Happy 120th Day of School!

First grade students celebrated the 120th day of school with lots of great activities related to math, building, and designing (STEM).  First grade celebrates the 120th day because our grade level expectations encourage us to be able to count and complete math-related activities within 120 (and beyond).  

Click play to see a little slideshow of the fun we had on the 120th Day of School.

Picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

Valentine Party in 1S

STEM Challenge

Our study of Famous Americans includes the Wright Brothers who designed the first aircraft that took flight.  Students embarked upon their own challenge of designing a glider aircraft out of household materials.  Students used materials like paper, cardboard, coffee filters, pipe cleaners, straws, and paper plates.   The Challenge:  Come up with a new idea for a glider for the Wright Brothers.  Students must stick to a $20 budget and use the available supplies. 

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  All of these components were included in this Challenge.  Students learned about flight, used technology to listen to flight tips, designed their glider, built their designs, and used mathematics to stick to a $20 budge when shopping for materials.

Students were able to test out their airplane glider before the final flight in front of the class.  We culminated with a Flight Celebration where students cheered each other other on while flying their glider in front of the class.  We measured the distances of the flights. 

 Students learned a lot from our STEM challenge, and are excited and ready for the next one!