Here's Lookin' at You!

It was a whole new world of micro size!  Mr. H came with his marvelous microscopes this week and demonstrated how they worked, how to take care of them and even let us try them out.  Mr. K even came to demonstrate and assist with the contrast microscope.

The students had collected samples from around our campus and their homes.  We had pond water, dead bugs, live bugs (mostly spiders!), and even saw a mosquito larvae (circulation and all!).

Students were able to witness that ecosystems exist even in a drop of water.  We could spend a whole month of days like this one!

Thanks Mr. H and Mr. K, for volunteering your time and thoughtful insight into the world of microscopes.  We loved it!

Riverbed find! Class pet?

Sure enough!  We were gathering samples from our river ecosystem, and found a friend.  The students are observing, researching and caring for this little guy.  We may get a chance to observe him up close and personal with our microscope day coming up.  Looking into the water he lives in will be interesting too.

So blessed to be able to walk to a river bank and explore the amazing things in nature that God has given us.

STEM Friday Measure Up

We went outside for our STEM Friday!  Our outdoor classroom play area is a "diamond in the rough" and has sooo much potential!

The students measured the area, marked where existing trees and bushes are and basically evaluated how much space we have to work with.  Next week we will draw up a "map" on graph paper to document that space.  From there, they can brainstorm different uses and layouts.

They found an apple tree!  With apples!  Samples were taken of course!

2016-17 JUST BE......

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> Greeting the students at the door is this display. I want them to continually be aware of what they are, but also what they can be with JESUS.
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STREAMS FRIDAY

The end of the first week of school and we had such a blast!  Today we spent most of the day building...

Building with our KEVA blocks that are so nicely balanced that you can build amazing things!

We learned some key things about teamwork,
leverage,
                balance, structure
                              and art (bridges and staircases need to look nice too! :).

CD-  "[We] built a bridge big enough so a kindergartner could crawl under it.  It was tough to get each side to connect to the other."

TB- "The hard part of the building was that if you put a piece on the wrong spot it would fall down or lean over."

EC- "My building project was like a spiral staircase....it was hard to make it balance and its like us and God...it's hard to get closer to Him when we keep on sinning."

CM- "I built a mini golf course, 3 holes.  All holes you get a hole-in-one if you pick the right slot.  If you pick the wrong slot you lose.  Getting the ball to hit the block was hard, except the first hole."

Some of the boys worked on a challenge requiring them to balance 11 nails on one!  It helps to have a buddy supporting and brainstorming!