Learning and Laughing with Mrs. Bright: Week in Review Sept 28th

Room 200 was filled with Kaneland spirit this week!

Students from Kaneland High School came to visit to get us excited about the Homecoming Parade and the big game. It was great to see former KBK students meet the current KBK students. We heard from representatives from several sports, band and students council.

We also continued to observe our plants and started talking about how and why they are different. To do this, the students are creating a presentation that shares their knowledge of plants with an audience. When discussing this, we covered the 4 C's:

Communication - Is your message clear and easy to understand?
Collaboration - Did you work together to plan your presentation?
Critical Thinking - Have you given thought about the best way to deliver your message to your audience?
Creativity - Were you able to keep the attention of your audience?

The students made plans and notes to help with their talking points. It was very exciting to hear the conversations during this work period.

We will be using a new app called iMovie to compile the parts of our presentation. They should be ready to show you later this week.

Engineering was also the name of the game this week.

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

We started by designing our own indoor recess toys during an indoor recess this week. We started with catapults. The students used simple supplies to successfully complete their creations. It was fun to try and earn points by shooting paper into our paper cups.

We also worked on an apple support challenge this week. The students were given the task of building a structure that would support an apple for at least 3 seconds. Also, they were to try to see how high they could get the apple off of the table.

They began this process on Tuesday with a bit practice with their two tools: tape and index cards. They also needed to create a sketch of their plan.

We came up with a word bank of words that we might hear as we are working.

After they had time to create, we tested the structures for time and height.

Almost all of our structures were successful at holding the apple for 3 seconds. Our tallest structure held the apple 8 inches off the table.

Here is a quick run down of the rest of our week:

We used master authors to help us find a variety of lead ideas to help us begin our personal narratives.

We have had many guests adding comments to our paper blogs.

We are rocking our weekly math fluency tests! We have had a ton of "All Time Bests" that the kids get to celebrate by adding their name to our "All Time Bests" wall.