getting into the challenge island mindset · the wacky vocabulary chart: content-related vocabulary...
TRANSCRIPT
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
CHALLENGE ISLAND
MISSION STATEMENT
At the core of Challenge Island is the belief that learning and fun
are not meant to be mutually exclusive entities. Children’s
inherent imagination should be utilized as a central gateway to
their education. The engaging, enriching and wonderfully
whimsical, Challenge Island quests joyfully ignite each child’s
creative and critical thinking creating a vast learning potential.
Come Outthink, Outsmart, and Outplay on Challenge Island!
What is a Challenge Island
Challenge?
It’s a Cool, Creative, and Whimsical Goal Kids may be learning during Challenge Island, but it doesn’t feel at all like school.
Their creative thinking tasks range from dreaming up roller coasters to inventing new
ice-cream flavors to building bridges over “shark-infested” waters. Each of our
challenges appeal to a child’s natural curiosity and spark their inherent imagination.
It’s a Fun and Exciting Opportunity Some might call it problem solving, but on Challenge Island we think of it as an
opportunity to flex and strengthen cognitive and creative muscles. Do mountain
climbers look at mountains as obstacles? No. They see them as a challenge waiting
to be conquered. When they finally reach the top, looking down at the winding path
they took to get there, the feeling of pride and success is, well, mountainous.
It’s an Open-Ended Question Every one of our challenges has infinite solutions. You will never see two tribes come
up with exactly the same product. Every child and group will interpret and tackle a
challenge differently and that’s exactly what it is all about!
It’s a Child-Driven (Rather than Teacher-Driven) Journey Sure we could give kids a blueprint with the answers. But on Challenge Island we believe that students have the ability to create their own blueprint and carve their
own path. A well laid foundation and a few key materials become springboards toward a higher level of problem solving and endless creative potential. This
approach helps to empower our students not only for today but well into their future.
The Power of
Cooperative Learning Challenge Island utilizes the cooperative learning technique. This
successful teaching strategy is built on the philosophy that the best
learning occurs when students are actively engaged in the learning
process and working in collaboration with their peers to accomplish a
shared goal. In a cooperative learning environment, the focus moves
from teacher-centered to student-centered education. Small tribes of
children, made up of students with different ability levels, take on
challenges as a unified group. Each member of the tribe is responsible
not only for doing what he or she should, but also for helping other tribe
members succeed, thus creating an atmosphere of team spirit, respect,
mutual goals and pride in collaborative achievements.
Research suggests that the cooperative learning allows students to
learn with greater depth and complexity while enjoying the experience
even more. Children feel less intimidated by tasks when they’re part of a
team, and tend to work with greater intensity for longer periods of time.
Cooperative learning fosters essential social skills in children while
teaching them how to cooperate and collaborate with others a skill they
will use throughout their lives.
Positive Classroom
Management Challenge Island provides a foundation
for positive classroom management.
THE LAWS OF
CHALLENGE ISLAND
The Challenge Island classroom is filled
with excitement of children creating
and collaborating with their tribe mates.
However, rules and boundaries are
needed to ensure the safety and
learning of every child.
The “Laws of the Island”
set ground rules in a positive way.
TRIBAL STARS
Tribes earn stickers for cooperation,
successful challenges, cleaning up and infinite
other positive actions. It is up to the teacher to
decide how to distribute the stars, although
suggestions are provided in the lesson plans.
Stars are distributed at closing tribal council.
To keep the focus positive rather than
competitive, tell students that all stickers will
be added at the end to determine if they’ve
earned their final tribal celebration.
(Of course they get the celebration,
but we’ll keep that a secret!)
The Challenge Island Totem Pole promotes the
scientific method or fundamental process used by all
great scientists and inventors along the way to their
discoveries and inventions.
This process is incorporated into every
Challenge Island lesson.
Every Challenge Island unit takes place on a unique thematic
island. The islands have locations that correspond with the
challenges students will experience each week.
Building Content Into
Every CI Lesson While the kids are having so much fun they don’t even realize
that they are learning with every Challenge Island lesson.
The following tools help teachers facilitate the learning process.
The K-W-L Chart: K-W-L stands for what we KNOW, what we WANT to know and
what we LEARNED. It provides Challenge Island lessons with
structure and highlights the underlying purpose.
The Wacky Vocabulary Chart:
Content-related vocabulary is introduced and incorporated into
Challenge Island. These new words are displayed on the wacky
vocabulary chart and used in context throughout the lesson.
The Real World Connection Cards: Every Challenge Island lesson is rooted in real-world applications.
Our connection cards link classroom concepts and activities with
famous landmarks and other real-world places and things.
Blooms Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of learning
objectives within education proposed in 1956. It is now
considered to be a foundational and essential element
within the education community. The Challenge Island
curriculum has elementary students thinking at amazingly
high-levels, considering their young age, helping them
apply these skills to school and beyond.
Blooms Taxonomy
categorizes thinking
skills from
lowest to highest.
Blow Carts