Exercise Challenge aka War!

With it being rainy and the indoor space being used for book fair, our PE teacher improvised and came up with an exercise battle using the card game "War". Our class combined with the PK/K class and taught the littles how to play!

This game allows students to practice honesty, fairness, honorable sporting behavior, and fitness skills. Exercise Battle is an energetic and exciting game, requiring a little strategy and a lot of luck. 

"3-2-1, FLIP!"

Passing out a new set of cards

"Let's flip our top card! What did you get?"

7 Wins! 14 Curl Ups

J Wins! Skip in place for 35 Roadrunners

"Which card wins? We have two aces!"

Passing out a new set of cards.

Our class sure loves mentoring our littlest students!

Periodic Table Battleship

Teaching the periodic table of elements without being monotonous can be difficult. 

So with help from Teach Beside Me and Destination Imagination we created our own periodic table battleship game using the instructions on the websites. 

It was a surprising twist to a fun game!

The purpose of this game:

~To recognize the elements and their names 
~To learn how to read the periodic table
~To have exposure to the elements and the periodic table

"I sunk his ship!"

"Number 99. Wow that's Einsteinium!"

This activity incorporated a fun game while still learning the elements!

Clouds!

When the clouds are out and the sun is shining it is nice to go on an adventure to draw what we have been learning about!

Our class took a five minute walk to discover the cloud formations and draw them using chalk!

What type of clouds do you see?

What type of clouds did you draw?

She was using her finger to smear the chalk to make her clouds.

These are images from the sky, as students were drawing their cloud pictures!

Our class discovered that most of the clouds in the sky were cirrus clouds and some were cirrocumulus or cirrostratus clouds.

Weather Phenomena Projects

This year our overarching theme is Transitions and under that lens we are learning about weather. Students asked questions on how storms and different weather patterns form, so their first project was to select a weather phenomena and answer questions like: 

How does it form?

What causes it?

Where does it happen?

Can we prevent that weather phenomena?

Are their any safety precautions people can take?

When was the biggest one?

When did one do the most damage?

Are their interesting facts about that weather phenomena?

We enjoyed sharing our projects with our friends from the Transitioners class.

Ladybug Mentors

The Thunderbolts enjoyed our first time with our PreK and Kindergarten mentors. They had a fabulous time measuring apple peels, discovering all the parts of the apple and getting to know their "little" friends!

Check out the PreK blog for more pictures: https://seaburyprek.blogspot.com/ 

Using a measuring tape to measure an apple peel.

"Hmm...I wonder how long the apple peel is?"

"Ours is longer than the measuring tape!"

"I think it is..."

Using precise measurement skills. 

"We need to get our measuring tape straight!"

We lined up all of our apple peels!

After measuring the apple peels Mrs. West did a debrief of what went well and what was the hardest part of measuring apple peels.

Stack'em Up: An Introduction to Engineering

In today's teamwork challenge, students were introduced to engineering by working in teams of 3-4 to solve a problem WITHOUT talking. Each group created a tool using string and a rubber band that was used to stack a group of cups into a pyramid. 

Team members must work cooperatively to: 

• Pull their strings to expand the rubber band 

• Lower the rubber band around a cup 

• Release the string so that the rubber band grabs the cup 

• Pick up the cup to stack it

Through some frustration, hard work, and dedication the challenge can be completed!

This was the group to complete the challenge first. Way to go!


In the end, students learned that teamwork makes tasks easier when you all pull together, it increases perseverance, and builds cooperation along with communication skills.

What an great way to start the new year!

Saving Fred!

Saving Fred is a creative problem-solving activity using a gummy worm, life saver, a cup, and some paperclips. 

The Story: Fred has been spending his summer boating on the Great Lakes. But he’s not too bright (after all, the brains of worms are pretty small). He’s never learned how to swim and he never wears his life preserver. The worst has happened! His boat has capsized and he’s stuck! Fortunately, his life preserver is in the boat, but unfortunately he does not know how to reach it without falling off and drowning. Source

Problem: How can you and your partner save Fred using only 2 paper clips? You may not touch Fred, the boat, or the life preserver directly with your hands! 

The Rules: 

• Fred may not fall into the sea (table) more than one time. If he does, he drowns.
• You may not injure Fred in any way - Poor Fred.
• You may use only 2 paper clips to move Fred, the boat, and the life preserver. You may not touch anything except the paper clips.

We paired up with students from the 5th grade class to test our life-saving skills.

 The great news was that we came up with loads of different methods to save Fred.

 Remarkably, some of the groups came up with a process within minutes. 

The goal was to use teamwork and cooperation to figure out how to save Fred. Everyone was able to find at least two ways to save him which means, lots of Fred's got to carrying on with their boating excursions.