Today, the kiddos worked on their leprechaun traps from my St. Patrick’s Day Science: Shamrocks and Spuds unit. We will continue working on them tomorrow! They are so… so… so CUTE! Since we’ve been working on engineering, I had my students create leprechaun traps in place of our Whatchamacallit Workshop (although we still did part of that unit as well as you’ll see at the bottom of the post). Here are some snapshots of the traps (so far)! We are progressing through the Engineering Design Process. Some of them are still working on the basic design, some are working on incorporating moving parts and simple machines, and some are adding finishing touches! I love their creativity, and I can’t wait to see the finished products. In the meantime, have a looksie!
We also conducted our spud races today, which was interesting. We almost couldn’t finish because we had a sweet potato casualty. It literally was spliced in two. Luckily, duct tape cures everything. (The kids “autographed” the potato’s “cast” at the end of the day.) We did this in the last 15 minutes of the day as a whole group activity. You could stretch it out and have different groups conduct the experiment. I am up to my ears in science right now though, so I opted for the quick version to spiral back around to our study of motion, variables, and of course simple machines (the ramp is an inclined plane).
This was another amusing moment during dismissal when I caught one of my students getting #2’s autograph. Priceless. Seriously, I really enjoy my little “sweet potatoes”! I think #2 must have drawn a self-portrait too! 🙂
Yesterday, we learned about assembly lines. We made as many cootie catchers as we could in ten minutes by ourselves. Then, we worked in assembly lines to see how many cootie catchers could be made. After quality inspections, we compared the amount of products that were produced through each method. We found that we were able to make more high-quality cootie catchers as part of an assembly line. We discussed ways to improve our process and then have a big discussion about recycling! (I promise, I recycle all of the cootie catchers!) This lesson is tons of fun! The kids love it!
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| Cootie Catchers Galore! |
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| Quality Inspector! |
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| Our Finished Products |
I am loving your blog…I am so glad that Katherine Marie linked her blog to you….your fantastic! =)
Hi, Amanda. I also teach third grade. Your traps are adorable. I was wondering if you had parent help in the building/decorating process, or was it all done by the kids?
Thank you Sherri! I'm going to have to check our your blog too! Luckymama, I had the kids bring in items from our "scrounge list". They work on the traps at school! I let them brainstorm at home with parents, and they got to bring whatever they wanted from home. They are making the traps entirely at school though. 🙂
Amanda…I totally wish I was racing spuds tomorrow! Dang, I wish I would have seen this sooner! Love your site! I am doing a give away for the month of April. Please come check it out at schroederpage@blogspot.com or visit me at http://www.theschroederpage.com!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!