Icy Weather Can’t Stop Presentations at Roosevelt!

Want to see student presentations and projects for yourself? Come to our TAF Varsity Luncheon on March 13th!

Roosevelt Elementary School came into the TAF TransformEd network with a wealth of experience and history. When we began a partnership during the COVID19 pandemic, its teachers had seen a lot. The school is over 100 years old and many of the teachers there are veterans with 10 or more years of experience. One of those teachers has 25 years of experience, all at Roosevelt.

So, on the day of their school-wide exhibition, when ice delayed school by two hours, the teachers worked it out. They had to make a call to either delay presentations that students had been preparing for weeks or to make the day work with the time they had.

Despite weather issues and delays, 14 families showed up to support students from kindergarten to 5th grade presenting their learning.

An ice delay on exhibition day of wasn’t the only curveball thrown at the teachers this year. Thay had the added stress of a new curriculum, a new principal, and a new STEMbyTAF integration coach this school year.

When working with teachers at the beginning of the year, the STEMbyTAF planning tool was helpful to set the year up for success. The tool requires educators to invest time upfront to plan out their work, but that makes hitting every standard easier.

The planning tool allows teachers to lay out how projects will hit standards across subjects, determine how the central question will relate to community, identify other ways to create authentic experiences, and much more.

Two community partners involved at Roosevelt this PBL cycle were the Tacoma Humane Society and Enviro Challenger. The Tacoma Humane Society partnered to help kindergarteners learn about different care needs for animals in their communities while Enviro Challenger did demonstrations about water conservation for the 3rd and 5th grade.

Let’s look at some projects. Each grade was paired with another grade so that students presented and learned from each other throughout the exhibition.

5th Grade - Salmon and the Puyallup Tribe

5th grade students taught students in the 3rd grade about the life cycle of salmon, the Puyallup tribe’s relationship to salmon, and why taking care of salmon and their habitat is important. Afterwards, the grades did an art activity together.

The conversation in this picture even got into caviar being eggs from fish like salmon. Neither student had ever had it before.

2nd Grade - People & Community

2nd grade learned about the importance of community. To show their learning, they built their own communities out of Legos and explained the importance of specific jobs and people within their community.

Kindergarten - Caring for Animals

Kindergarten students presented about how to take care of the most common animals seeking homes at the Tacoma Humane Society: dogs, cats, and rabbits.

You have the chance to see students present learning and projects next month at TAF’s Varsity Luncheon. Register now.