Our Dot Day Celebration

On September 15, 2015 our class celebrated Dot Day. The day is named after the book, The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. Dot Day is a day in which everyone celebrates how they are going to make their mark on the world.  We also celebrate how creativity is a brillant thing that can really make the world a better place.

The Dot is a book about a little girl, Vashti, that thinks she can't draw. Then her teacher comes over and says "make a mark and see where it takes you."  She gave it a good jab, and the teacher said, "Now sign it." So she signed it. The teacher took her "jabbed art" and framed it. That's when Vashti realized that she could do so much more than just that small dot. Her creativity grew and she inspired another young artist to try something new and make a mark on the world. (Read hte second book in the series, Ish, to learn his story.)

So we discussed how each of us has something unique about us that can make the world a better

place. A unique talent is how you can make your mark on the world.  Even a small mark can make a big change in the world.  Even if you think you can't do somthing, we learned that you just have to try. Even little things you do you can make your mark on the world of just one person. That's important.

We made a lot of things for Dot Day.  Some of the things were a name cloud using 30 words that described ourselves. We also did an art project using a recucyled jar lid. We create an abstract piece of art in teh lid that represents who we are on the inside. It will become a magnet for our locker to remind us to make our mark. We also  wrote a tweet about how we will make our mark on the world and shared it with the one million other students who were also celebrating Dot Day aroud the world. We did challenging dots puzzles.  We even had a Dot Day Cafe that consisted of DOTS, smarties, and skittles!  

WE LOVED DOT DAY!!!!!!! Not only was it a really fun day, it was a day with really important conversations and sharing of ideas. 

~Lili, Sarah, Anna Claire

Our First Days at #RQMSJags

This school year has gotten off to a phenomenal start. Our days were filled with top secret missions, art, critical thinking, music, challenges, games, engineering, team building, and problem-solving. We spent time establishing our learning environment and setting the norms for a year filled with learning. Below you can see some of the highlights. Be sure to sign up on this blog to get emails when a new post is published and follow us @RamsaysClass on Twitter and Instagram. You don't want to miss a single moment of our epic learning adventures.

Innovation Day: Let's Get Ready to Learn!

On February 21-22 we did a little thing called Innovation Day. Actually, it was a BIG thing. The entire 6th grade got to study and learn about a topic that they wanted to learn about. They also had to make a project showing what they learned. That's right....the STUDENTS got to choose what they wanted to learn about and how they wanted to share their learning.

After conferring with teacher and completing a planning guide, the students were split up into groups based on topic. The students got to spend all of their academic classes (P.E. and elective is not an academic class) in that one room and work on their projects in order to find the answers to their wonderings and become an expert on their topic. At the end of the day they had to be experts on their topic. The students could study whatever topic they wanted. Their were no limits, but it had to be done by the end of the day.

The next day the students shared their projects to half the grade. All of the projects were very creative. We had projects on Mardi Gras, car engineering, chocolate, even nail polish. Some kids made Glogsters, Tackk, Storyjumpers, powerpoints or Vokis while other built things or created models.

The projects were well thought through and very interesting. Some of the kids brought treats for the other kids that related to their projects. The students had to present their projects in less than two minutes. While one kid was presenting everybody else had to write down on a sheet of paper the presenters name, topic, subject(s), and something they learned.

Everybody enjoyed the day and learned about topics that they would not learn about in school. I can't wait to do this again. It was an amazing filled with more learning that we ever could have done without Innovation Day.

Blog you later!!!!!! ~S.C.

Our Urban Legends on Smore

During our Mystery Unit, we learned fact versus opinion. Each group explored different ubran legends that interested us using digital and print resources, and then we used our knowledge of fact and opinion to crete these tabloid like "papers" on Smore. Also, we took our knowledge of graphic sources to add meaning to our writing. Enjoy our Smores and let us know whther you think any of these are pure fact or pure opinion. We'd love to hear your ideas.

Innovation Day- January 2013

Some people may ask "What is Innovation Day?" To our class this isn't a foreign subject. Innovation day is a day were in the classroom the students can choose any topic they can learn about and create a project to teach their information to the other students and the teacher. We organized Innovation Day by informing the students of what Innovation Day is and how they can display their projects.

This year, the students covered many topics from Ancient Greek to Narwhals.  Some examples of the projects are how sound waves travel, and demonstrations of different styles of art. Normally the teacher teaches and the students learn,but on Innovation Day the students are the teachers. Innovation Day teaches the students learn about many different subjects at the same time that aren't even in the curriculum. Innovation Day teaches students how to learn new things while controlling their learning. After all of the students are finished with their projects they present them to their peers and teach them what they have learned.

Tweet Stories

                                                      

 Today we were given the challenge to create a story in 140 characters or less. We thought it would be easy, but we learned to be careful selecting our words to say the most important things. This challenged our thinking and creativity. Can you write Tweet Story? We challenge you to try and share your story in a  comment. We hope you enjoy our Tweet Stories.

Dancing with the Pigs

As a pig wants to be a dancing  star! He always warn heed his favorite TV show, Dancing with the Pigs and dreamed he could dance there one day. 

Dreamland

There once was a land called dreamland. Where people imagined things and they appeared. Jack lives there, and my job is defeating furious dragons.

A Prince and Princess                                                       

Once upon a time there was a princess who was very intelligent but, her parents mistreated her. She met  a prince and they ran away. 

 Spoiled Girl

One morning a witch snuck out to grab children. A spoiled little girl got caught. She pitched a fit and the witch let her go.

Haunted House

Once upon a  time  Lauren and Brooke went to a haunted house. As they creeped through a man with a chainsaw jumped out. They ran for our lives and never looked back.

Billy

Billy is a superhero. He likes to help people with problems. He loves to fight crime, and make the world a better place.

Gross 

An alien named Bob came to planet E. He thought humans were the grossest thing he'd ever seen. Bob threw up all day long and flew away quickly.

Dancing Al 

There was an elephant named Al. He dreamed of cheering for Alabama. He kicked the old mascot of the stage and cheered his heart out.

Fighting for the Right to Dribble

Julie lives in 1974. She is a bright girl. She finds out at school that no girls can play basketball. Julie protested and now they have a girls team.    

Bad Luck? 

Once there was a brown dog and a black cat.The brown dog was jumpy because he thought the black cat was bad luck. It wasn't true. They met and became friends.

World Record for... 

One time a monkey wanted to get into the world record book. He wanted to break the banana eating record. He did by eating 248 bananas. 

Polly Want a Win          A parrot wanted to win a phrase saying contest. He practiced for 26 days. He won by saying 469   phrases.  

A Dog with a Blog 

One day Mya and her family found the most adorable dog and took him home. When they turned around to get him food, he disappeared. He was blogging on their computer. 

A Surprising End 

A frog wanted to kiss a princess, but the princess thought he was disgusting. She finally agreed. When they kissed, she turned into a frog. 

 Suzzy's Dream

A panda named Suzzy wanted to work at a circus. Suzzy had a ungue talent. She can pogo stick and eat ice cream. A circus man discovered Suzzy and she worked at the circus. 
Lost Dog

There was a dog that loved to play. While playing, he found a path. It took him to another world. He was scared and returned home. 

Fame and Learning 

There is a famous person named Mrs. Ramsay. She became famous by giving her students tools to learn. She gave them tech; they Skype too. 

Cheer 

There was a girl named Chelsea. She wanted to cheer at ACE. Her dad said no. So she cried all day, and she gave her dad the silent  treatment. 

Goners 

We went to an old house. Inside, a witch told us to stay and offered candy. She put us in a hot tub. We knew that we were goners. 

Zombies? 
There was a boy named Josh who didn't believe in zombies. One day walking home, he took a shortcut and found a family of zombies.