Our Collaboratory Cubs Continue to Shine

Our kindergarten engineers completed their bridge projects this week, and I am so proud of their finished products!  They worked hard through every step of the Engineering Design Process and persevered through multiple improvements to make their bridges the best they could be!  Take a look at their wonderful creations:

Our Pre-K friends were so inspired by the bridges that their kindergarten friends built that they wanted to join in on the fun!  The students were challenged to make sturdy rainbow bridges that could hold as much leprechaun gold as possible, using only clay and pipe cleaners.   The students got a great mini-lesson in the ROYGBIV rainbow, and they got to work on their fine motor skills, all while helping a little leprechaun!  I love that they are already building their background knowledge of bridges because it will come in handy when they are in kindergarten!

Speaking of leprechauns, our first graders have been given the difficult task of trying to catch one!  We read Leprechaun on the Loose which is a great story about how a little boy set out to catch the leprechaun who was causing some mayhem in his classroom, but he catches him in a kind and gentle way and then decides to let him go so that he can save his class's St. Patrick's Day party.  Inspired by the story, our firsties have decided to create kind and gentle leprechaun traps so that they can hopefully catch leprechauns, learn more about their lifestyles, give them a special treat, and let them go.  

Our second grade environmental engineers have completed their first prototypes of their water filtration systems and have moved on to making some improvements to their designs for their next prototypes.  They have done some truly amazing work!

Our third graders will be using what they learned from the sounding pole experiment to continue on in their ocean engineering unit.

Our fourth grade mechanical engineers have completed their first prototypes of their windmills and have been actively testing them and making some improvements to them.  Some groups have made such strong improvements that their windmills are powerful enough to lift cups of weights!

We are looking forward to another great week ahead!

Olympians, Readers, Environmentalists, and Engineers

The Collaboratory has been buzzing with excitement as the students were very eager to tackle some Olympics-inspired challenges, learn from special guests, and solve some real-world problems.  Take a look at what we did:

In Pre-K, we designed and created our own Classroom Curling Competition!  The students made all of the gear themselves!  I think we have some future Olympians on our hands!

Also, in honor of Read Across America Week, our Pre-K students helped to design and build structures that looked like the Cat in the Hat's hat!  They worked on creating patterns, counting materials, and using fine motor skills.  They made some pretty incredible hats!

  

  

  

In kindergarten, students took a break from their bridge project to learn about how water is the "bridge" to life!  Since our kinders will be working on designing a special bridge that will be built over a rain garden that is being installed in our Outdoor Classroom, it was important for students to learn about how water moves and what it can do.  Our special guest, Mrs. Armento, even modeled the movement of water for our students using a special tool called an enviroscape, and the students got to act out how water moves in a special game.  The students had a blast!

  

  

Our first graders have been busy loving bobsledding and books!  First, they were challenged to build the fastest indoor bobsled that they could, so they could enjoy the sport and stay out of the cold!  We also had to enlist the help of our firsties to help the Cat in the Hat solve a problem that he had:  his hat was too uncomfortable to wear to bed with his pajamas, but he still wanted something special to wear on his head at night. Therefore, our first graders designed and created some awesome sleeping caps for him!

Our second graders have started using their plans and budgets to build their first prototypes of their water filtration systems.  Mrs. Armento even joined us to share lots of information about the importance of keeping our water clean and about what we can do to help make sure water stays clean and gets used effectively.  

  

  

Our third graders built their own model sounding poles and then tested them out by using them to collect research about their model ocean floors.  This activity really showed students how technology starts to evolve based on needs and problems that arise.

Our fourth graders have been using their blueprints to create their first prototypes of their windmills!  

 I am so proud of everything that our students have accomplished so far this year, and I can't wait to see all of the wonderful things they will do throughout the rest of the year!