September in 5R

It was great to meet so many parents at Open House.  

September has been an exciting month that is soon coming to a HOT close!  The cooler temperatures will be a welcome guest in Room 217!  

We started the month of September with an exciting team building activity in the woods. Mr. Clough led us into the woods where we came upon a HUGE spider web.  Our task was to get everyone from one side of the spider web to the other without waking the angry spider who hung above the web!  Do not touch the web or the spider may come swooping down!  Although we failed to get the whole class through safely we learned a lot about communicating with each other!

Our first science unit was an Engineering and Design unit.   We talked a lot about, and practiced, what engineers do.  Below are some photos of some of our engineering tasks.

The Problem:

  Gumdrop Pedestal

You want to keep your book off of the table so it will not get wet.  (You never know when there will be an accidental spill).  You look in your cabinet to build something to accomplish this goal and all you can find are toothpicks and gumdrops.

The 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 1 ft by 1 ft piece of aluminum foil.  You need to rescue as many members of the Pennies Club as you can.

The Problem:

A company is designing a new bridge.  They want to get design ideas from the general population, so they decide to hold a contest.  The challenge is to create a bridge using a piece of paper that will hold the most amount of pennies.  

The engineers of 5R worked well together in all of these activities! Tune in next week for pictures of our final engineering task, which was independent. Each student designed and battled with their own catapult! Pictures and reflective comments will appear in our next blog post.

Welcome to 5R 2017-18!!! This week we worked on team building. We had a great time getting to know each other! Much, much more to come!

We can't wait for you to see these personality spheres that we worked diligently on when you come to Open House on September 21st!

                                                   

 This team building activity was about building a paper tower with 6 sheets of paper.  That's all!  No tape, no paper clips, nothing but the paper.  The teams talked and problem solved very well!

Students creating posters about the OQS Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).  The AUP reviews what students need to know about using chromebooks and IPads in the classroom.

Saving Sam!

Sam is a gummy worm who is trapped on top of his capsized boat.  Sam cannot swim :( 
There is a life jacket (gummy saver) under the capsized boat.  With two paper clips and no hands touching Sam, the boat, or the lifesaver; the students needed to SAVE SAM by getting the life saver over his body!  This was a really fun activity with lots of problem solving involved!