Easy, Ready for Monday
These are fun easy, projects that use simple materials that you might find at easily at school and at local stores.
Old string of Christmas lights to make a flashlight
|
Reflection: I liked this as a first electricity project. Christmas bulbs do not have a negative or positive end. I thought I pair this project with any book that includes candles or a spooky story read by candle light.
We could also add decorations around the outside.
A lesson learned, luckily by me, was watch for the bulbs that have three wires. The third wire shocks you and overheats the battery.
We could also add decorations around the outside.
A lesson learned, luckily by me, was watch for the bulbs that have three wires. The third wire shocks you and overheats the battery.
Penny Bridge I gave each student about 50 pennies and a one inch wide strip of cardstock. They were to get the leprechaun across the "water" to the other side.
My students' bridges were much simpler than those on the website.
Reflection: We did this activity as an end of the day filler but we could add a Narrative about a Leprechaun and what was on the other side of the bridge.
We could also do this activity after reading Three Billy Goats Gruff. The bridge with pennies might be a bit small or acting out the story.
Play Dough or Legos to show the Beginning Middle and End of a Story
Student groups discussed the characters, the setting and the beginning/middle/end of the story or the problem/solution.
Paper Making
Our Scholastic News had a magazine titled "Thank a Tree". This got us talking about paper and that it comes from trees and how is it make.
We watched some YouTube videos about how to paper is made. Then the students and I wrote out the instructions for making paper from what we learned.
We had many discussions before the next instruction went on the paper.
Then we made very simple ... and lumpy paper. We did not look at the instructions on the websites below to help create our instructions. We were "figuring it out for ourselves."
PBS kids has some kid/teacher friendly instructions on how to make paper.
Tinker lab also had instructions I looked at before starting the project.
Reflection: This was a interesting project because it grew from the kids question and wondering how paper was made. After we watched the factory made paper students asked if we could make paper. I added writing out the instructions to focus our thinking on how to make paper in class and to make a list of what I might need to bring from home. The blender was all we needed from home. We did pair and share to develop our ideas before we wrote them down. Each student had a mass of pulp. We learned if you pressed too much water out before it got flat we couldn't get it flat. At the same time we decided that the shapes could be dried to add to dioramas. This was a great whole class discovery project. We used our scrap white paper and added bits of colored construction paper for fun.
Making a Speaker
needed two magnets
enameled wire
battery
needed two magnets
enameled wire
battery