What an exciting week we’ve had! We started off the week reading Humpty Dumpty by Daniel Kirk. We liked this story, maybe because so many of us like to climb but dislike getting hurt. We all agreed that Humpty needed a way to stay safe while climbing. So we talked about things we do to stay safe: listen to adults, wear helmets, jump on matts at gymnastics, and do turtle when upset. Next we came up with our own ideas of how to keep Humpty safe if he fell. The ideas were great and ranged from things like wearing a helmet to being sure to fall on soft sunflowers.
Tuesday, we checked to see what happened when real eggs fall off short walls (1 brick) vs. tall walls (8 bricks). When the egg smashed after falling off of 8 bricks, we were very excited! Then we worked in small groups to create something that could protect an egg from breaking in a fall. We used the materials in our classrooms like small boxes, cups, cotton, and tape. When Wednesday came around we all gathered at the foam brick wall to see how our devices worked. While one egg needed a bandaid, all of the eggs were mostly unharmed from their 8-brick fall. Way to go engineers! We still weren’t finished with Humpty though. The morning class talked about what might have made the one egg break. The afternoon class felt the need to see how tall the wall could get before the egg would break. Those safety devices protected the eggs from jumps up to 20 bricks high. Safety gear really works! Today was our last day of focusing on Nursery Rhymes. Tomorrow we will be focusing on Thanksgiving. It should be a fun day leading into our week-long break. We’ll look forward to seeing you all on Monday, November 27 when we begin our STEM unit on Health. We wish you all a fun and meaningful Thanksgiving full of love and laughter. Sincerely, Ms. Kiersten and Ms. Toni