Egg Drop Contraptions
/Students and teachers were delighted to be back together again after a two week winter break. This week students were excited to discover that our daily morning letter now has strategically-placed errors for them to find. Students must use their knowledge of writing conventions, spelling patterns, and sight words to discover these errors. This week we launched our engineering unit. We learned about the design process: ask, imagine (brainstorm), plan, create, and improve. For their first engineering challenge students worked in teams to design a contraption that would prevent an egg breaking when dropped from a ledge onto the concrete ground. After asking questions, imagining, and creating designs, students had an opportunity to test their contraptions. They CAREFULLY stood on a ledge above concrete to drop their egg contraptions. We learned that some materials and designs protected the egg better than others. Next week students will reflect on what worked well about their design and what didn’t work before creating a second contraption to protect their eggs. Students demonstrated grit and perseverance as they worked through design challenges that arose. In writer’s workshop this week we launched a unit called Small Moments : Personal Narrative Writing. We are learning how to zoom in on a small moment in our lives and write about that experience with vivid detail. This is tricky work! This week we received multiple Flat Stanley updates and Andrew’s Aunt Bee came in to tell us about Flat Bingo’s experience on a hay farm in Wyoming. In math our first graders are learning how to tell time and our second graders are learning how to solve challenging story problems and addition problems that involve regrouping. Wesley did an excellent job representing our class at our Friday Summit!
