Hard Hat Fairy Tales - Our Donors Choose Project!

Parents and families, please share this information with anyone that might want to help with this fundraising project!  Our Cannon Elementary 1st grade team is looking for new materials for STEM and engineering connections in all areas.  So I've created a classroom project request at DonorsChoose.org, an award-winning charity.

We're asking for donations of any size to help our kids. If you know anyone who is passionate about education, please pass this along. Your donation will brighten our students' school year, and you'll get photos and thank yous from our class.

Here's my classroom request:

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/hard-hat-fairy-tales/1540271/?rf=email-system-2015-04-teacher_promo_expiring-teacher_2897224&challengeid=20574422/

To have your donation matched dollar for dollar, enter the promo code SPARK on the payment screen. This awesome match offer lasts through April 16.

My students and I greatly appreciate your support.

Geometry + Coding = Fun Learning

Friday afternoon, during our Create Time, we had a short introduction to the coding app Hopscotch.  This app uses a "drag and drop" format for kids to create their own projects.  We made our cartoon character draw a square together and then I challenged the kids to make another program to draw a different geometric shape.  I gave them some examples of the number of degrees to use for different angles since we don't study that in 1st grade.  The kids had to think about how many sides their shape has so they could program the repeat command to draw that many sides.  They also experimented with different lengths of sides and some fun extras for their character at the end of the shape.  Everyone had a complete project to share at the end of our work time!  Students can share their creations with you on their iPads.  In addition to applying what we are learning about shapes and their attributes, coding gives students practice in logical thinking, sequencing commands, and the STEM design process of testing and improving.

In our 2 dimensional geometry, we have learned several shapes and their most important attributes.  You can help your child practice this vocabulary at home.  Look for examples of these shapes in everyday objects!

Triangles have 3 sides and 3 corners (vertices).  

Rectangles are 4 sided shapes with all square corners.  (We have talked about the terms right angles and 90° angles, but students don't need to know those yet.  We have compared a square corner to the corner on a normal piece of paper.)  Notice that squares belong in the group rectangles because they have 4 square corners.  All squares are rectangles.  And some rectangles are also squares...

A rhombus is a 4 sided shape with 4 equal sides.  Notice that squares are also rhombuses because their sides are the same length.  All squares are rhombuses.  And some rhombuses are also squares...  (We have also talked about the word quadrilateral for any shape with 4 sides and 4 corners, but it isn't something 1st graders have to know yet.)

Students don't need to know that a pentagon is a 5 sided shape yet, but they do need to know that hexagons are shapes with 6 sides and 6 corners.

It is really important that students know the most specific name for a shape, but they also need to know that many shapes can be called more than one name - just like your dog might also be a beagle and it is also your pet and a mammal and an animal...  So a square is also a rectangle and a rhombus and a quadrilateral and 2 dimensional and a closed shape...

Other important vocabulary for 2D geometry in 1st grade includes circle, straight sides, curves, and open or closed shapes.  All the shapes drawn above are closed shapes.  Circles, ovals, and the letter D are also closed.  Open shapes have lines that don't go all the way around like C, L, or S.  You couldn't color in an open shape because you wouldn't know where to stop coloring.

Next week we will also learn about 3D shapes!  

Nest Challenge

Our current science/engineering project is about nests.  Students have gotten to examine some real birds' nests and look at photos showing many different styles of nests.  We talked about what materials the birds used, how the materials kept the eggs warm and protected, and where the nests were located.  We even looked at some books about nests and found out birds aren't the only creatures that build nests for their eggs.  As we talked about how the birds used the materials in their nests and how they connected the parts, the idea of weaving came up.  So we did some paper weaving next.  Students had the options of cutting straight lines or making more unusual shapes and choosing to use 1 or 2 colors.  They created this great artwork:

Then we tried a little mini-challenge.  Students worked with a partner.  They had a cup, some paper strips, and an empty plastic egg.  The task was to use the paper strips to create a structure that would keep the nest from falling into the cup.  When they were successful at that task, we made it a little harder.  Since eggs aren't really hollow, I put some rocks inside the eggs to make them heavier.  Students had to be more strategic about how they arranged the strips of paper to hold up the heavier weight.  Then as the final part of the challenge, they tried to weave the strips together so that they would not need as many.  Here are several photos of the hard-working teams!  (Our next steps will be to examine the materials for the big challenge and to construct a nest that can hold several eggs and keep them from falling out even on a windy day!)