Can you believe September has come and gone?
We are off to such a great start this year!
At the beginning of this month, we learned a lot about communities (especially our own!). We learned that there are three main types:
Urban, Suburban, and Rural.
Urban communities are close together and have tall buildings like apartment buildings and skyscrapers. They also have taxis, subways, a lot of people and traffic, and are very fun, busy places!
Suburban communities (like our own!) are not too close together, not too far apart. There are homes (many times with yards) in neighborhoods, and people usually travel in cars. We especially love our suburban community!
Rural communities are very spread out. There are lots of farms and wide, open spaces. Your closest neighbor could be a mile or more away!
We also learned about our country and how children just like us experienced September 11th. It was a hard topic to discuss, but we are so proud of our country and the brave people who helped us then and help keep us safe now! We especially loved singing "You're A Grand Old Flag" at our school's 9/11 Ceremony. It was a beautiful event for our community!
We have also be learning a lot about and getting to practice exploring S.T.E.M!
We read a book called Regards to the Man on the Moon by Ezra Jack Keats. It was about using your imagination--and how doing just that can take you anywhere!
After reading this, we received our first challenge!
We first brainstormed ideas with our groups. Then, we came up with some sketches/plans!
Next it was time to build, test, and rebuild! We learned a lot about working with others as a team and how to incorporate a variety of ideas to create win-win situations.
It was a lot harder than we realized, but each group created a Lunar Lander! They were tested from 2ft, 3ft, 4ft, and even 5ft! All of us met the challenge of 2ft...but some made it all the way to 5ft!
After all of our learning and practice with this STEM project, we got to participate in a 2nd grade 2 part STEM day! We rotated through all of the 2nd grade classrooms over 2 days to participate in a variety of STEM experiments. We learned how to build and change/manipulate/improve paper helicopters in our classroom!
Most recently, we designed games and activities out of cardboard to participate in our school's Global Cardboard Challenge! Have you heard of it?
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| Click on the image above to view the video that launched a movement! |
The Imagination Foundation was inspired by Caine's Arcade. It "was founded to find, foster and fund creativity and entrepreneurship
in children around the world to raise a new generation of innovators
and problem solvers who have the tools they need to build the world they
imagine."
On Saturday, October 4th, as part of our school's Family Fun and Health Fair, we will be participating in the Imagination Foundation's 2014 Global Cardboard Challenge!
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| Click on the image above for more information about this event at our school! |
Students from across the school have been working VERY hard on their projects. They will showcase a variety of games, activities, robots, cars--all sorts of things, all made from primarily cardboard and, most importantly, their imaginations. Our class is so excited to show what they have been working on!! Make sure you are at the ECC Saturday, October 4th at 11am to check everything out!
As you can see, we have been pretty busy this month! Make sure to check back soon for more updates!
