January 27 - 30

Inquiry:

DESIGN THINKING WITH IGGY PECK

This week our class read the book, "Iggy Peck, Architect." We stopped reading when Iggy and his class crossed over the Blue River Pass and the footbridge collapsed! 

At this time, we explored the Design Thinking process in order to solve the problem.  

First Step - Empathy
In groups, students empathized with our characters, especially Miss Lila Greer. Who are we building this bridge for? What are the students feeling? Seeing? Hearing? Thinking? 

Second Step - Define
Students decided that the problem was that the students were stranded and needed to find a way to get to the other side safely. 

Third Step - Ideation
In this step, students were tasked with coming up with AS MANY IDEAS as possible. We accept every idea! No bad ideas! This was an opportunity for students to be creative with their ideas. Ask your child what their best ideas were. 

Fourth Step - Prototype
Students then created blueprints of their chosen design and began to build! Students work on their design by testing and then fixing their design based on criteria and function. Is it safe? Is it stable? Is it strong? 

Criteria: 

• Free standing structure 
• Span a gap of 40 cm
• Must support 30 unifix cubes

Fifth Step - Test

Ask your child how many UNIFIX CUBES their free-standing bridge could support!

 

 

 

LITERACY:

Students in Ms. Gierl's literacy group are reading the novel the Big Friendly Giant. As a group, we are working on our fluency and comprehension strategies such as stopping to check for understanding and backing up to reread things that need more attention. While reading chapters aloud, we generate a word bank of unfamiliar words. Then together, we work with dictionaries to define the words in order to give us a greater understanding of the text. 

Ask your child about a new word that they learned in the BFG novel!