KINDERGARTEN l Literacy I Engineering Design Practices
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Lab Happenings
Inquiry Questions
What do engineers do? How can I learn how to think like an engineer? How can I learn how to work like an engineer? How can we use our engineering skills to design a unique way to water our new garden?
Literacy Connections
- The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
- The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch by Ronda Armitage
- The Herculean Labors: The Augean Stables
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming
- The Gardener by Sarah Stewart
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall
- Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty
- 21 Elephants by April Jones
Challenges and Collaboration
- Mrs. Grinling from the Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch is our new client! How can we help her with those pesky seagulls and deliver the lunch safe and sound to Mr. Grinling?
- After reading about how Hercules cleaned out the stables by controlling two rivers, we decided if we could control a river of our own. We built dams in plastic shoeboxes using rocks, clay, and popsicle sticks.
- Max from Where the Wild Things Are has hired us to design a safe and friendly Wild Thing trap and a new air powered boat to get back home!
- We have new clients this week! The bunnies of Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! have asked for our ideas about how to get over Mr. McGreely's new brick wall!
- This week we built a sprout house out of sponges, played Where's My Water?, made bunny puppets with moveable parts, checked out a Rube Goldberg machine, and explored the idea of moving water with cups, funnels, and tubes.
- Think about what we know about Baby Bear. What does he love? etc. Build a prototype of his new dream chair. Draw a detailed diagram.
- Iggy Peck the Architect loves to build! He uses some very interesting materials in his creations- fruit, pancakes, and even diapers! Our challenge was to choose one material found in the lab to build with and then draw detailed and labeled diagrams. Engineers worked through 2 iterations (drafts)!
- Engineers solve problems! Can you identify Jerry's problem (problem scoping)? How can we help? We designed and built prototypes of a new house for Jerry complete with security features and cat traps. We had fun sharing our work with each other.
- Design and build multiple iterations of a bridge that can hold "21 somethings." Present your work to the community.
Ask Your Engineer
Were you able to send a snack to a friend across the classroom using a pulley system? Can we try it here? What materials do we need?
Did your dam hold back water? Describe your design.
Did you design a boat or a trap for Max? How did it work?
What was your idea to get the bunnies over the wall?
Do you have any sprouts yet? How did you make your bunny puppet?
(While doing your daily reading together or watching a movie...) So, what is _____'s problem? What could we do as engineers to help?
Did your dam hold back water? Describe your design.
Did you design a boat or a trap for Max? How did it work?
What was your idea to get the bunnies over the wall?
Do you have any sprouts yet? How did you make your bunny puppet?
(While doing your daily reading together or watching a movie...) So, what is _____'s problem? What could we do as engineers to help?
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Can You Help?
If you are interested in supporting our wacky watering project here are some of the materials we need! We need clean, recycled soda bottles, yogurt cups, and gallon jugs. You can also contribute through my Donor's Choose project https://www.donorschoose.org/project/the-ultimate-wacky-watering-system/2259239/ Thanks!
If you are interested in supporting our wacky watering project here are some of the materials we need! We need clean, recycled soda bottles, yogurt cups, and gallon jugs. You can also contribute through my Donor's Choose project https://www.donorschoose.org/project/the-ultimate-wacky-watering-system/2259239/ Thanks!