First Graders Meet Mr. Moose!

The first graders wrote a book. First we read a book about an Indian boy. Then we made up a setting in the forest. Next we thought of the characters and gave them names. After that, we thought of a problem and a solution. We told the story to Mrs. Sand and she typed it on her computer, but we could see it on the TV. That was great! We could just see it and read it as we made it up. We printed a copy for each student and we put it in the book binding machine so we could each have our own book. Then we drew pictures. The last thing we did was make up a funny title -- The Fat, Chubby Moose!!

A Little North Winn Drama?

Meretta, Katey, Phoebe, Chloe, Natalie, and Shane are making American flags! Or at least acting like it -- through their portrayal of the history of the U.S. flag from the Betsy Ross original all the way through adding Alaska and Hawaii. This play was produced as an enrichment activity through the G/T Challenge program. Congratulations on a fine production!

Math Olympiad

Fifth and sixth graders participate in the International Math Olympiad Program. Students work in cooperative groups weekly to learn new problem solving strategies for tackling complex math problems. Then once a month each student competes against students around the world taking a challenging 5-question test. This is last year's group of students with awards, patches, and certificates celebrating a great year of learning.

For more information, check out the Math Olympiad Website.

Invent Iowa

Liz and Natalie putting their creative inventing ideas into action!

Future Problem Solvers

Two teams of middle schoolers participate in the Future Problem Solvers, an international creative problem solving program.

Four-member teams research and apply the FPS process to at least three different topics annually. The topics are chosen two years in advance by FPS team members worldwide and their coaches. These topics address social, scientific, political, economic, or technological issues.

Team members work creatively and collaboratively on this six-step process:
1. Identify challenges related to the future scene.
2. Select an underlying problem.
3. Produce solutions to the underlying problem.
4. Create criteria to evaluate solutions.
5. Using a grid format, evaluate solutions.
6. Develop an Action Plan for the best solution