4th grade Makerspace

What is a Makerspace?

Fourth graders have been exploring this concept with Mrs. Syndercombe and Mrs. Perry. This week, each class had an introduction to Makerspaces in the library media center. Students watched a video introducing the idea of a Makerspace.

The video suggested that students break up the word makerspace. In three parts:
Make means to create
Er means to ponder
Space is an area

Makerspaces are spaces that allow students to be critical thinkers and creators. They are for exploring, creating, building, and discovering new ideas. They are collaborative workspaces where students can explore high tech to “no” tech, learn from each other, and invent.

After discussion, students participated in an activity to create a pop up card using different materials. Take a look at some of their creations:

Fourth graders now have the opportunity to explore in the CES Makerspace. Students are invited to create, play, invent, and launch imaginations into overdrive! New activities and materials will be introduced into the Makerspace every two weeks. Students can explore art materials, Legos, animation, and much more. We are interested to see what our fourth graders will “make” this year!

Staples Storytime

Today, we were thrilled to welcome students from Staples High School for “Staples Storytime!”

Students in Kim Herzog’s Gender, Sex & Identity: Analysis of the Self class came to read original stories to our Kindergarten students. For their final assessment, the high school students wrote and illustrated their own picture books to convey positive messages regarding gender. They read these original stories to the Kindergarten classes and facilitated discussions about each book’s message.

How did the Staples students prepare to write their picture books? They have been studying informational texts that discuss how children’s literature can impact its readers. The articles presented research about gender imbalances, gender stereotypes, and gender roles found in traditional picture books. The Staples students studied examples of children’s literature, such as The Paper Bag Princess, and William’s Doll, that present positive messages about gender to children. Finally, they wrote original stories to read to the Kindergarten students. The students used all of their learning from the course to generate topics and ideas for their kindergarten audience. Their stories had messages they felt were important to share with the Kindergarten students and messages that they also felt were lacking in children’s literature. Check out some pictures below:

After the session, Kindergarten students returned to their classrooms and discussed what they had learned from the stories. They charted their new learning for the high schoolers. See below:

I encourage you to ask your child about today’s Staples Storytime!

Rise & Pose

Photos from our first Rise & Pose event!

We hope to see more families at our next event.  It is a great way to start the day on a positive and relaxing note!

Kindergarten Scientists

What is motion?

What makes things move?

How do pushes and pulls affect the motion of an object?

These are just some of the questions that Kindergarteners are exploring at Coleytown!

In this science unit, Kindergarten students are developing common vocabulary, asking
questions and deepening their understanding about how objects move when forces and
interactions between objects are applied. Students are investigating and measuring how
an object’s movement is impacted by the relative strength or direction of pushing and pulling.

What does this look like in the classrooms?

Last week, all of the Kindergarten classes came together in the gymnasium to explore the

guiding question:

What happens when you use harder and softer pushes to move things?  

The gym set up for the investigation.

Students took turns rolling balls using different amounts of force. Students investigated how

changes in force caused the balls to move different distances.  They tracked this data and then
analyzed it as a group.

Check out some pictures below!

Ms. Roesler collecting class data.

Students getting ready to push the balls in the gym.

Students watching their "pushes."

Students observed patterns of motion and used these patterns as evidence of the effects
of different strengths of pushes on the motion of an object.

This week, the Kindergarten students are exploring the question:

How can you make something move without touching it?

Today, students in Ms. Deering’s class experimented with moving a marble along a foam

track.  Their challenge was to make the marble move without touching it at all! Students

discovered that by lifting the track, they could make the marble move different distances.

Summary table of experiments

Two students changing the height of the track.

Students experimenting on the track.

Questions to ask your children:

Was there a difference in how the marble moved at the different heights?
Why do you think the marble moved differently each time?

And that's how Kindergarteners at Coleytown roll...