Grades 1 & 2: Finland

Grades 1and 2 explored the reindeer of Finland this week. We researched these beautiful and amazing creatures finding out many things about them. We created our own reindeer or caribou from tearing paper-no scissors or sketching allowed, based on our findings. For example, we had to give them black eyes if they eat lichen or blue eyes if they eat strawberries. Was this a trick question?

Grades 1-3: Icelandic Adventure

Our trek through the Nordic countries has taken us to Iceland.  Not many people live on this icy island, of interesting geological features like volcanoes and thermal hot springs and glaciers.  We made our own glacier gak out of glue and borax and compared its properties to that of glaciers, and brainstormed other uses for it:  Holding a nail, putting it around a hot cup, shading out the sun on a window and help open things that are stuck.  Next week we will talk about the Puffins of Iceland and a special dish called Hakarl--not for the faint of stomach!

5th Grade: Chair for Mr. Walrus

Fifth grade has officially started robotics engineering using their Lego Mindstorms robo kits as tools to build and program robots.  Today we built a chair for Mr. Walrus (a beanie baby) that could withstand an ankle drop test, keep Miss Kitty an inch off the floor, and use at least 2 ways to connect lego parts.  After putting together the basics, we brainstormed ways to add cupholders, foot rests and even a back massager.  Next week we will present and reflect on our final products using the presentation program called Powtoon.

1st-3rd Grade: Nordic Discovery

Our study of Norway was fascinating.  We learned a little about their schools and how you might be able to take "fishing" as one of your subjects, the science behind the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis, fjords, and how dark it becomes in winter in Norway.  We weren't sure if we would try their traditional food of fish balls in sauce, but Ligonberry jam sounded good to us!  Below are some of our paintings of the Northern Lights.  Once we created our paintings, we dripped some lemon juice on them and observed the effect of the acid in the juice on our paint.  We ended up with streaks and blobs that we turned into something else.  For example, a blob of bleached paint become a penguin in the scene.  This idea reinforced that even mistakes can be made into something special!  Other Nordic countries we are studying include:  Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland.  We learned that Denmark has a king, the Oresund Bridge and Legos!    We did several short projects with Lego bricks, and the Lego movie app helped us create a movie about Denmark facts.

3rd Grade

1st-2nd Grade

5th Grade: Halloween Engineering Challenge

Fifth grade is studying and researching the different fields of engineering and last week participated in a challenge called the Candy Crisis.  Their mission was to take some common household items given to them in a brown paper sack and create a toy that fit inside a candy bowl that could be passed out to trick-or-treaters instead of passing out candy.  These fifth graders engineered some pretty inspiring toys:

4th Grade: Global Cardboard Challenge

Fourth grade has been building arcade games completely out of cardboard--it is cardboard chaos!  We are hoping to finish our arcade games in the next few weeks and then invite others to play our games.  All proceeds will go to a worthy cause of our choice, such as lunches or love or another local charity.  We will keep you posted on the where, when and what as we get closer to completion.