Engineers are Successful in Helping Rapunzel Escape!

This week our K-2 engineers went to work constructing the escape designs they drew before Thanksgiving. They were eager to help Rapunzel escape from her tower! They only had 20 minutes to construct a way for her to escape! First they went shopping for materials.

                                     


Next they set to work cutting, twisting, clipping, tying and testing. You could literally see the "steam" coming out of their heads as they grappled with the challenge of not being able to use tape or glue.

        .      . 

Some needed to test their design and make modifications.

 .            

At the end of 20 minutes we gathered in a circle on the rug to present our designs and see how successful we were. Silent cheers went up all around as each student got a chance to explain their design and help Rapuzel escape!

      

Flipgrid!

Here are the 178 student reflections of our first STEAM unit, as well as a tour of every student's house that they engineered!  Listening to the students' thought process behind their house designs is fascinating, and the intricacy of their building is very impressive!  Click on the grid below and then again on the next site to enjoy all of OQS's incredible learning and success!

    

STEAM Streets!

Our STEAM unit on houses is finished, but before the students took their houses home with them, we had them find a spot on the STEAM Street and got a group photo.  They were very neighborly!

Kindergarten Court

1st Street

2nd Street

3rd Street

4th Street

5th Street

Our hope was to form each street into a town, but with holidays and the sheer size of some of their creations, logistically it was not meant to be.  The students were excited to bring home their creations and share their hard work with their families.  We are all very proud of the amount of energy, planning, creativity, and reflection that went into these first two months of STEAM!  We will share their Flipgrid reflections with the school community soon!

Engineering Fairy Tale Solutions

Today K-2 began their unit on engineering fairy tale solutions which we will be working on into the new year.  Our first challenge is to create a way for Rapunzel to escape from her tower.  We began by brainstorming answers to the question, "How would you feel if you were stuck?"  Some of the students' answers were hopeless, sad, angry, bored, and frustrated. Then Mrs. Newton read a rousing rendition of the Caldecott Award-winning fairy tale Rapunzel, by Paul O. Zelinsky.

The students were enraptured!

After the read-aloud, we introduced the challenge to the students: engineer a way for Rapunzel to escape from her tower.  They students were eager to begin planning, especially when they heard that they were able to draft their plan on the new dry erase library tables!

 

After 60 seconds of doodling (because of course, they needed a chance to doodle), they began to draft a solution to this engineering problem.  They were also able to peruse the materials that will be available to them next week when they begin to build.

Stay tuned until the next STEAM time after Thanksgiving to see how the many ways our students solve this problem!

Builders Reflect

This week our K-2 students took time to present the houses they built by using an app called flipgrip. We had a chance to watch and reflect on the process of building!

Here are some of the students' thoughts: