Well, here they are!!  The final pictures of our STEAM Week-Roller Coaster Physics project.  I am so incredibly proud of my students.  They worked hard, all week, to make a coaster that included a loop, camel back, and one other manuever of their choice.  They spent the week working in teams to build, rebuild, and rebuild!!  They worked out all of the kinks and problems together.  They were motivated, dedicated, and patient with each other.  The best part was sharing their coasters with their parents and watching their faces when their parents marble made a successful run through their coaster.  It was amazing!  Have I mentioned how lucky I am?

 

 

STEAM-Day 3

We are rocking roller coasters in our classroom!  I have 18 of the best roller coaster engineers I've ever seen.  You know it's a great assignment when 18 students do not want to stop working and beg to give up recess time to continue working on their coasters!  It's amazing to watch and listen to.  I love standing back and observing their thinking process.  We are not completely done, but as each team adds a new manuever they have to test the coaster to make sure each component works.  Once they've successfully tested it several times, they can add a new manuever.  Each new addition adds added stress to their lives!  They are stressed and I am in awe.

Brainstorming and sketching (A in STEAM)

Building the first loop (E in STEAM)

Building (E in STEAM)

Testing and Correcting (E & M in STEAM)

Building
 

In addition to our awesome building, we were very lucky to have a real-life engineer come in and talk with all 3rd grade students.  Mr. Fulton, active duty Navy, took some time away from his job to spend some time talking with our kiddos about engineering and Newton's Laws of Motion.  Check out the video below of Mr. Fulton explaining centrifugal force. 

 

 

STEAM -Day 1

What a great first day back to teaching!  My student intern completed her full time teaching last Friday, so today was my official first day teaching all subjects with my kiddos.  I have so missed being up and about with my kiddos. 

Today also is the start of STEAM Week.  Third graders are learning about Newtons Laws of Motion and will begin constructing pipe insulation roller coasters on Wednesday.  I cannot wait to watch them brainstorm and work together to create their coasters.  I have such an amazing group of kiddos, so I'm positive my coasters are going to be fabulous and the students will learn so much from this week.  Pictures are definitely coming! 

We are still in the  process of working on Flat Nassar, with STEAM Week we are running a little bit behind, but rest assured, Flat Nassar presentations are coming soon!! 

Twilight Zone Kinda Week!!

It's Friday!!!  It's been a full moon, Twilight Zone, kind of week.  Basically, if it can happen, it did!  So happy it's over and looking forward to next week being better.  Next week is STEAM week and I cannot wait to watch my third graders build pipe insulation roller coasters.  They have no idea they are going to be doing this, so I'm sure they are going to be so thrilled to participate in this.  I love watching them put together things and the thrill on their faces when they see it work.  This is going to be so awesome and I will definitely follow up with pictures.

All of the Flat Nassar pictures are in, but we did not get to start their digital scrapbooks this week as originally planned.  I'm going to make an effort to squeeze that in next week.  The kids are excited about putting it together and I'm excited about sharing it with you all.  The pictures they took with Flat Nassar are absolutely fabulous and are so much fun to look at.  I would like to be able to promise that the Flat Nassar project will be posted here next week, but I'm afraid I'd make a liar out of myself.  Don't fret, the project will be posted as soon as possible.  With STEAM week, I'm predicting very little will get done with the Flat Nassar project. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm spending it with my daughter for her sororities parents weekend.  It's a fun-filled weekend of hanging out with college students.  Boy, those were some good ole' days!

Back to School :)!

Well, Spring Break is over and back to school we go!  I'm so excited to see my kiddos and hear about all of their weeklong adventures.  I'm also excited to see their pictures and journals for Flat Nassar.  We are creating a digital scrapbook for Flat Nassar and I'm sure they are going to be awesome.  As soon as they are done, I will post here for you all to see.  I hope everyone has a great week back!!

 

So proud!!

So, I know this is a school blog, but as a very proud mommy, I have to post this picture of our beautiful daughter, Ashley.  This is her senior year in college (graduates in a month)!  Words will never express just how proud of this girl we are.  She's smart, strong, adventurous, and amazing.  In a few months she starts her first, grown up job in Raleigh.  We love this kiddo so much!

 

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Added a couple more pages!  I am loving this blogging thing!!  Can't wait to share with my kiddos and their parents.  Also, can't wait to add more fun pages for the students to interact with.

Spring Break is almost over

April 4, 2013

Can you believe it?  Spring Break is going by so quickly.  I could use another week to complete all the items on my list.  I'm excited to return back to school.  My student teacher is three weeks away from completing her internship, which means that we are in the "phasing out" stage.  She's phasing out and I'm phasing back in to teaching my awesome kiddos.  I cannot wait to get back to working with my kiddos!!  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the last few days.