Book Tasting: Fantasy

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The Roughneck Book Club held its first book tasting this week.  The fantasy genre was featured this round, and a book tasting for every genre soon will take place soon.  Participants enjoyed an appetizer, entree and dessert round featuring books fresh off the library shelf!

To begin, we discussed book tasting etiquette.

Next, everyone dived into the menu!

The students enjoyed sampling books that they might not ordinarily try out.

Making New Friends ‘Across the Pond’

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Recently, our sixth-grade students had the opportunity to Skype with Mr. Maxwell’s students in the United Kingdom.  The students loved getting to know each other.  Even though they live thousands of miles apart, 4,671 miles to be exact, they discovered many common interests including sports, music, and a love for Diary of a Wimpy Kid books!

After each class took turns reading a favorite children’s book, the students had the opportunity to ask questions of their classmates in Surrey including, “How much homework do you have?” The answer from Mr. Maxwell’s class was, “Loads!”

 

In order to learn more about each other and stay in touch with our new friends, we have launched a postcard project.  White Oak students in Mrs. Kelley’s class chose postcards with facts and interesting information about Texas and U.S. landmarks to mail. Each postcard includes a message with book recommendations, favorite songs, and more. The students were extremely creative with their questions and thoughts!

Stay tuned as we share postcards from our friends ‘across the pond’ soon!

March Madness Book Wars

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March Madness Book Wars is Back!

The White Oak Middle School Book Club is sponsoring book wars again this year.  Sixteen books have been nominated as possible contenders for the ultimate prize-the favorite book at WOMS.  Beginning next week all students will have the opportunity to vote in round one.

Who will win? Stay tuned to find out!

 

Bringing Ideas to Life

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The newest addition to the White Oak Middle School Media Center Makerspace is a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer courtesy of the White Oak Education Foundation.  Our students now have the opportunity to bring their ideas to life. Our first test designs have included the White House, the Empire State Building, and the Alamo.

The real challenge will be mastering the design process. This is where the real learning takes place. The Roughneck Tech Club will use design software like TinkerCad and SketchUp to bring our students’ ideas to life.  Whether our students are printing prototypes, artifacts or scale models, the goal is for them to be creators and not merely consumers in the education process. We would like to expressly thank the White Oak Education Foundation for always supporting the students of White Oak ISD.

Stay tuned for more news from the WOMS Media Center…

Creating Video Games with Bloxels

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The Roughneck Tech Club used Bloxels to create original video games this week.  The Bloxels app and game board allows students to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to create complex video games. Using design logic and computer science, students can demonstrate knowledge in a variety of subject areas including mathematics, history, science and more.

Starting with the game board, Bloxels are then added to create a picture in the app. Students can create their own original characters and avatars.  One hundred and sixty-nine different rooms can be designed to add complexity to the game.

Narrative stories can easily be added to compliment problem-based learning. Every virtual world is unique to each student.

Bloxels provides tutorial support as well as lesson plans and activities on their website. Check out Bloxels Across the Globe to find classrooms around the world that participate in video game design.

Once all the tech club members have finalized their video games, a game day will be held to share the creations!