Picture This

I love seeing plans in action. We, as teachers, plan and hope what we think will work...works. We are coming to the end of many of the FOSS kits such as water and mixtures and solutions. The first graders, however are in the middle of their Balance and Motion unit with a few additions from Mrs. H. This week ROCKED. They loved the cars. Using the FOSS parts I had them engineer a car that rolled...not slid.  Giving them two sizes of straws to fit together. That was the trick to having it roll. Many kiddos want to have the answer right away, but I set them up knowing that they would have to problem solve. We then measured using yard sticks. One small push between the first yard, a medium push to measure with the second ruler, and a large push to the third yard to see how force affects the speed. We learned how to use calculators to add 36 + 36 +...

I also love the engineering of the water wheel, however I think it is so important to add the concept of potential and kinetic energy as they create and build.

On to what I am doing after school. I am teaching an engineering class. The theme...roller coasters. This week, most of my kids were gone to school forest. That means, only four kids per hour. That left us with a great way to use a kit I bought and wasn't sure if it was going to be worth it. Was I wrong! The kit was awesome. We didn't use it the way it showed...we build our own model using whatever we needed from around the room. Check out one of the groups. We needed to add vocabulary words and use them as in our conversation. Three of the after school kiddos...take a look at the chairs, boxes, and anything they could find. Gotta love it.

Tomorrow is planning day! Until tomorrow.