Hands on!!!

We have been doing a lot of hands on learning lately in all areas--reading/writing workshop, math and science!

Take a look at some of our explorations!

The challenge was to engineer and construct with a small group or partner a house of sticks that could withstand the Big Bad Wolf, aka a fan, blowing it down!  It was interesting to see the approach the Gators took in problem solving, cooperating, starting over and beginning again!  

This group was the first to think of sticking the toothpicks upright into the carpet to secure the sides.
Soon, there were three other groups attempting to duplicate that same technique!

Protecting the structure with the container was the approach here.

This group found out that bending the toothpicks, without breaking them, allowed
them the ability to create a teepee structure.

This group incorporated the container as the house and then
layered the toothpicks as the roof!  That way, if the "wolf"
blew the top layer off, the bottom layer would remain!

A base was constructed here, then the container was
placed in front of it, "to block the wind".

In science, we set up the experiment called

Walking Rainbow.  Here is what it looks like so far:

We will keep you posted on the results!!!

It has been an "owlsome" week!!!

March has been such a fun month in first grade!! Spring is in the air, birthdays are happening, teeth are falling out and we've been celebrating with Dr. Seuss and the leprechauns!!!
   
Thank you to everyone that has taken time off of work to come in and share a story and some time with the class.  They have truly loved having people surprise them each afternoon following lunch!  The stories have been terrific also!  Thank you for sharing!

We have also been working on an engineering STEM challenge for science and social studies by designing and building leprechaun traps!  They were quite attractive to the little green people (our visitor was Cindy, a girl and her three brothers).  They had quite the time in our room last night tripping traps, taking gold, writing notes and leaving footprints all over the room.  Not to mention that they also locked us out this morning from the classroom and had strung one long strand of green yarn ALL OVER the room!  We had to cut it into pieces to get it all down!

Some found shoes left behind...I think the owl frightened one; and all found gold, new pencils and a rainbow Twizzler in place of the gold in their traps!

It was quite a morning! The class was soooo close to catching a leprechaun on the scavenger hunts they went on this afternoon, however, with a blink, they were gone and magically turned the promised gold into both Goldfish crackers and real Goldfish!!!

Yes, we now have 3 class pets...Charm, Lucky and Cindy.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to everyone for my surprise birthday party this week!!!  The cake, flowers, cards and gifts were so thoughtful and beautiful!!!  I love being 27!!!  ;)

Have a safe and fabulous Spring Break!!!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

 We have had a great week sharing the stories of Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, this week!!!  We thought we would get in the spirit and Seuss ourselves for fun!!!