Classroom Blog
After sitting in some terrible traffic for over an hour, we arrived for the fourth time at the rice paddies. Everyone was a trooper in the heat!
During this trip, we saw that the plants had grown quite tall. Now, we had to weed the paddy to get rid of the weeds that were going to steal the nutrients from the rice plants, causing them to not grow as well or die. We looked at the weeding tool and noticed that there were simple machines on it to help it move and pull out the weeds. It was a great connection between our two UOIs. Below are pictures of the kids weeding. They soon realized what a tough job this was to do, especially in the water and mud they had to walk through!
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This week we have been investigating forces and motion. We already knew that a force is a push or a pull, but we wanted to delve deeper into the types of forces and how they move simple machines. We had different rotations that students went through as groups. At each rotation they completed a different activity and then discussed what they believed happened and what forces were at work. At the first center, students dropped marbles down different ramps and observed how far they travelled. At the next center they used 2 different straws to see the distance they could blow a ping pong ball. Next, students pushed two toy wagons from the same starting point. However, one was on the wood floor and the other was on the carpet. They compared the distances and brainstormed why they thought their results occurred. At the last center, students went outside and attempted to keep a hula hoop moving. They discussed why it wasn't falling to the ground, why some students are able to do it longer than others, and how they could keep the hula hoop moving on different parts of their body. Continuing with the forces investigation, later in the week the students completed an art project. They created marble art. They observed that even though they were not touching the marble, it moved and carried paint when the bucket was moved. Students learned that gravity pulled the marble in different directions, depending on how the bucket was moved. On top of learning about the pull of gravity, the art projects came out wonderfully.
Before the break, we started our new UOI on Simple Machines. We started out brainstorming how we would move animals from one zoo to another. The students came up with some creative ideas. We agreed that it all came down to using different objects that ended up being simple machines. Before we got into the specifics of simple machines, we learned that all machines use force (a push or pull) and work. We learned that 'work' does not mean to work on classwork, or to work at a job, but rather is using force to move an object. Below are a few students attempting to do work. Nilesh and Yanga are NOT doing work, because they are not moving the object, even though they are trying quite hard. Paulina IS doing work because she has moved the stool using force. After we learned about the different types of simple machines, everyone picked one questioned they wondered about based on their learning so far. They created a small research projected based on their question. They used books and our iPads to search for answers. Once they answered their questions, they created a presentation using Keynote. They then presented it to the class. Everyone did a great job.
Before the Christmas Break, kindergarten to grade 3 had a holiday rotation before the break. The children were broken down into 4 different groups -- Jingle Bells, Candy Canes, Snowflakes, and Elves. Each group had students from all 4 classes. They travelled to the different classrooms for different activities. In Mrs. Yvonne's class, they read holiday stories, in Mr. Mason's class, they made different snowflake crafts, in Mrs. Jennifer's class, they sang Christmas songs, and in our class, we played a few holiday games. We played Pin the Heart on the Grinch, and made students into snowmen and snowwomen. We all had so much fun! It was great to see the kids of different ages working and playing together. Below are a few pictures of the games in my class, as well as in Mr. Mason's class.
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