Building Bridges

 This short week, the 1-2s took a deep dive into Civil Engineering. We learned that engineers design or improve technologies. And we learned that technology is more than iPads and electronic devices - it is almost anything made by people to meet a need or solve a problem. After the design work is done, engineers hand off their plans to artisans to build it and then technicians to run or fix it. Maya, Morgan and Jackson helped role play those different parts so we could remember them and learn the new vocabulary. 

The House Tables were then tasked with building a bridge that would span a gap of 15 inches. They could use paper, crafts sticks, coffee stirrers, paper clips, string and tape. Their prototypes were then tested for stability and strength by seeing how many times out of 4 a car could make it from one end of the bridge to the other as well as how many penny weights the bridge could withstand before distorting or collapsing. 

Each group's plan and score can be found today in your child's backpack.

The testing is always heartbreaking for them as we do test the bridges to failure, but we point out that this is how we learn what makes a bridge strong and stable and helps us determine what we can do to improve them the next time around. Check out the before and after pictures below of each group and their model.

Writing Celebration

 The 1-2s are wrapping up our Fairy Tale writing unit. The kids have really grown in their use of story language, planning for characters/setting/problem/solution, use of dialogue, and elements of suspense and drama as well as humor! Today, to celebrate their effort across the unit, small groups of kids got together to share their fairy tales with one another. They are very proud of their work and happy to have an audience to share with.  

Some of the stories are rewrites of well known tales but with a twist on setting or characters. Others are made up tales from the kids imaginations. And still others are sequels of well known tales with the continuing adventures of these characters.

Enjoy the pictures below showing our storytellers! 

Fairy Tale Trailers

Over the course of our fairy tale unit, kids have been taking on both acting and directing roles to bring the tales they read to life as readers and give specific actions, thoughts, feelings, and dialogue to characters as writers. The culmination of this work has been the iMovie Fairy Tale Trailers they created this week. For this particular project the kids were further tested as the trailers do not allow for speech to be recorded!

Each house table group decided on a fairy tale and then planned out which of the key events should be included in the trailer (without give too much away). It was a fun and engaging project for them! At our "viewing party" yesterday to showcase each group's work, there was a tremendous amount of pride for a job well done. 

Enjoy the trailers below! Some are themed as timeless stories, others as high adventure, and even one group who chose a to present a chilling, scary version of their tale. 

Help the Harbor!

 The MWRA is hosting its annual Poster Contest for 2021. This year, as part of a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Boston Harbor Islands National Parks and the 50th Anniversary of the Boston Harbor State Parks, the theme is "What I Love About a Clean Boston Harbor".  The 1-2 kids were happy to participate by creating posters that expressed the importance of a clean Boston Harbor.

Help the Harbor and Healthy Harbor were popular themes among the slogans and lots of wildlife from the harbor were showcased in the imagery. Some comparisons of a clean versus polluted harbor were also among the poster pictures, emphasizing the benefits of a clean harbor. 

The posters have been submitted to the MWRA who will judge entries from all over the state in different age groups and announce a winner in March of next year. Enjoy the posters below designed by our young environmentalists!  Ask your child to point out which poster is theirs and tell you about their hopes for the harbor.