To round out our exploration of environmental topics, this week we had some special visitors from Ms. Hall's third grade class. We learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a huge area of the Pacific Ocean where currents have collected a massive amount of garbage) and tried to generate solutions for our own mini-garbage patches. Kindergarten students worked with a third grade partner to come up with a solution for cleaning up their tub of water. Students were allowed to "buy" materials from the teachers with the goal of coming up with an inexpensive, but effective solution for their polluted water. Students worked hard with their partners to try to make foil and plastic baggies into materials that could be used to clean their waters. Students used their materials to clean their water (with varying levels of success) and then took a gallery walk to see how other groups had tried to solve their pollution problem. Finally, students considered how well their solution worked and came up with ideas of how to improve their design. The students loved this activity and loved working with their third grade partners! Thanks to the author of the Beyond Traditional Math blog for this amazing idea!
|
Mrs. McGrane
I love teaching kindergarten literacy at STEM! It is amazing to be a part of the reading and writing growth of a kindergarten student. You get to see kids move from knowing some letters and sounds to being enthusiastic readers and young authors. Archives
March 2016
Categories |