This week students worked together to problem solve two STEM Challenges. Students used a variety of materials such as straws, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, clothes pins, paper plates and cups. On Monday, students worked to create shelter in the Protect-A-Pilgrim challenge. The shelters had to have a way for the pilgrims to enter and exit. They also had to be resistant to damage from wind, rain and snow. Students noticed that the strongest shelters were smaller and more compact, where as the roomiest shelters may not have been resistant to all of the weather elements.
On Tuesday, students created Turkey Transporters using many of the same materials plus string. Students had to help their turkey travel a pre-set distance safely and quickly. Most students chose to create a zip line type path for travel. After timing each group and discussing the results, it was concluded that the safest trip for the turkey had the slowest travel time. The quicker the time, the harsher the stop at the end of the zip line.
Math
Students recently finished Unit 2 of our Math Expressions curriculum. Tests were uploaded into each child's OneNote Math folder and were sent home this week. Unit 3 will challenge students to work more with measurements, clocks and graphs. This week we took some time to play math games that students have learned throughout the year.
Reading and Writing
Students have transitioned over to non-fiction reading and information writing units of study. Our recent writing has included drafting on a variety of topics students consider themselves experts on. Soon each student will pick one of their expert topics to focus on and take through the writing process with the new informational writing techniques we will learn. We will read several mentor texts to help guide our understanding of non-fiction writing.
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