Bugsocopters

Muta, Mae, Syris, Greer, Noah, Lola and Moebius took part in the Bugsocopters science unit. Bugscopters are a t-shaped, paper, helicopter-like creation of Larry Schafer, formerly professor of Science Teaching at SU. The students completed six experiments in which they compared their standard bugsocopter to another that varied in just one way. Each experiment consisted of two tests. The first test was comparing if the varied bugsocopter fell faster, slower or the same as the standard bugsocopter and the second test was comparing if the twirling was faster, slower or the same. Each student stood on a desk to drop their two bugsocopters and carefully observed the falling and twirling. These experiments gave students the opportunity to graph their data on histograms, gather data as a class, interpret and compare data, make careful observations, define and understand variables and recognize the importance of limiting the variables to just one in an experiment.

Ancient Greece: Daily Life

This Fall the youngest group of students took part in the school wide study of Ancient Greece. They focused on the daily life of children and compared their own schooling, clothing, homes, food, games and pots to those of Ancient Greece. Each student created a book documenting their comparisons of each topic. 

They colored maps of Greece using a key to show the coast, mountains, Athens, Sparta, the Mediterranean Sea and the many Greek islands. They used visual thinking strategies to conclude that Ancient Greece had temples, stadiums for sports, mountains, Spartans, statues and vases. They also recognized that Ancient Greece was a sandy place, that Ancient Greeks wore “robes” and didn’t always wear shoes, they used clay to make pots, had “curved rectangles” (arches) in many of their buildings, did a lot of sports, and must have had a lot of stone to build with. 

They used this background knowledge and new information we learned from reading books to add to their illustrations and written descriptions of each topic in their Ancient Greece books. They learned how to use an abacus, they drew a house plan of an Ancient Greek home, tried homemade hummus, ate olives and feta, decorated their own clay pot and watched an interactive video of the Ancient Greek Olympics. 

Geometry

          The youngest group of students participated in a TERC Investigations geometry unit. They observed, described, compared, classified and built 2-D and 3-D shapes. During class, in pairs, the students sorted and classified 18 2-D shapes into groups. Each student designed their own quilt square using squares and triangles that they repeated to create a pattern. They were able to see how repeating the pattern created different shapes. They developed their vocabulary to describe 3-D shapes by matching geoblocks to outlines of the block faces. In pairs, they built their own 3-D rectangular prisms.

Building Number Sense and Mathematical Thinking

  

          Five of our youngest children took part in a TERC Investigations math unit on Building Number Sense and Mathematical Thinking. An integral part of this unit is having students explain their mathematical strategies that they did by drawing pictures, using numbers, words and manipulatives and counting in their head or on their fingers. Each student solved the problems in a way that made sense to them.

          The students worked with numbers 1-20 by building a structure using 20 interlocking cubes.They built staircases to show the amounts of 1-12 with interlocking cubes that gave them the opportunity to work with even and odd numbers and more than/less than. In an activity called “Peas and Carrots” each student determined different combinations to make 7 in all. They wrote stories about animals to determine different ways to make eleven and fifteen. They participated in activities identifying and creating different types of patterns.

Ramps

Children in grades Kindergarten through Second Grade have been exploring ramps in science one afternoon a week.  We started by discussing what a ramp was and what it might be used for.  Our first experiments looked at the different surfaces on our ramps and how that effected the distance our car would go off the bottom of the ramp.  We talked about what a variable is and how we could only change one variable at a time.  So for each test, we needed to use the same car, the same number of blocks to prop the ramp up and measure from the same point.  We even discussed "letting the car go" instead of pushing it and why it would go down the ramp - GRAVITY!  Our second set of tests involved the height of the ramps.  Students quickly found out that too few blocks as well as too many blocks made the ramp unusable as a means for getting the car to travel any distance.  As we finish out our unit, we'll be exploring the variable of weight on our ramps as well as trying to make the "perfect" ramp that will make our object go the farthest.

Little House and maple syrup

Our youngest eight students have been having a wonderful time exploring the time period of pioneers by using Laura Ingalls Wilder's book Little House in the Big Woods.  We started by reading a biography about Laura and then started reading her first book.  As we explored the big woods with Laura and her family, we've also learned a lot about a time before electricity!  We've seen and touched an iron that Ma would have used.  We've "churned" our own butter by shaking whipping cream until it formed into a lump.  We've seen and touched a washboard.  A favorite activity was when we got to visit Beaver Lake and see how Maple Syrup was made.  This was a huge part of the book we were reading and it was fun to experience it first hand.  Next we'll be following Laura and her family as they move to the prairie in the next book, Little House on the Prairie.