Children Around the World

As part of our new social studies units, Children Around the World and Me on the Map, we are learning about ways of life for children and families all around the world. The kids have been facinated by the flags of different countries, as well as the similarities and differences between them. Our project on late start day included sorting and categorizing various countries' flags, then creating our own replicas. They did such an awesome job working together to create the flags!

Spring Party (and some engineering!)

Today we had our Spring Party! Thank you to all the parents that worked to get the party ready and helped today. It was wonderful and the kids loved it!

We also finished our science unit on Pushes and Pulls today. As a culminating project, the kids were presented with a problem. We read a story about a boy who received a new swingset for his birthday, but his yard was covered in rocks and needed to be cleared to make room for the new swingset. We built a fake yard and fence covered with "rocks" in our classroom. The kids had to work together to design a solution for clearing the "yard" using boxes, string, wooden boards and other materials. They used the Engineering Design Cycle to explore/brainstorm, build a model, test their ideas, and evaluate their designs. If their models didn't solve the problem and clear the yard, they continued through the design cycle to modify their models and test new ideas. It was a great culminating project, and most were very efficient in building ramps and using string and boxes to pull the rocks over the fence. Make sure to ask your child about this awesome project!

Have a happy and safe Spring Break!