'Tis the season to think critically. Our junior engineers display GRIT with every engineering challenge. They keep trying and improving designs. Students work with a partner or on a team displaying collaboration and communication skills. Most of all, these are life skills. This month has been a lot of fun designing and planning solutions for an elf and Santa's reindeer.
Pre-K and Kindergarten and First Grade
Pre-K and Kindergarten students used nuts, bolts, wood, and a wrench to create inventions. They displayed some wonderful ingenuity.
Pre-K, kindergarten, and first graders listened to the story How to Catch an Elf. Then, they imagined, planned, designed, and created an elf trap.
They had so many good ideas that I included more photos. Students' explanations were priceless and thorough.
First, Second, and third graders learned to think about ways to be culturally aware. They learned the definition of culture. In addition, using the book One Plastic Bag as a model, they learned to recycle plastic bags and make bracelets. The bracelets were sold to raise money for our STEM program. Students were challenged to reuse, recycle, and reduce at home.
Second Grade and Third Grade
Reindeer Races were fun and educational.
Second and third graders used collaboration and critical thinking skills to design a reindeer that could fly far and fast. They learned about weight distribution, air, and variables such as straight or slanted for speed/momentum. They worked on a team, measured the distance, calculated the distance in inches and converted it to feet and yards. In addition, they learned to record their data on a table. Then, they compared the distances and ordered them from greatest to least.
December has flown by. I wish your family a wonderful time during the break. A time to have fun, rest, relax, rejuvenate, and make memories.
Please check out the November Newsletter for some simple and fun family STEM activities that would be perfect to do together over the holidays.
I'm looking forward to seeing your wonderful children in the New Year.
Have a great day.
Mrs. Pamela Hall