How Do Things Move?

All of Santa Clara is participating in a school Science Fair. The fourth through sixth grades are preparing individual experiments, while third grade and below are doing group experiments. I chose to do a unit on Motion/Force and Friction with my first graders. Last week we completed our first "experiment". We discussed the Scientific Method in basic terms and then I did a tug o' war demonstration with them. I asked all of my students to watch how I and the other student were moving as we tugged back and forth. Many of them actually said push/pull right off the bat which was so wonderful, and something I wasn't expecting. I have taught this concept one other time to first graders in the States and that group kept saying I was tugging it. I think it helps that my first graders here don't know a lot of English words. They already knew the word push and what it meant and now they understand pull, which is great!

The next day I had them work in groups and rotate around the room to different stations. There were nine stations total and each one contained one object. When they got to the station the group had to figure out all the ways they could make the object move, and record it on their sheets. Before I had them get into their groups we went over ways objects move and wrote the English words on the board. They came up with: push, pull, bounce, roll, throw, and spin.

Knowing this was going to be a crazy experiment with twenty-eight kids and nine different groups I enlisted some fourth grade helpers. For my first class I had four kids from fourth grade come to my room. When I realized what a huge help they were I asked Ms. Susong to send me nine for my second class. That way each of my groups had a fourth grade helper. The afternoon students were much more successful with the stations, so I was very thankful for the extra hands!

Over-all it was huge success and I think my students learned a lot. I love doing anything hands-on with them.

Here they are in action...

Maria Isabel writing down how she got the ball to move

Jose Francisco "throwing" the scarf

Rolando pushing the masking tape

Daniel discussing what he should write with his fourth grade helper

Some of the groups hard at work

The day after they did their Science experiment I busted Omar taking off his socks and shoes. This is how he looks when I've caught him doing something bad...

And this is what Omar looks like when he's trying to explain why he was bad....

Since most of you don't know him you probably don't think this is funny, but it makes me laugh every time, haha!

The highlight of last week was getting to see Rolando meet his sponsors for the first time. When he walked out into the hallway to meet them he gave Donna (the lady in green) a hug. She said later that he just nuzzled his head into her shoulder. After being able to visit with him a few times at school they wrote letters telling him how proud they were of him and that they already couldn't wait to see him again next year. When I gave Rolando the letters and told him Wendy would translate them he just said "Thank You" -- it was so cute! They are wonderful people and it makes me so happy that they love Rolando so much! He's already asked me when he'll get to see them again. So they've made quite the impression on him as well. I'm so grateful that generous people sponsor kids to go to Santa Clara. My classroom wouldn't be the same without little Rolando!

My mom is going to be sponsoring a little boy named Jared (pronounced Hared in Spanish) who is currently in pre-school at Santa Clara. I'll tell all of you more about his story and post some pictures of him in one of my blogs this week. I'll also post a link to the scholarship website in case any of you are interested in sponsoring a child next year.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead