Today was

All about the force, bout the force, bout the force - magnetic.  All about the force, bout the force, bout the force - and reindeer!

Couldn't resist - we had a great wrap up to our mini-week, by learning about another force - magnetic!  First we handed out chart paper & village pieces.  Then we let the city planning begin:

We made pipe cleaner Rudolphs and used magnetic force to move them through our chart paper towns:

Once again, the 5th graders made this project so much fun.  All the kids enjoyed moving Rudolph around!  Rudolph to the Rescue indeed,

Miss Kristan King

Just Gingy

My week has been just, well, GINGY:

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