The school year is already flying by!  I can hardly believe that it is November already.  The Lego We Do projects and circuit building kits took a little bit longer than expected.  We also have worked on some computer skills so far this year.  We had to get in the Maker Space again and try a STEM challenge to celebrate Thanksgiving.  The challenge was to build a boat (like the Mayflower) out of one piece of paper, Popsicle sticks, and aluminum foil.  The students then added pennies to their boat to see how buoyant it was.  One group was able to put 80 pennies on their boat before it sank!  The students really enjoyed this activity.  The experimented with different ways to build their boat and really worked well as a group.  I will definitely do this again next year.

"Making" Math

This year we've started a school wide implementation of "PIE" time - Practice, Intervention, Enrichment.  We call it our "Husky Power Time".  I am fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work with 3 grade levels during their Husky Power Time on math enrichment.  With this 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, I have time to really get into some of the fun STEM applications of math that we haven't had enough time to do before.  And with that taking place in the Makerspace, I am taking full advantage of this time block.

This week my first grade Husky Power group has been working on missing addend word problems like the following: Matt has some sticks.  He collects 27 more.  Now Matt's stick collection is 68 sticks.  How many sticks did Matt have at the beginning?  We have worked through interpreting these problems and representing them with a number sentence.  Today they are working on representing them with Legos as well.  Though many of the students chose one to show after they had solved it, some students realized that the Legos would be a valuable tool to help them figure out the answers as well.  I love watching them so totally engaged as they work with a "toy" to help them organize their thinking!

My fourth graders gifted kids are working through the Khan Academy Pixar in a Box curriculum, which teachers kids the math and science concepts they use at Pixar to make their animations lifelike.  After watching tutorial videos and trying a simulation on the computer, they have a hands on component.  This week, they are making parabolic curves with cardstock and needle and thread.  What a valuable way to reteach and assess learning through these hands on activities.  

My fourth grade Husky Power group is doing a home design project, where they have certain requirements for their house, they have a budget, and they are drawing the plans.  Later this week, as they finish their plans, they will create a model of their home, in whatever way they choose, to show their design.  I have a student using an app called Home Design 3D to create a blueprint, I have a child who is electing do use Legos, I have another who is designing in Tinkercad.  I can't wait to see what the end results look like!