Engineering BOATS!!!!

First and second grade used the engineering design process to design and build boats. The students started with step 1 where we talked about problems or constraints we would have building. I told the class they'd only get paper to build their boats. Many students raised their hands and asked if they could use glue too. We discussed why glue wouldn't be a good tool in building our boats and they suggested tape. We added tape to their materials. Next, they said they needed scissors so they could cut paper and the tape when it was difficult to tear. We added scissors to their materials. Then we moved on to step 2, where we brainstormed ideas. Then we took our ideas and moved on to step 3, where we made a plan. After each student made a design plan they were permitted to build, which is step 4. After each student built their boat, we moved on to step 5, where we tested our boats.

Our purpose of building the boats was to use air to move them. In science we've learned that air takes up space, can be compressed or create pressure, and can move an object. We thought we'd put a fun twist on moving our boats and race our classmates. We created a bracket for racing and currently we have completed round one. We are now moving on to round two to see who our grand champion is.

Some boats sunk, wouldn't move, or got too wet. We discussed each students design and why these problems occurred. I told the students that engineers designs don't always workout the first time and that they have to go back to step one in the engineering design process and brainstorm a new plan for their boat using the knowledge they found out from testing it.

I am excited to share with you the photos from this STEM event in the WILD First and Second Grade! They should be posted soon.

What kind of weather will we have today, class? Let's learn about WEATHER!

Testing wind levels with our anemometer.

Hello friends! First and second grade has had fun with our science unit, Air and Weather. We are learning about weather. We discussed all the weather words we knew, which was a lot! We started a weather journal where we write about what the weather looks like and feels like. Students have to include as many weather words as they can. We watched a fun video and learned about the job of a meteorologist. Each morning during our calendar activities, our paw student chooses a boy and a girl to be our meteorologist for the day. They predict what the weather is going to be like by looking in the sky at the clouds and seeing what type we have as well as what color, we look at the ground to check for water, we look at the trees to see if they are moving, and just the overall look of outside. Meteorologists uses special tools and we learned about those too. We made our very own anemometer to test different wind levels. The students counted to see the difference of the times it spun for each wind level. We had a blast doing this activity! We are going to continue learning about air and weather. I cannot wait until we get to make airplanes and parachutes. It is one of my favorite activities.

Writing in my weather journal!

The class is checking out how wind changes the direction of rain. How fun!!!

Working with our study buddy!

Our first Mass was two weeks ago and we were introduced to our new eighth grade buddies. First and second grade has over double the amount of students so a few of the eighth graders have 2-3 buddies. Our study buddies help us with reading every Friday and with following directions and learning at Mass. They sometimes help us with practicing prayers, spelling, finish work, or special religion activities. We are so thankful to have them in our classroom each week and cherish every moment with them. They truly are the role models of the school and our little WILD ones look up to them.

We celebrated our very first birthday, Daniel Jay was born to be WILD! Daniel's mom brought us special treats that the students all loved. Who wouldn't love chocolate pudding with Oreo crumbs and worms coming out of it? It was truly a WILD treat! 

I am excited to continue sharing about our WILD learning adventures in the Wild First and Second Grade. Hope to see you all at back to school night tomorrow at 6:00. We will be meeting in the cafeteria. At a back to school night you will learn about our daily classroom procedures, student/parent expectations, curriculum, and state standards your child will be learning. It is a very important night for us all! Visitation Catholic STEM Academy is a partnership of teachers, parents, and students. I cannot wait to see you all!

Back to School....is COOL!

Welcome back first and second grade students! If you're new to my class, our blog offers many educational online activities as well as a view inside our room. Each week, I will post pictures and descriptions of the activities we're doing in our class.

Today we started out with an opening prayer as a school on the playground. It was so great to see all the students after our three month summer vacation. It was exciting to get many new faces in our class this year and to see past classes as they move up to the next grade. When opening prayer was finished, the students and I came up to our classroom. Students unloaded their backpacks and took a seat at their desk to begin their first day of school work :) We started out by learning classroom procedures that we will do each day. The students quickly picked up on our daily routine and I loved watching them help each other remember the routine. I had a student who broke a pencil and didn't remember what the procedure was of getting a new one. Many students raised their hands to share what the procedure was. It warms my heart to see how caring Visitation students are. Before we went out to recess we did a fun get to know you activity. I gave each student a piece of string. The pieces of string had a matching length and the students had to go around the classroom measuring their strings to find their partner. Once a pair found their match, they shared their name, favorite animal, and favorite thing to do at school. Then students introduced their partner to the class, sharing the information they learned about them. The kids loved it and had so much fun. Towards the end of the day we decorated sunglasses to show what we did over the summer. The students drew a picture of two things they did over the summer in the shades of the sunglasses. We glued them onto a face and made them look like ourselves. They turned out so cute. You can find them displayed on our bulletin board outside our classroom.

We had a fantastic first day in first and second grade. I am thrilled to be your students teacher this year and I look forward to this new school year with you all.

Get to know you activity ~ Trying to find our partner with a matching string

Decorating sunglasses with pictures of what we did over the summer

June=Schools Out!

Eric Carle Art Museum

Cassidy waiting for the tour at the museum

Students being silly as they wait for the Link

Silly kiddo!

At the park having lunch

Kids analyzed Eric Carles art

Hanging out with our 8th grade buddies

Getting some help on math

Hanging out with my 8th grade buddy

Coloring with my 8th grade buddy

Working hard with my 8th grade buddy

We love spending time with our 8th grade buddies

Working on my finish work

School is so much fun!

As the end of the year came to an end, we had to say goodbye to our eighth grade buddies. We wish them good luck as they move onto high school. We had so much fun spending the year reading and studying with them. Thank you to you all for helping us at Mass, too! We will miss you!

In June, we had the opportunity to visit the Tacoma Art Museum to see the Eric Carle exhibit. We road the Link downtown Tacoma to our lunch destination and to the museum. We had a fabulous tour guide that discussed methods of art that Eric Carle does and helped us analyze the art pieces. We even had a chance to go back to a design room and create our own artwork that looked just like Eric Carles many pieces in the museum.

On one of the last days of school, the students told me what they want to be when they grow up. We wrote them on a whiteboard and took a picture to document their dreams in first and second grade. It has been a fabulous year and we had so much fun learning together! We will miss you second graders and wish you the best of luck as you move onto third grade. First graders....you're stuck with me again :) I am so excited to have you all as second graders this year and to welcome a new first grade class. See you all on the first day of school! Hope you have a great summer.

We did it again!!!!

First and second grade love S.T.E.M! 

Today first and second grade competed in a marshmallow challenge again. This time we worked hard on improving our plans and discussed how to make our structures stronger and better ways to work together. In the engineering design process it is important that students reflect on what didn't work before and make a new (improved) plan. We started off with new teams and each student assigned each other a job. Students used many of the strategies we discussed on building stronger towers and almost all the teams started with their marshmallow on the top piece of the structure first. I am proud to say that each team was successful and had a standing tower. The towers ranged from 10 inches to 27 inches. Way to go, students!!!! Check out our awesome marshmallow towers.

 

"Yes, my dream is coming true. I am going to be an engineer." ~Winston

Visitation Magic

Today Visitation had the pleasure of having a real magician come to our school for an assembly. He had a bag of tricks that made all of us giggle and wiggle! Many of our students got to go on stage with the magician to assist him in creating his magical tricks.






Click on the video below to see kindergarten student Alyssa as she tries to help the magician :)

 

Alyssa from kindergarten

Ryann's visit with her old class and friends :)

We also had a special visitor in our WILD classroom. Ryann came back to visit us for the day. She joined her friends all day and participated in all our activities. Ryann came to Visitation for kindergarten and first grade. We loved seeing her back in our classroom and enjoyed spending the day with her. She got to be our special "Paw" student, line leader, bench warmer, and pass out morning stickers on folders.

Assembly time (Mackenzie, Winston, and Ryann

The third and forth grade classes studied Native American Tribes and Washington state history and created wonderful reports to share with everyone. Our class got to visit after lunch and learn about what each student studied. The kids loved walking around and seeing what the older children are working on. The third and forth grade students were all very prepared on their topic and did a fantastic job presenting the information. They truly were experts on their topics. Thank you for sharing!

Check out all our fun photos from today!

We are like flowers that bloom in spring!

In the WILD first grade this week we read the story, "The Tiny Seed," by Eric Carle. The kids studied the artwork in the story. They pointed out that Eric Carle layers colors on each page of the story. The students especially loved all the bright colors in this story. When we finished reading the story and analyzing the illustrations, we were inspired to make beautiful flowers full of color. Each student made a flower by layering colors of tissue paper on construction paper. Once they were glued to the paper, we sealed them with a special glue to make the paper blend together.

In addition to studying Eric Carle's artwork, we also discussed poetry. First and second grade wrote a poem about spring using an aabb pattern. We had so much fun with this! We wrote about what we like to do in spring, what spring looks like, what it sounds like, and what happens during the season of spring. Please come to our hall and check out our work. It is AWESOME and the kids did such a great job!

Learning in the park!

Today was such a beautiful day! At the end of the day, first and second grade could no longer stay in our classroom. It was just too nice outside. We packed all our things up and took our religion work with us to the church park. Mrs. Price and I separated the grades into two circles and learned about our catholic faith right outside the church. We had such a great time soaking in the sun! Below are a few pictures of the kids during religion class.

Second grade religion with Mrs. Price

First grade religion with Miss Pedrini

Writing a sentence about a person who helps and guides us.

Listening to Miss Pedrini

Writing a sentence about someone who helps and guides us.

Second grade studying

I thought this was a fun picture. We are on our way back to the school to head home. What a fun day in the park learning. We will be doing this again!