We had more fun studying and building robots this week, but first a recap of last Friday… We had the bake sale to raise money for breast cancer awareness, one of our classmates brought in a real robot named Moxie to share with the class, soccer player Giorgos Karagounis came to give a talk, and the Des Plaines Fire Department came to talk about fire safety. What a fun-filled day!
Tuesday
On Tuesday, in celebration of reading our newest novel, Wild Robot, we created and named our own robots out of model magic, pipe cleaners, washers, bolts, and paperclips.
Wednesday
We read the picture book, Rosie Revere, Engineer. It’s a beautifully illustrated story of a girl and her dream to become a great engineer. Where some people see rubbish, Rosie Revere sees inspiration. Alone in her room at night, shy Rosie constructs great inventions from odds and ends. Hot dog dispensers, helium pants, python-repelling cheese hats.
We brainstormed a list of inventions…
We visited the Arts and Crafts room at our school to get any and all supplies we might need to build our very own robot. The students had a blast creating these robots with scraps of cardboard, construction paper, model magic, tin foil, milk jugs, cups, foam, and cartons…
When we finished our projects, I gave students 100 boards to practice writing numbers 1-100. Some students challenged themselves by starting at 1001…
Students have also been practicing Greek in their free time by writing words on our white board.
Thursday
Today we read the book, Ada Twist, Scientist. This story was well received and praised for encouraging children, especially girls, to develop an interest in STEM. This story celebrates curiosity, the power of perseverance, and the importance of asking “Why?” We then created our own science experiment to find out what happens when you add a drop of dish soap to whole milk and a few drops of food coloring…
The link below explains what is causing the food coloring to burst like the Fourth of July in a pan of milk. Steve Spangler has many more cool science experiments for kids on his website.
The students enjoyed the experiment so much I now know to introduce more in the near future!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Melissa
What a fun filled week! Lendon has been begging me to go to school..