Holiday STEM, Acts of Kindness and a Class Update!!!

It's December!  That is such a busy time for a first grade teacher!  I mean, first grade has the most fun (in my opinion) when it comes to the holidays!  We make homemade gingerbread, ornaments, have our very own Polar Express Day, readers theater (The Gingerbread Man) ANNNND we are doing some holiday STEM projects!  This has got to be one of my favorite new things we've done this year!  I am loving all the stem projects our kids have been coming up with!

HOLIDAY STEM!!

Our first graders are super pumped about our holiday stem projects.  My awesome teaching partner and I planned out these activities to do during our normal math time.  It is for this last week before holiday break!  HOW FUN!

Here are some of the stem projects we did so far:

STEM DAY #1:  Construct the tallest tower you can using only toothpicks and gumdrops.

This was a lot of fun.  I did start off the class at the carpet going over all the rules for this stem challenge.  Rule #1:  Do not eat the gumdrops :), Rule #2:   The toothpicks are tools, not weapons, Rule #3: If someone copies your idea, it's not COPYING, it's a COMPLIMENT... :0  You know.. all the regular stuff that first grade teachers have to say.  (COPYING is considered a BAD word in first grade - also we don't say "BUTTING" - that is a NO NO word. lol)  ANYWAY...  after the rules, the kids started off at their stations.  They had lots of great ideas and great starts.
Many of them realized that things didn't quite go as planned.  They had to adjust their plans.(and take deep breaths).
These are some of the early-on towers:

After about 20 minutes, I pulled everyone to the carpet to talk about what was working, and what wasn't.  Things that the kids reported to be working were things like doubling or tripling up on the toothpicks to make it stronger, making triangle bases instead of square, etc.  After we talked through all of that, I sent them back to their spots to make changes.  I gave them 15 more minutes before they had to have hands off!  Then I would measure their towers to find the winner!  THE SUSPENSE!! :)

Bella decided to try triangles to make her tower more sturdy at the bottom.

Here's some of our finished towers:

Deem's finished tower

Taylan's finished tower (2nd place!)

Alexi's finished tower!

Julian's finished tower (3rd place!)

Hunter's finished tower (OUR WINNER!  12 inches tall!)

STEM DAY #2:  

• Construct a Christmas Tree that stand on its own out of only pipe cleaners

• Design a cylinder telescope to help Santa on his travels using paper and tape.

Today was our day 2 and they enjoyed themselves immensely!

I set up this day into 2 stations.  Each station had a different challenge.  I'm not going to lie!  We did have some tears today!  The kids who couldn't get their trees just right, had a hard time trying again, but we had a little chat about perseverance today and I think that helped a lot!! :)

Here's some of our Christmas trees!

Finn's tree

Gracelyn's tree

Alexi's tree

Ethen's tree

Here's some of our telescopes!  These were very fun!

This is Austin's telescope.  He decided to make a tool to go with it in order to wipe away any snow that gets in the way on the telescope!  WOW!  So smart!

Stay tuned for more about our holiday STEM projects!  This has been so much fun!!

Acts of Kindness Christmas Break Countdown

So first grade started this last year in an attempt to get kids thinking about giving to others and doing kind during the holiday season.  My goal is to give the kids a view of the holidays that isn't always about presents and what we "get".  So our acts of kindness Countdown has been a huge hit!  Every morning, we pick a new act of kindness out of our bag,

Then we do that for the day!  Sometimes it's as simple as telling a teacher that they are special or it can be to actually make someone a note, card, or letter.  

Here's some pictures of our kids after they made their friends an award telling them they are special.

We are such great buds!

I love this time of year so much!  We will see how we can get this type of attitude all year long!

Now for a class update:

• Zachary saw Santa this weekend on Main Street
• Austin got a wrestling award this weekend
• Rainey has a very loose tooth!
• Lizzie had a basketball game this weekend!
• Christopher is moving next week :/
• Gianna is also moving next week :/
• London is going to be the Gingerbread Man in our readers theater and he's very excited!
• I saw Finn over the weekend at Target!
• Taylor is going to get her sister something really special for Christmas!
• Aurora was the reader of the day today!

That's all for now!  More updates to come!

PEACE!
~Shelly