Third Times A Charm
#1 Took Our Pictures
#2 We are Scientists
#3 We are "STEMS"
#4 Made Puff Car
#5 Made new friends
#6 Best Teacher Ever
#7 Beanbags are Awesome
#8 Lots of chairs
#9 Drew Self Portrait
#10 Every Day Counts
#11 Have a Smartboard
#12 Built a car
#13 The Best Class
#14 (absent)
#15 Lots of Fun
#16 Took Math Test
#17 Lots of Books
#18 Lunch with 4thGraders
#19 Read Judy Moody
#20 Friends are made
#21 Read Box Rental
#22 Bookshelf fell over! (no worries, don't cry over spilt books)
Ready Set BLOW!
Did your child come home and empty out cabinets looking for straws and lifesavors? My apologies in advance for inspiring young minds to think like a Scientist, Technologist, Engineer, and a Mathematician! For their first cooperative group assignment, students were placed in teams and given 3 straws, 4 lifesavers, 2 paper clips, 50 cm of tape, and a piece of paper. Their only instructions: Design and build a vehicle that will move by air. Students quickly got to work planning, discussing their thoughts and ideas, organizing materials, and building their Puff Vehicle. Once constructed, students tested them out and made necessary adjustments. Finally, we gathered in the hallway where we put our vehicles to the test!
The results were impressive, with one vehicle traveling just over 11 FEET and a second vehicle traveling 5 feet. Both vehicles were similar in design, which generated a huge discussion. The best part of the lesson was not how far the vehicles traveled, but the amount of learning that transpired from this cooperative lesson. Students later reflected on the similarities of the two winning vehicles and differences of the less successful ones. They also collaborated with their teams on ideas for how they could improve on their design. Next week student engineers will be back in the lab trying to redesign the best Puff Vehicle.
Puff Cars was the highlight of the week, but we were also able to get in a spelling inventory, an Every Day Counts math assessment, played two review math games from our Investigations program, filled out several surveys and began our first read aloud, Judy Moody.
Photos and videos of this task will be uploaded on this website once I have received written permission from parents, permission forms will be sent home next week!
Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day weekend!
Professor Webster
For a copy of this lesson plan click here: