Let the Lego War Begin!

In science we have been learning about the engineering and design process.  What is an engineer?  An engineer is someone who collaborates with others while asking, researching, imagining, planning, creating, and improving.  Is an engineer ever wrong?  Does an engineer's plan ever fail or need improvement.  Yes indeed!  That is why being an engineer is so much fun.  

Our first engineering project was to create tin foil boats to save the pennies club (see highlights from the week of October 3rd and 10th).  After making vast improvements to the floating penny savers, it was time to move on.  That is when we learned of the problem facing Bob and Jack:

Problem:  Two Lego men named Bob and Jack aren’t getting along.  They are about to go to battle.  The town has decided that they may design a catapult to help them in battle.  The town council agreed that they may both only use the supplies provided by the town.

The supplies each man will receive are:

• Rubber Bands
• Two sizes of popsicle sticks
• Mini Marshmallows
• One bottle cap

If you were Bob or Jack how would you design your catapult so you would have the best chance of winning?

After doing some research about catapults, the students each designed and built their own prototype.  

Yesterday we started the battle...

Here are a few photos - stay tuned for more, as the competition continues!

Highlights from the weeks of October 3rd and 10th

We have had a couple of busy, exciting weeks in 5R!  

     Last week in Language Arts we worked on organizing and writing good paragraphs.  I think the favorite paragraph assignment was when we had to write a descriptive paragraph about Ms. Rhoades' jelly beans!

         Our first social studies unit is coming to an end and we are finishing up our 3 Branches of Government posters.  We will continue talking about government through the November presidential election.

     We started our first science unit:  Engineering and Design.  The first investigation was to solve this problem:  The Pennies Club are out for a leisurely afternoon on a boat.  Everything was just peachy until the boat sprang a leak and sank!  The only supply they have is a 12 inch by 18 inch piece of aluminum foil.  You need to rescue as many members of the Pennies Club as you can.

     

     Thank you to all families who took the time this weekend to bake bread to donate to Willing Hands.   We had a great presentation by King Arthur Flour on Wednesday showing us how to bake bread.  I'll admit, I always thought baking bread was a lot of work, but after watching Sadie and Kate assist the KAF baker, it looked pretty easy!  It was a great learning experience for our students!

Highlights from the Week of September 26th

I've asked the students to reflect and write a highlight at the end of each day.  On Friday, they pick their highlight of the week! This week, I'm sharing everyone's highlight. Typically, I'll just share a few highlights each week.  

• Today we did Language Arts 2 times and I had band lessons ~~Gary
• Social Studies all week was epic ~~Farren
• My highlight of the week was Language Arts on Friday ~~Madeline
• My highlight of the week was getting the harder math problem ~~Taylor
• On Monday we had a celebration ~~Ava
• My highlight of the week was that we played football ~~Owen
• My highlight of the week was celebrating my birthday on Friday ~~Miranda
• My highlight of the week was playing gaga ball on Friday at recess ~~Ezra
• The day I liked best was the celebration with chalk ~~Brayden
• My highlight of the week was at recess we played a game of football ~~Sean
• My highlight of the week was that I got into the PAWS Squad ~~Tara
• My highlight was doing Problem Strings for math every day this week ~~Maria
• My highlight of the week was learning the song we did in music today ~~Casey
• My highlight of the week was watching my students play Chess at snack time ~~Ms. Rhoades