Last Friday, we worked on a STEAM project where we tried to create a paper airplane that could travel the farthest distance.  We used the vocabulary terms of “controls” and “variables” when creating our planes.  As a class, we brainstormed a list of controls, and a list of variables that were options in constructing their planes.  The children chose two variables, sometimes in addition to the kind of paper that they chose.  Those variables included, paper size, paper weight, paper clip, tape, popsicle stick, folds and flaps, and staples.  After the two test flights, the children thought about what worked well, or what didn’t go so well, with their test flights.  As a class, we talked about what happened when we used certain variables.  I was impressed at how thoughtful the children were.  Our next plan is to change a variable on their planes and see what effect it has.

What a fun experience it was to hear, and participate in Len Cabral’s story telling!

Last week, we started to learn a little bit more about the scientific process.  The children generated questions that they could research and conduct experiments for.  It was so much fun to watch the wheels turning, and to see how thoughtful they were will asking questions, and to see where each of their interests lie.

Our school, and each classroom had a challenge for reading.  Our classroom challenge was to read 100 books!  Each book stood for a foot of distance, and as a school, we were trying to make it as far as we could. Once the reading challenge was finished, we decided to walk that distance as a school (well, half that distance).  We took a walk downtown, across the new footbridge, to the town library.  We then turned around and returned to school.  This distance was half the distance that the school read.  It was such a fun celebration of reading, for the entire school!