Earth Day Field Trips

Impressive pile of garlic mustard!

3^rd and 4^th grade Challenge students celebrated Earth Day by learning to love nature and protect it! Both classes journeyed to Jefferson County Park last week to learn from master teacher, Therese. 3^rd graders studied frogs and their ecosystems, and 4^th graders pulled garlic mustard to model productive environmental stewardship.

Students worked alone or with a partner to photograph important points about the field trip. They will use the photographs to create an original presentation.

Hooray for nets!

Future music star?

Links for projects:

Poems about the Earth written by kids:

EEK! Environmental Education for Kids

Abe Lincoln - 4th Grade

"It's not about what you learn but how you learn!"  I'm not sure where I found that quote, but I like it.
I think kids need to ask important questions and/or be asked important questions!  Here's one I asked last month:
What if Abraham Lincoln were still alive?
Here are a few creative answers:
"I would get him interested in Artemis Fowl so we could read it together."

"I would ask if I could be the First Daughter?"
"I would ask to use this top hat to store candy."

Marble Maze Humor -4th Grade

4th graders designed and built a marble maze. The goal was to have the marble ride slowly down the ramps. During the project, students confronted many challenges like the marble getting stuck, rolling off the ramps, or just plain moving too fast.  Here's one humorous comment from Megan as she worked on her maze:  "All our old problems returned to haunt us!" 

Invention Web Sites for Kids

Inventing project choices abound! Use these sites to learn all about inventing.  Find cool games to play as well.

• Ten Cool Sites for Invention - Awesome site.  Many resources. This site has it all! Includes Cool Robot of the Week from NASA
• Inventive Kids - Where Curious Kids Can Have Fun with Inventions.  Teaches you how to invent.
• DOGOnews - Wild and Wacky Inventions
• Informational/Research Sites about Inventors/Inventions
• Future City - Sustainable Solutions
• Invention at Play - Lemelson Center - Study invention and innovation
• Internet Search Engines for Kids

5th Grade Egg Drop #1

Can you design a package that keep an egg from breaking when it is dropped from a  second floor balcony?
Students used one piece of newspaper, cotton balls, socks, tape, etc. to create their device.   Fantastic Mr. Egg, Reign of the Egg, Up, Up and Away, and Toilet Paper Power enjoyed their ride to the bottom of the stairs!

Everyone wants to try Egg Drop #2 next week! 

Survivor eggs!

Bird Research Sites

Hi kids,
Here are some good sites to learn about your bird:
Cornell All About Birds
EEK! Critter Corner
BioKIDS

Sample Prezi Embedded in My Blog

Curiosity on Prezi

Independent Project Resources

Some students learn best when they pursue topics of their own choosing in their preferred learning style. Here are a few links resources to fan the flames for a project.
Discover Engineering

OLogy from American Museum of Natural History

DOGOnews

Iowa AEA Online Resources Login: 31fairfield  Password:  gpaea

5th Grade Balloon Car

5th grade students designed and built a car powered by a balloon to go the greatest possible distance. All students persevered to build cars out of meat trays, paint sticks, cds, thread spools, and styrofoam cups, etc. One car actually went 51 feet! Another car won the creative award for a unique cat design! Students worked hard to figure out how to apply Newton's 3rd law to their cars. Check out pictures below!

4th Grade Lego Robotics

4^th graders built their first Lego Robot in January. Jon Funkhouser works with the Pence kids to teach them how to program their robot. Washington and Libertyville 4^th graders have student leaders who already know how to program the robot.  They are learning to move the robot and use sensors. Later they will create dancing robots.

3rd Graders Fly Hoop Gliders and Paper Airplanes

3^rd grade students completed Type 1 investigations to learn concepts of flight. They constructed a hoop glider with a straw and paper and a folded a paper airplane called the Nakamura Lock.

The hoop glider proved to be challenging and glided only 7 to 10 feet with one exception: one glider flew 23 feet! The student said her glider went so far because of the design and the throw.

On the other hand, all students successfully flew their Nakamura Lock paper airplanes! We headed outside to enjoy a mild winter day and fly our planes. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera!

Here is a link to the website we used to fold our planes. They really soared when we went outside!

How to fold the Nakamura Lock

Inspiring Owl Video from Youtube

I found this video about a great horned owl to show my grandson, Winston. First I told him the story, Owl Moon, and then I wanted him to see an owl moving. This video is an example of how a picture can be worth more than a thousand words. Beautiful clip!
What's even more amazing is my 5th grade student, Elijah, showed me how to share this video from Youtube with a few clicks of the mouse. I love to learn from my students!

3rd Grade Investigations

3rd grade students showed classmates what they learned during their investigations.  They created a puppet show, several origami worlds and a model of Pearl Harbor to name a few.  Below are pictures of students presenting.  Enjoy.