S.T.E.M!

Today's STEM challenge was engineering!  After reading this beloved book:

I challenged students to work in groups of 4 to build ONE sturdy coconut tree (blocks) with palm leaves (Popsicle sticks) that supported magnetic letters.  Once the challenge was met, I challenged the groups to build a higher coconut tree, with less palm leaves!  Look at what they accomplished:

At the end of the activity, we gathered together as a group and I asked them about what they did.  After a conversation about trial/error, I asked them what their most important tool was.  One little guy nailed it-- he said, "We had to use our words otherwise people fought over materials!  Can words be a tool?"

Another student piggy-backed, "Our group had to use TEAMWORK!"

My heart is filled :)

3 Ways to Read a Book

We have been practicing reading, and we learned that there are 3 ways to read books...

We have learned 3 words that we can always read:  our name, I, am.  If we can't read the words, we know that the pictures will always match words! We use 3 Ways to Read when we read to self and read to someone.

 



Wednesday morning thunderstorms!

 

We had an unexpected round of thunderstorms this morning!  Many kids asked to make Thunder Cake, but we tried a different science experiment this time... we counted to see how far away the storm was!  We waited for the lightening (we turned off the lights to see the lightening clearly), and counted slowly until the thunder came.  We realized that the first count was 8 seconds, then 10, finally 11 seconds.  The storm was moving away!  This was a huge relief to some!

 

When the storm calmed down, we this book to learn some science behind storms.  You can find it at www.scholastic.com!

 

 

 

 

Zero the Hero!

On our 10th day of school, our class looked at our calendar and learned how to bundle 10 straws and put them into the 10's place!  We realized how special numbers were that end in zero.  We waited all day for Zero the Hero, but he never came... we decided to write him a letter and ask him.

 

 

It worked!  He finally came!  Hi Zero the Hero!

 

 

Zero even danced with us to our "Count by 10's" song.  You can find that here!



Thunder Cake!

Today, we anticipated the thunder storm coming our way by making Thunder Cake!  After reading the book,

we realized that the main character, Patricia, went from being afraid of thunder storms to facing her fears.  Some students made the connection that they were also afraid of thunder storms, and wanted to be brave, too.  Take a look!  Does your child remember the secret ingredient? (.... it's tomatoes!)

STEM: playdoh creations!

The class had a challenge:  Make something with playdoh and popsicle sticks!  They loved the activity and loved how creative their minds were.  Take a look!