Genius Hour - Take 1

Today we had our first day of presentations for our first genius hour of the year.  For the first attempt at genius hour I told the students to try to research something that connected to Social Studies...some of the projects were a bit of a stretch, but when it came down to it, the students were researching and loving learning, and that is what I really wanted to have happen.

On day 1 we had the following presentations:

We started the presentations off with a bang...my first student researched the Beatles.  He then shocked us all when he got out his guitar and played "Love Me Do".  Not only did he play, but he also sang.  Holy braveness Batman!

 My next student researched vegetarians & even interviewed our principal and head of food service about getting vegetarian options on the menu.  She brought in some tasty "Vegetarian Hummus Chicken"...which is not actually chicken (in case you didn't figure that out).

 This next stuent researched the history behind banana splits & taught us how to make them...then every student got an opportunity to build one of their own...yum!

We also learned about Hernando Cortes from one of his distant relatives.

We took a trip to ancient Egypt after that.

We also learned about how to make different types of traps if we were to be stuck in the woods and had to survive.

Animal cruelty took center stage after that and we learned about how to treat our animals with love.

Then we took a journey into the arts where we learned about different types of music, Michael Jackson & Elvis Presley.

We then got to meet Pablo Picaso and see some of his famous pieces of art.

Next up we learned about the Mexican culture.

Then we got a crash course in dinosaurs.

After that we learned about Native American art.

Finally, we had a student create an anti-bullying video.  We worked together using Camtasia to create this beauty :)

I can't wait until tomorrow when we have day 2 of presentations...One thing I really love is how excited my students are, and how much they are already looking forward to our next project.