Kindergarten

To start off the year, Kindergarten students were creative and problem-solvers as they worked to build their name using various materials in the STEM classroom. We had lots of hard-workers! 

We read the classic story, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Students identified the problem in the story and worked together with a partner to build a coconut tree that would actually hold all of the letters. Some of our students were very innovative and built designs Mrs. McKibben had never seen before.  We even had a few groups who built a coconut tree that was three or four toilet paper rolls high! 

This week we tested students' perseverance as they collaborated to build the highest tower from popsicle sticks and clothespins.  It was a tricky task, but our students persevered and succeeded! Check out a few towers below.

In Ten Apples Up on Top, our main characters compete to see who can stack the most apples up on top of their heads.  However, in the end, the apples fall down. Our students identified this problem and decided if the characters had something sticky, their apples might not fall. Then, with a partner, students worked together to stack up as many "apples" as they could using our "something sticky"--play dough.  It was more difficult than we originally thought and really gave our hands a good workout! 

During the week of 10/2, Kindergartners read Five Little Pumpkins and decided they needed to build a better gate to hold all those pumpkins. They planned out how they were going to build it, then got to work. Many groups were very creative and ended up holding more than five pumpkins! 

Continuing with our fall theme, students watched a short video detailing spiders and their webs. We discussed how spiders are fantastic engineers then debated whether or not we could be as good as them! Students then persevered to design and build their very own spider web to catch a yummy "insect" for dinner! Take a look at some successful spider engineers below.

After reading Ten Timid Ghosts, we worked together with our partner, sharing ideas and materials, to build a house for our paper ghost to live in. Some of our students did a fantastic job of adding lots of details and building very sturdy houses! 

Moosletoe 

Kindergarten students read Moosletoe this December. Papa Moose forgot a Christmas tree so his moose family wrapped his magnificent moose-tache around his body to build their own tree! Students had to build their own Christmas tree around the moose! We discussed how a tree is wider at the base and skinnier at the top so it doesn't topple over. We also talked about our ornaments and how they might be adding too much weight to the top of our tree. After working together and not giving up, we created lots of awesome trees. 

To celebrate Valentine's Day and teamwork, we worked together to build heart towers. The task became trickier and trickier each time, but our students never gave up and persevered!