PRESCHOOL-1st GRADE SPRING STEAM HIGHLIGHTS

PreSchool STEAM students love to take on a fairy tale STEAM style.  Fairy Tales lend themselves nicely to our integrated STEAM curriculum.  There is always a problem which leads to engineering, problem-solving, math, art, science, and technology.

PreSchool

Students have been learning what seeds need and how they grow.  Below, the students are pretending to be "seeds" and waiting in the soil to be watered.

We built a HUGE beanstalk together.

PreK

 Students have been studying DINOSAURS 

(watch the video below)

Click HERE to get a glimpse into our dinosaur study!

 

Kindergarten

Kindergarteners learned about construction and architecture via The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.  They also learned about building deconstruction with a wrecking ball.

Kindergarteners are currently bringing the book BIRDS by Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek to LIFE! 

Avery brought in a real nest to share with us.

We built a bluebird house for our Gala Auction item.

Kindergarteners mixed paint to make the perfect shade of blue and painted the backdrop for our upcoming

 SPHERO painting adventure.

Our first experience coding with a SPHERO, not bad for one class together! Click below to see us in action.

Click Here to Watch Kinders in Action

Congratulations to 1st grade, 4th Grade and 8th Graders on winning the STEM prize in the 2018-2019 Carton2Garden contest!

Click here to see our submission video!

Carton2Garden winners

First graders are currently studying sound and light. 

• Students were able to visualize vibration with a Tone Generator, salt, and rice.
• Using a Sound Chamber, students learned about different properties of sound.
• First graders used tuning forks to experiment with sound and vibration.
• Using homemade xylophones, students experiment with tone and volume.
• Did you know that spoons, string and wire hangers make magical bell sounds?

Click on the link below to see our submission video for the 2019 Carton 2 Garden STEAM challenge!

Carton 2 Garden


 

Engineering and Collaboration

Kindergarten is embarking on an architecture study and coincidently, so is sixth grade.  Kinders took a field trip across campus to learn all about the seismograph machines that the sixth graders engineered.  Kinders and sixth graders will collaborate more over the next few weeks.

PreSchool Engineers



The PreSchool STEAM students read a wide variety of Goldilocks and the Three Bear books and compared similarities and differences. They discovered that in each version, Goldilocks broke Baby Bear’s chair. Surprisingly, they received a note from Goldilocks expressing her regret about breaking the chair. She asked the TCS PreSchool students to help redesign and engineer a chair for Baby Bear. Using a rock to simulate the weight of Baby Bear and after studying different types of chairs and noticing how many legs they each had, what the seat part was like, and what the backrest was like if any, the students designed, engineered and built a new chair for Baby Bear. They used materials provided by Goldilocks.

Although Tuesday was a shortened day,  it was a perfect day for PreK chemistry!

Valentine's Day was a special day for PreSchoolers!

With the Super Bowl on Sunday, how about a week of football STEAM style?

Kindergarten and first grade students watched videos to see how engineers create different balls for different sports, create rules for games, and make equipment safe by testing and redesigning. They then learned about the game of football: the rules, the math, the science, and the physics. After studying shapes on a paper template, students made origami footballs and then created a table top football field. Of course each game started with an official coin toss but not before engineering a goal post for their football fields. The classroom was a buzz Friday afternoon with cheers of excitement as the students played table top football. PreK students also got a taste of the football fever during their STEAM class.