I was able to travel to the Grand Canyon over the Holiday Break. It took half a day to hike down, and whole day to hike back out! I stayed in a cabin for two nights while I was down there. It was amazing. Pictures truly don’t do it justice, but I tried to take some that made me think of my classes back at Tritt.
What is red and smells like blue paint?!
Red paint! Kindergarten took everything they learned about engineering in the Science Lab this semester to create a new painting tool from scratch.
Along the way they learned about the Engineering Design Process.
ASK: How can we invent a new painting tool?
EXPLORE: What materials are available?
MODEL: Design and create your tool!
EVALUATE: Test them by painting a scene from the fairy tales we read.
EXPLAIN: Share your work with others and ask how you can improve your design.
Smith:
Garrett:
Freese:
Bower:
Rinehart:
Wiggins:
Kindergarten is studying science and engineering through fairy tales! After reading Jack & The Beanstalk we created skyscrapers with pipe cleaners and grew our own vines in the greenhouse. After reading The Steadfast Tin Soldier we tested materials that float & sink and then built our own boats for Benny the Lego man. Finally we read The Three Little Pigs, designed, built and tested our own houses!
Rinehart:
Bower:
Freese:
Garrett & Laushey:
Smith:
Wiggins:
Kindergarten is studying rocks this quarter, as well as pushes and pulls (forces); culminating in a model rock mover creation!
Garrett:
Rinehart:
Tommasello:
Wiggins:
Bower:
Smith:
What is red and smells like blue paint?!
Red paint! Kindergarten looked for opportunities to learn about engineering from fairy tales: houses from The 3 Little Pigs, boats from The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and towers from Jack And The Beanstalk. Once we had a pretty good idea of the properties of materials, we designed, built and tested our own unique painting tools!
Garrett:
Rinehart:
Tommasello:
Wiggins:
Bower:
Smith:
Kindergarten spent the 3rd Quarter in Science Lab investing rocks and pushes & pulls. From gravity and friction, to wheels and axles, the students covered everything they needed to design / build / test a “rock mover”. We saw sleds, wagons, wheelbarrows, ramps and more in this Project Lead The Way unit!
Bower:
Garrett:
Gillespie:
Smith:
Tommasello:
Wiggins:
Kindergarten has taken everything they have learned about Structure & Function from fairy tales this semester to design and build their own unique painting tool. Because every engineer looks for ways to improve their designs, be on the look out for a DIY paintbrush kit being sent home over the break!
Bower:
Garrett:
Tommasello:
Gillespie:
Smith:
Wiggins:
Kindergarten has been learning about engineering, structure & function, by studying fairy tales. Our most recent challenge is to build a house with bricks, straw and sticks that can withstand the big bad fan!
Bower:
Garrett:
Tommassello:
Wiggins:
Gillespie:
Smith:
Kindergarten has been studying the human body in order to help our fictional friend Angelina - she feel off a monkey bar and hurt her arm!
Smith:
Wall:
Bower:
Garrett:
Tommasello:
Gillespie:
Kindergarten is completing a project-based lesson from PLTW where three friends must move a load of rocks from one side of the yard to another in order to build a swing-set there. We studied pushes and pulls, as well as examined Mr. Giunta’s rock collection, and designed/built/tested/evaluated model rock movers. This was our first collaborative engineering challenge in the Science Lab, and the kids did great!
Bower:
Garrett:
Gillespie:
Smith:
Tommasello:
Wall:
To cap off a semester full of learning all about engineering, Kindergarten designed and built their own painting tools (a structure) that could create a variety of lines and shapes (its function)! Keep in mind that the testing phase, our paintings, was to experiment with our tool, not necessarily follow best practices from what they’ve learned with Mrs. McFerrin!
You might be able to use a little water to clean off their painting tools, but I recommend having them think of ways to improve on their design and to create a new one with items from around the house! Take a look at their designs and paintings below!
Smith / Colley:
Bower / Eshelman:
Garrett / Swift:
Wall / Rinehart:
Gillespie / Smith:
Kindergarten students have been using fairy tales to learn more about engineering. In the pictures below, students constructed houses (our structure) that can stand up to a garage fan blowing on them (our function).
Aside: The thumbnail picture for this post is that of the endangered Red Wolf, which isn’t big or bad!
Bower:
Garrett:
Gillespie:
Smith:
Tommasello:
Wall:
Kindergarten is investigating STEAM through fairy tales. The first one up, Jack & The Beanstalk, saw Mrs. Garret’s class building towers out of pipe cleaners and then sorting and planting seeds (sweet peas).
Kindergarten has been studying a Project Lead The Way lesson on Structure & Function using human body. Following the story of a fictional character who broke her arm, our students created "x-rays" of their hands, did an experiment demonstrating how our fingers work using peg boards, and then designed, built and tested their own casts out of classroom materials.
Garrett:
Smith:
Gillespie:
Bower:
Wall:
Tommasello:
All year in Kindergarten we've been using fairy tales to learn how to be engineers. In our final big project of the semester we got to make our own story! Using the engineering design process we created our own paintbrushes (our structure) that could paint in many different ways (its function). Take a look at the results below!
Smith:
Bower:
Garrett:
Tommasello:
Wall:
Gillespie:
Kindergarten has been learning all about engineers in the Science Lab this month! We read The 3 Little Pigs and designed their very own houses. But beware, the Big Bad FAN is coming to test out how well they did! Here Mrs. Garrett's class shows off there work:
In Kindergarten we are taking something familiar, fairy tales like Jack & The Beanstalk, and using them to introduce something unfamiliar, like principles of engineering. In this case we wanted to see how tall and strong we could build a beanstalk out of pipe cleaners! Below Mrs. Tommasello's and Mrs. Garrett's classes show off their work.
