S.T.E.A.M. Night

Such a wonderful time at our STEAM is ELEMENTary STEAM night.

We had food trucks out front for dinner:

A Maker Faire in the gym:

And STEM and Art activities in the 4 house areas Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire,

 along with our AR Sandbox in the Makerspace.

How to Catch a Turkey

First Grade Students in Mrs. Round's class

listened to this story- How to Catch a Turkey

Then we worked to create mazes with Geo Boards to catch our turkey and get him right up on stage.

Robotics Club Shirts

Our Robotics Club shirt was 
                  designed by Wesley Clark, 
                          with sleeve design by Lucy Messina

It looks awesome and we can't wait to wear them 

to STEAMfest in Rochester!

Animated Life Cycle of a Plant

Fourth Grade students have been learning 

about the life cycle of a plant.

We spent some time getting to know the Hue Animation Studio Software which you can see here:

And then students worked in small groups 

to create their props, 

use the software, 

and create their own animated life cycle of a plant.

Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Well our first graders wanted to figure that one out too!

Some guesses:

1. It's fall and that's what they do.

2. It's getting colder.

3. Because they're supposed to

Well they're all kind of right... but we watched this Science video 

and learned all about sunlight and chlorophyll.

Then we created this awesome graph- SILENTLY

If you could figure out the pattern you picked a leaf off the pile and put it where it belonged.

And finally we did some good old leaf rubbings and talked about the job of the veins of the leaves... 

right back to the tree's energy and chlorophyll.

Ten Apples Up on Top

Kindergarten is enjoying listening to this story:

And then students work in small groups 
to build a structure that can hold 10 apples up on top!

We noticed that several of our final designs had posts that were spread out.

Then we looked around the room to find supporting posts... on tables, chairs, and in the room.




Look around your house do you see any posts?
How about on your bed?  
Look under it...

Fredonia Mini Maker Faire

Hello there Families,

      Looking for some family fun on the weekend?  Look no further Fredonia is again hosting their Mini Maker Faire October 19th.  Lots of free activities and this year Food Trucks on site!  Check it out...Fredonia Mini-Maker Fare

                                                                                                Yours truly,

                                                                                                Mrs. Sauder

Dot Day

1st Graders are spending the week celebrating
Peter Reynold's Book The Dot

After listening to this great story, 

students had time to experiment with our own Dot robots.

In Art and Library, students will continue connecting with this inspirational piece of children's literature.

Welcome Back Trojans!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Back to School Trojans
This year we have a lot of exciting things in store.

1. A new Augmented Reality Sandbox being built currently

2. Robotics Club is starting this week.

3. A new 5th grade run Design and Print Shop

Here are some of our earliest visitors to the Maker Space!

4th Grade Friday Fun Building Bridges for Dot!

STEM Wars JCC

We were so fortunate to be invited to observe at JCC/ DreamIt DoIt's

STEM WARS.

There we saw engines from Cummins engine, robotics competitions, bridge building competitions, catapult competitions, virtual welding, and so much more.  

DREAMSTEAM robotics club

Robotics Club working hard on challenges...

Michael's STEAM events

https://www.michaels.com/classes?cm_mmc=EMAIL-_-Category-_-20190311_Family%20Events-_-FamilyFreeSTEAMEvents&email=QldTVE9STVNAR01BSUwuQ09N&cm_mmca2=97416180640

Enjoy a week of STEM activities for FREE at Michael's!

Baby Chicks

Students young and old love holding and learning about baby chicks.  As part of the farm animals, baby animals, and life cycle units of first and second grade we hatch eggs in the maker space and have baby chicks for the students to observe and hold.

Happy 100th Day!!

Three Kindergarten classes made 100 Day T-shirts
in the Maker Space!

We used our Roland Vinyl Cutter, heat press,

 and good old finger painting for a truly spectacular design.

The Eggs are in the Incubator... Day 1

Our eggs arrived today from Omega Hills Farm.
21 Days until our Crested Cream Legbar chicks hatch.

 We currently have 14 eggs in the incubator, we'll check them at days 7, 14, and 18.

Reversible & Irreversible

Second grade has been learning about changes in their states of matter unit.  Specifically they are learning about what constitutes a reversible change like the lake freezing and thawing, and what makes an irreversible change... like SLIME.

Most specifically we made heat senstive color changing slime.  First making a SOLUTION of water and glue, then adding a CHEMICAL CHANGE with BORON found in borax and changing the solution permenately to slime... making it IRREVERSIBLE.

You Gotta Regatta- Pumpkin Regatta

You Gotta Regatta- Pumpkin Regatta

Third Grade students enjoyed making pumpkin boats to race in our rain gutters using what they learned about bouyancy.

Creating Creatubbles- SPOTLIGHT TOOL

Greetings everyone:

I wanted to introduce you to a new tool that we'll be using in the Makerspace.  You can use this at home or in your classroom too.  It's called Creatubbles!  

Here's the link to check it out for yourself:

Creatubbles link

And a quick video of an ed blogger explanation for your viewing pleasure:

I would encourage you to sign up- it's free, click around and try it out, it will honestly take a few minutes of your time.  I'm always here for questions or to click around with you- teachers on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have open Collaboration!

But what is it you ask (didn't watch the video)?  Well students can post their creations and see the creations of other students globally in a safe environment.  This could be artwork, videos, minecraft creations, 2d collages... and honestly better and safer than posting to YouTube.  We'll be using this to post our animated shorts in second grade.

Students will be posting up their videos here in about a month.  They will be able to share their videos with family and friends, but that's not all... Students will also be able to comment on others video and receive feedback from students across the world who view their videos.  This is a safe way for students to engage with other students, and to add positively to their digital footprint.

This transforms how students previously shared work with just their class or their families... student's work is now shared with other student's globally.  Connecting them with a real audience to share their creations.

Students are Empowered Learners (ISTE 1c), Creative Communicators (6b, 6d), and Global Collaborators (7a)