We read/compared all sorts of similar "gingerbread" books. The students LOVED Stop That Pickle! & my newest addition was The Gingerbread Bear...I thought it was *super* cute.
Here is our 20 min. & 60 min. sink/float gingerbread experiment. We always watch "Shrek 2 - I Need a Hero" scene while we're waiting for gingy to sink & crumble.
And I found the BEST physical science unit by Cara at Kindergarten Boom Boom, and we did the 1st of 4 force & motion experiments in the unit {all themed around winter/Christmas ("Shout & Blow" - gingerbread, "Rudolph to the Rescue" - reindeer/Santa, "Save the Who's" - Grinch, & "Snowman Poop Shooter" - snow/winter/snowmen)}. We'll do reindeer next week, Grinch week will have the Whos activity, & we'll come back in Jan. to learn about snow/snowmen & do the shooter then.
Let me be honest here #dontjudge, I never really taught physical science well. BOO! #badteacher. I just never found an experiment(s) that I could manage & that engaged the concept...so I just used to do a 3-D roll, stack, or slide experiment & the sink/float gingerbread experiment above & called it good. Well, this pack has turned it around, so excited to use it in years to come!
They started by reading the story & making a plan, as teams. Some of my colleagues did this with Kindergarteners only, some used parent volunteers. I opted for 5th grade BUDDIES! It was fun to hear them discuss & delegate tasks to each other.
Then the Kinders & their 5th grade buddies worked as teams, using play doh (clay), foil, toothpicks, construction paper, & popsicle sticks to plan & make a gingerbread house that would withstand various forces:
Then we let the houses dry {started at 10:30am, built until 11:20am, & then they came back at 2:45pm} & Mrs. Greenfield returned to re-read the story while I tested the houses against my own breath & a hairdryer {at low & high settings}. The kids were so excited that the houses stood, well...we lost 1 roof!
Of course a week of all things Gingy has to end with a cookie tasting! So we made a circle graph of our first bites, made a glyph of our favorite story, & used stickers to create a gingerbread house that we wrote a sentence to describe.
I can't believe we managed to squeeze it all in, but it was a great week!
Miss Kristan King
No comments:
Post a Comment