Peek Into the Classroom: Ms. May's Classroom

Outside Ms. May’s grade 2 class at Lone Pine Elementary, a prominent display of student research adorns the bulletin board. The research reports are on colorful construction paper with handwritten notes and drawings, and cover a variety of topics like capybaras, Jordan Chiles, and Dr. Seuss. 

The projects are all from Genius Hour, a beloved time in Ms. May’s class when students get to take a break from following teacher instructions and instead follow their own interests. It’s a lot of fun, but also builds important skills in research, note-taking, and presenting.

Today, Genius Hour is the last 20 minutes of the school day, and students settle into their chairs to pull out supplies: construction paper, writing utensils, and sticky notes. Several students choose to do their research on PebbleGo or Epic! (online student research and book applications), while others might choose books from the media center. The only parameter for the research is that it must be on an animal or a person, but from there the sky is the limit. 

Dayana Alvarado De La Cruz is researching Princess Diana, an extension of a previous project she did on Queen Elizabeth. Meanwhile, in the reading corner, Rocco Modiano, Henrik Thorsen, and Gianni Serio discuss as a group what their next projects will be, and Modiano announces to the others, “I’m definitely going to find a hockey player!” Ms. May walks around the room, occasionally stopping to help a student, or simply listening as someone tells her an interesting fact. At one point she reminds a group, “What is the most important thing you want to teach us about your topic?”

At the end of today’s Genius Hour session, it’s Gigi Peterson’s turn to present a project she recently finished. Peterson’s project is titled “Chinchillas” and includes several interesting facts about the animal, including their habitat, diet, and typical herd sizes. At the end of the presentation she excitedly shares, “I’ve actually held a chinchilla before!” Then, a few minutes are dedicated to classmates’ questions, and several raise their hands. It is clear that Peterson has piqued others’ interest in chinchillas!

Genius Hour is a wonderful example of the creative learning happening every day in Bloomfield Hills Schools, in this case blending student-led discovery with non-fiction research and writing.