 34 students was taken and the results were that the cake made with the Diet Sprite tasted the best!!! WOW! The students could not wait to get home to tell the family about this new, healthy cake. Students were able to tell how a Venn Diagram could be used in other subjects and in other areas of Open Doors.

Students in Open Doors enjoyed making play dough completing a lesson on "sequencing, following directions, and writing specific directions". The students compared purchased play dough to homemade play dough and determined that making your own play dough was cheaper; there was a larger quantity, and the fun of making your own was NO comparison. The students had so much fun using the play dough to make models of the brain. They will continue a study of the brain by making models using different materials next week while learning the functions of the different parts of the brain.











Armand enjoys a simulation of brain surgery on the computer.





Nautica and Shamia think this study is too much fun!!!


The students were asked to write specific directions for how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mrs. Land told the students to write EVERY detail and to be very explicit in their directions. (Students learned what that word meant.) Mrs. Land proceeded to follow the directions exactly how they were written.
The result:
"Put the peanut butter on the bread." Mrs. Land did what the directions said and actually put the peanut butter on the bread.

"Put the peanut butter and jelly on the bread and put the top piece of bread on top."
WOW!!! Someone would have a hard time eating that one!!"

Maisie gets a real kick out of trying to eat this sandwich.


Ladarius and Daeceion think this is a really funny sandwich.




Judge Kidd enjoyed watching the students as they answered a test about "following directions" that Mrs. Land gave the students. This was a trick "test" to see if the students would follow the directions. The TRICK: At the top of the page students were told to read ALL of the statements BEFORE answering the test. On the bottom line the statement said, "Now that you have read all of the statements, answer #1 and turn your paper over." ONLY one child followed the directions clearly....but the rest sure had fun following the directions of the test!!

Sculptures and Paintings

Students have worked hard to complete work on sculptures and paintings in order for their parents to see them at the Parent/Teacher Conferences. Dr. Bowen and Mrs. Grigsby stopped by the room to look at the projects and made some very encouraging comments. The younger students actually got to use the sewing machine to sew the borders on their painted quilt squares. THIS activity took place under much SUPERVISION. These lessons were wonderful lessons on the gifted curriculum strand, autonomous learning. Mrs. Land caught the students on film as they worked on different tasks singing the class theme song, "The Climb". She will try to upload the video.


Mrs. Land was really tickled at something Jalesia said.


Nautica thought that this was a really neat task and could not wait to show it to her mom.

Jamal will be a wonderful driver when he gets older. He had great control over the foot pedal and did not get a ticket for "speeding" on the sewing machine.




"This is really COOL, Mrs. Land"






While waiting for their turns to sew, the students used creativity to make something from the Zomes.

Sculptures in Open Doors

Students took wire and sculpted it into a stick person. The students then wrapped the figure with tape. They shaped the figure into a shape to represent them in some way. Some students created cheerleaders, some created knights,ball players, etc. The hard part for the students was finishing the sculpture with a five paragraph essay about their sculpture. Mrs.Land explained to the students about the importance of following through with each project with a discussion and writing about WHY the project was important and the areas in the curriculum strands experienced in the sculpture project. The students decided that communication, group dynamics, autonomous learning, research (inward evaluation) and creativity were all some of the strands covered in this project.

More Work from Open Doors

Students in Mrs. Land's room have been doing much work in learning about themselves and exploring how they learn. Students in grades 2 and 3 are working on quilt squares in which they painted self-portraits. The teacher talked with the students about different artist who did self-portraits like Van Gogh. The students in grades 4 and 5 made sculptures out of wire and related the items used in the sculpture to characteristics of themselves. These will be pictured in upcoming posts. Students are looking forward to the projects being viewed by their parents at the Parent/Teacher conferences.

Chess, Gears, Painting and More!!!