Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Balance Becomes A Catapult

From Balances
From Balances

During lunch last week D.BC mentioned to me that he would really like to do an activity with seesaws and catapults. I discussed this idea with Kara (whom had recently finished teaching them all about balances) and our lesson was formed. We began by reviewing Kara's lesson on balances with the children and letting them use anything in the classroom to make a seesaw. After a quick brainstorming session on what could be used for the base and beam the children were off and creating their seesaws with triangles, blocks, yard sticks and rulers. To see more images click on the photo to view the Picasa album. Below is K.H testing his seesaw while D.BC & D.B using their seesaws to catapult their marshmallows.

K.H Balances Marshmallows from Lisa J on Vimeo.


A balance becomes a catapult from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Three Little?!




The children have been busy working on a variety of versions of The Three Little Pigs. After reading tales such as "The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" the children were excited to create their own stories. Here is a sneak peek at what they have been working on.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Huff and Puff


While almost half of our class was at home huffing and puffing from an awful cold, friends in room 5 were doing their own form of huffing and puffing. This week we read the classic version of "The Three Little Pigs" and the not so well known tale of "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig." On Tuesday the children participated in a Huff and Puff experiment where they had to predict how many huffs (and puffs) it would take to blow a lego, marble and a piece of tissue across the table (see video below). On Friday the children constructed towers that had to withstand my huffing and puffing. Each child's structure had to use at least 10 objects and could only be one foot high. I was quite impressed by their structures (and pretty lightheaded as well).

Huff & Puff from Lisa J on Vimeo.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

CGI on the WSJ

Here is a great video that may help you better understand the value behind CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction).