Our iSTEAM Fair presented many challenges this year. Students began their projects online while we were telelearning and then transferred to school after we came back on site. They overcame every challenge and succeeded in preparing a thoughtful and fun project!
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Students worked in two groups of three on their October STEM Challenge. The objective for this age group was to build the longest bridge possible using a set amount of materials. Students put on their engineering hats as they gathered in their groups to discuss their ideas and plan for how best to go about solving this problem. By having more than one group within the class and by viewing other bridges built by the different classes, the kinder students can begin to understand that there are many ways to solve a problem. Last week, our STEM class started with a student sharing his 3D printed projects he worked on over the March break. We have been learning about what a 3D printer is and isn't and even helped make a 3D minion with our in house 3D printing specialist, Jed! The projects made at home by this little friend were fantastic and inspirational! Thank you for sharing A.C.! Yesterday’s STEM class was all about learning what a binary code meant. We learned that computers use binary numbers and that binary code is a two-symbol code. Using our code sheet, we looked up the letters of our name and used the black and white square paper to write our names using the binary code! We'll do some more work on this, to reinforce our understanding. Maybe we'll challenge ourselves to write a sentence, next week! We'll also talk about how braille uses a binary code system to read and write by touch. This week, students across the globe are participating in The Hour of Code, and our students are doing just the same. In fact, if you go to the Hour of Code website, you'll find our school pinned on the map! Many of the activities are for students a bit older but there are many opportunities and activities for students as young as JK to participate in as well. During yesterday's STEM class, we worked on the iPads, using the application Scratch Jr, which many of the students are familiar with already. Some of us worked independently while others followed the steps one by one with me at the table. Once they finished their program, their eyes lit up with happiness, the satisfactions of making a computer do what you tell it to is quite unreal for some of these little guys. This is part two of our house building activity. We started by reading 'If I Built a House' by Chris Van Dusen. After that, we discussed who exactly builds houses and discussed what we would want in a house if we were to build a house. After some discussion and learning about the steps we would take to build our own house (sort of simplified), we designed the front of our house using paint and blocks. Below is step two, where students designed the inside of their house, making a floor plan using rulers, stencils and a pencil. A simple yet descriptive birds eye view of the inside of their house. The next step will be building a small model of the house! That may take a few periods, we shall see! |
Welcome to the daily life of Académie de la Capitale's Junior / Senior Kindergarten class! We hope you enjoy this window into our classroom as much as we enjoy sharing it!Archives
May 2023
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