Heads Up--Play Day is now Wednesday Afternoon

Dear Parents,

The date was readjusted because the weather forecast hasn't been cooperating. Remember to send an extra set of clothes because students will be playing with water!

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

TInfoil Hats and Father's Day Crafts

Dear Parents,

Last week, we had a fantastic tinfoil hat workshop and fashion show. This was a fantastic celebration of our structures theme and students had a blast making their hats. Many thanks to Diane for supplying the tinfoil and creating team challenges. Students worked in groups of 3 in order to create different hats out of tinfoil. They were allowed to use tape as needed.

Debating procedure

Making the "horn" for the tall hat.

Not as painful as it might look. Very focused on getting those tentacles to stick. 

To start, plenty of tinfoil

 

Adding noodley appendages to the noodle hat

The original model for the chicken hat, in process

Tentacles being added to the octo-hat

Getting the claws on the lobster hat was pretty tricky

This one makes me laugh:

Can I take a picture?

Smile!

Final elements coming together

The chicken hat

The octopus hat

The lobster hat mid-fashion show

I had to get closer!

Moving like an octopus

Flailing like a noodle

Final poses!

Some years Father's Day can be fraught for families, but when I broached the subject with my group this year, they were enthusiastic about making things for their dads, so even though I initially gave them a choice of 3 things I thought we might do, we ended up doing all of them. I delayed posting so as not to ruin the surprise (but at least one student admitted this morning he'd forgotten it all in his backpack, so ...worth checking if you haven't seen it!)

 A medal (gold painted yogurt lid with personalized inscription):

Hung on a festive ribbon: 

 Some writing (Seeing yourself through kids' eyes is just entertaining):

A spinner card (students chose their own rewards, and I helped with spelling when asked):

Another stellar week in Room 105. It's hard to believe the year is almost over!

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

Birdhouse workshop

Dear Parents,

Today was the payoff: we spent the afternoon building the birdfeeders that we had planned. Students used a variety of recycled materials to make their bird feeders and one of my favourite parts of the afternoon was the variety of results. This was definitely a case where there was more than one right answer.

Even with all our careful drawings and plans, I was still very much on deck cutting last minute holes, so I didn't get process photos, but while I was cutting, students were solving last minute problems like that the popsicle sticks they'd planned on taping extending horizontal to the outside of their yogurt container weren't going to stay there, at least not without a lot of extra support.

A variety of solutions happened--some students used the lip as a fulcrum, some asked for a hole in the plastic to help stabilize the stick, some glued popsicle sticks onto the surface of the container to build up a lip they could use as a support.

That problem solving is where all the learning happens--I saw it when we did our last design challenge as well. Students apply skills that they then consolidate and apply next time. And the independence they showed throughout this challenge was also refreshing,  because they're learning to trust themselves and their ability to solve problems.

Here's the results (a couple of students didn't want photos today--but everyone completed the challenge with flying colours):

Here's the triangle support from the side

2 birdhouses, 1 birthday ribbon

All this makes me think we might do a third design challenge--maybe hats? maybe shoes? 

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan