Though short, this was an exciting week in first grade! Our REACH Specialist Mrs. Kurtz came into room 210 for a fall-themed STEM lesson! Mrs. Kurtz will be joining us every Monday and second Friday of the month to supplement our math time and this past Friday kicked this routine off! With a STEM lesson, revolving around topics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, also comes ample opportunity to practice "soft skills" such as communication, teamwork, sharing, planning, collaborating and more. This came at a great time in our year as our group has come upon some situations where we have taken the time to talk about problem solving, communicating our feelings, and expressing our needs. This activity also gave us practice with this. Mrs. Kurtz began her lesson by reading the story The Apple King by Francesca Bosca. This story was about a king who kept his prized apples to himself and finally learned how to best celebrate his apples by sharing them with his people through a feast. The problem the students needed to solve was how to get the apples out of a basin full of water (to be prepared for the feast) without having to bob for them, as the townspeople did not want to get their faces wet! Each team of 2 was given a planning sheet, 2 paperclips, 1 piece of string, 2 pipe cleaners, 2 straws, and 2 popsicle sticks to create a device that would remove the apples from the basin of water. This group capitalized on their questions throughout this activity by asking for clarification and finding loopholes! One student said, "We'll couldn't we use the straw to just suck all of the water out of the basin?" It's thinking like that, outside of the box, that is revealed in these challenges and was a pleasure to witness! Please enjoy the photos and videos of this activity below!
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AuthorMusings of a Grade 1 teacher. Outlet for exciting "goings-on" in the classroom. Archives
May 2018
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