simple machine centers

This week, our class and Mrs. Nichols class will be working in centers that focus on simple machines and how they make work easier.

We tried to have a race between a real wheel barrow and a kid-made wheel barrow and were surprised when the kid-made wheel barrow won, until we realized that the real wheel barrow had a flat tire! Oops!

The lego groups has to build models of simple machines by following the directions on the cards.

This group is working on building a pulley that will lift a heavy rock.

Who knew that racing cars had anything to do with inclined planes?! The kids had a lot of fun experimenting with the slope of the wood and how it affects the speed of the car.

This group built a machine out of PVC pipes.

This group experimented with levers. They used levers to lift each other up. They had fun placing the fulcrum in different spots.

This group experimented with wedges (nails) and levers (hammer claws).

This group of kids used different kinds of screw drivers to put screws into wood.

Stay tuned for more fun and learning!

What we've been up to...

Dr. Seuss week was so much fun! We enjoyed celebrating his birthday and dressing up like our favorite Dr. Seuss characters. We also ate some yummy Seuss snacks! Unfortunately, due to early dismissal, I don't have any pictures of the kids all dressed up!

We've really been working on double-digit addition and subtraction strategies. The kids are doing a wonderful job applying and practicing these strategies.

Here are a few of the kids who finished their work early and began working on counting strips. They were counting by 10s to see how high they could count. I believe a few up them counted past 3,000. WOW!

We knew that Lovey was going to have babies but we didn't expect to get to WATCH her have them this morning. What an amazing experience! As adults, you may find this a little hard to look at, but the kids were fascinated!

If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see Lovey cutting the umbilical cord. It was neat to listen to the kids questions and comments and talk about animal instincts with them.

Come back and visit soon!