Hello, Frisco Families,
First of all, please be sure to check your child's classroom teacher's SeeSaw for some new STEM project reflections in grades 3-5. Secondly, thank you to the PTSA volunteers for the amazing Friday coffee and pastries cart. I feel so spoiled at this lovely school.
5K built straw towers last week. It is always a trick to help kindergarteners take their masterpieces apart willingly, so there are a LOT of pictures (Will you take a picture of it?!) I am enjoying watching their progress, because generally they begin with a series of single straws that go straight up and are taped to the table. A few start by building a square base, and with a little discussion and observation of others, we had more and more bases and structures that could stand on their own.
1st Grade wrapped up Ozobot bus routes on their classroom towns. Ozobots will follow a black line, and they respond to code patterns using red, green, and blue. You'll find pictures of them in SeeSaw. Yesterday, we started a challenge to build a car that rolls using two straws, four Lifesavers, tape and paperclips. We wrote down the problem (define), and we first brainstormed individually before we decided on a version to build in our teams. Pictures to come...
2nd Grade worked on developing a solution to a problem in their classroom, school, or at home. They interviewed one another to see what sorts of problems there were, and in STEM they recorded themselves describing the problem, explaining why it's a problem, and how we can help them solve the problem--a bit like a Public Service Announcement. Now, we are on to properties of matter. Cool projects are ahead.
3rd Grade finished an activity called 5 Chairs Challenge where they dug into the Design Thinking Process in great detail. Each team had a person whose profile was very different from everyone else's. After a great deal of brainstorming and discussion, the kids developed prototype chairs from different materials with features suitable for their "client." What you see in SeeSaw was a "final" build with toothpicks and tape. The most important thing to keep in mind is that kids are operating under time constraints, and this is a part of the process. I celebrated "failure" with one team who had all of the individual features planned but could not for the life of them figure out how to get them into a final chair (yet). That team shared their detailed drawings instead.
4th Grade Seismograph's were finished with some pretty remarkable results, and we learned a lot about using the makerspace to create a model. You should be proud of your child's flexible thinking and reflection skills! Here are the seismograph photos. (I promise that masks were just pulled down for the photos, by the way.)
5th Grade makerspace biospheres have hopefully made it home; however, you will find video descriptions of them in SeeSaw. I should have started this paragraph with an apology about the fifth grade biospheres coming home. I know what it's like to be a mom with packrat children... This was our first makerspace project, and our focus was on using tools safely and choosing just the right amount of items from the makerspace in addition to developing a 3D version of their plan that they built in science. Their creativity was marvelous! As a side note, I very much enjoyed hanging out at Keystone Science Camp with the Lloyd crew:)
Happy October and who out there is excited about the snowfall?! Keep fostering the curiosity in your wonderful children. I am having a blast! Have a lovely weekend!
Jen Mortensen
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