Starr Gymnastics

Thursday and Friday of this week, the children had the opportunity to participate in activities organized by Starr Gymnastics in the school gymnasium.  Our monitors, Bubble and Link were fun and got the children engaged in activities that help develop the control of large muscles (with and without equipment), balance and hand-eye coordination. I have included a short description of the activities under a few pictures.  Have your children practise "retelling events" by having them look at the pictures and tell you what they did at each station.

 

FREEZE!

 

Here are Mr. Sweet, Kaitlyn, Giuliana, Mahmoud and Colin demonstrating

what they had to do when directed to "Freeze!" by  Bubble.

Here is what our gym looked like on the first day of gymnastics.



 The children had to balance themselves on different equipment
 and crawl under, on and in obstacles.

They had to jump off different equipment.

They also did activities that required strength.

Here is what our gym looked like on the second day of gymnastics.

The children had to practice their balance holding a ball and their eye-hand

coordination by catching the "fox".



The children practiced an egg roll, a sausage roll and they got to go across

Monkey bars.

The children practised somersaults, cartwheels, star jumps, jumps touching

their knees and other exercises of strength.

 

In our regular gym class, we have also been practising our balance with and without equipment.  You can ask your child to demonstrate the following exercises: l'arbre, l'avion, la chaise, le ballet, le pretzel.

Catapults

We learned that Angry Birds use slingshots to launch themselves on the pigs structures in order to get the eggs.  Instead of building slingshots, we had the children build catapults using marshmallows, brochette skewers and a spoon. To help the children answer the question "How far will my Angry Bird fly?" We created a landing area by putting sand on two plastic bags in the house corner.  We measured the distances from the starting line to where the Angry Bird landed in the sand.

How far will my Angry Bird fly?

Results

Results

 

We are launching our Angry Birds.

Here are questions that summarize what the children learned during this activity:

Why did we build catapults?

To launch the Angry Birds (James).

What is a catapult?

A slingshot...We try to make it like a slingshot (Ben).

Why?

To throw the pigs to the structures. (Ben)

Big catapults were invented a long time ago. What was the catapult used for?

As a weapon (Ben).

What was the function of the catapult?

To lift big rocks (Ella).

Why would people use catapults?

To destroy castles (Christina)

What was the consequence of this invention?

Castles stopped being build as they were not protecting the people from invaders.

All the catapults we built were the same, why did we get different results from one catapult to another?

The elastic was not "stretchy." (Ava) Yes, all elastics did not have the same elasticity.

The elastics were heavier. (Tianna) Yes, some elastics were heavier; they were not all the same size.

Why did you get different results every time you launched your Angry Bird?

I put the spoon at different heights. I moved the spoon to the ground, middle and higher. (James)

You moved your spoon at different levels. When did it go the farthest?

When the spoon was lower. (James) You used more strength to push the spoon down and that force went into the elastic to launch your Angry Bird farther.


To learn more about Angry Birds go under Our Inquiries. You can read read more about our classroom activities under the tab Our Classroom Activities.

Building Structures

Two weeks ago, we did an inquiry about Angry Birds as Brandon and some of his friends were showing an interest in them.  Mrs. Cole and I are learning many facts about Angry Birds. One of the things we've learned is that pigs build structures in order to protect themselves from the Angry Birds. We decided to have the children build structures using different materials to protects the pigs that we made for the activity. Then the children rolled bowling balls in order to break the structure to get to the pigs.  After, we had a discussion about the quality of the material used to build their structure. Here are pictures of the children structures and their responses to the questions asked.

 

Above is a picture of Alessa Giuliana G., Anthony and Aiden`s structure and here is our discussion:


Did you find that your structure was strong or not strong?

Alessa - Not strong

Why?

Giuliana - We built it too fast and it kept falling apart again and again.
Anthony - We built like a shape.

What shape?

Anthony - Square, it made it stronger.
Giuliana - Shapes do not matter. Circle or triangle might be stronger.

What material was the strongest?

Alessa and Giuliana - Wood bocks and foam blocks.

What material was the weakest?

Alessa - The cups are not good because they are lighter.

How can you tell?

Aiden - The cups broke.

If you could have chosen other material to build your structure, what would you have chosen?

Bricks, sticks and rocks

What can you build with those materials?

Houses, schools, towers and jewellery.

 

Here is Jackson, Sean, Alessio and Fouad`s structure above and our discussion:

Why did you add more wood blocks to your structure?

Fouad - Because it`s harder.
Sean - It needs wood in front.

Was your structure strong?

Alessio- Not strong

Why?

Alessio - the ball was too fast.
Sean - It knocked everything out.

What material was stronger?

Sean - Blocks.

What material was the weakest?

Sean - Cups.
Jackson - The ball is stronger than the tower.
Fouad - The balls are harder, the cups are not.

What could you have done to make your structure stronger?

Use more wood and foam blocks, no cups.

What other material could you have chosen to build your structure stronger?

Hockey sticks, wood, bricks, glue (cement), rocks, roofs

What can you build with those material?

Houses, toys, metals

Tianna, Arman, Brandon and Folu`s structure above and here is our discussion:

Do you find that your structure was strong or weak?

Brandon - strong because we used wood blocks. Cups were not strong.
Folu - The cups are softer that the blocks. The blocks are heavier that the cups.

How can you tell that the cups were not a strong material?

Brandon- The cups kept falling down when we put the pigs.
Tianna- The cups broke.

What other material could you have used to build a strong structure?

Bricks, wood.

What can we build with those material?

Houses, a fence, a door.

Here is Ben, James, Joanna-Lee and Tammy`s structure above and here is our discussion:

How are you going to protect your pigs?

James - We put our pigs in shield (cups) to protect them.
Ben - we pretend they are bubbles.

It took you a long time to get to your pigs, do you know why?

James - we could not get to the pigs because the wall protected them.

What is the strongest material that you used?

Joanna-Lee - The blocks.

What is the weakest material that you use?

Tammy - The cups.

Why?

Ben - Because they are not heavy, it is easier to fall down.

What other material could you have chosen to build a strong structure?

Plants, rocks, bowling balls, bricks, metal.

What can you build with those material?

Houses, plastic bottles, castles, cars.

Here is Kaitlyn, Colin, Antonio and Ella structure above and here is our discussion?

Why did you use logs to build your structure?

Colin - So they (pigs) can stand on them.

Was your structure strong?

Ella - Yes, because it was hard to knock down.
Kaitlyn - The foam blocks were not strong. They were light, they rolled over.

What material was the strongest?

Colin - Wood blocks and logs.

Why were they the strongest?

Ella - They are made out of wood.
Colin - They are stronger that the foam blocks

What other material you could have used to build a strong structure?

Wood blocks, bricks.

What can you build with those material?

Houses, walls, towers, roofs.

Here is Brandon, Ava, Preston and Ivy`s structure above and here is our discussion:

What is the strongest material you have used?

Preston and Brandon - Blocks.

What is the weakest material that you used? Why?

Ava - Cups.
Brandon and Ava - Because they always fall down and break over and over again.

If you have chosen any other materials to build your structure, what would it be?

Ava - Foam blocks and straight blocks.
Preston - Lego.
Brandon - Foam blocks.
Ivy - Stones.

What can we build with those materials?

Brandon - A castle.
Preston - A house.
Ivy - A home.



 

Here is Gulianna M., Christina and Mahmoud`s structure above and here is our discussion:

What is the strongest material you have used?

Gulianna M., Christina, and Mahmoud - Blocks.

What is the weakest material you've used? Why?

Gulianna M. - Cups, only blocks are strong.
Mahmoud - Foam blocks, they are not that strong.
Christina - Cups, They do nothing.They just always fall down.

If you could have chosen any other materials to build your structure, what would they be?

Christina - Rocks.
Gulianna M. - Big woods.
Mahmoud - Rocks.

What can we build with those materials?

Gulianna M. -Towers and houses.
Christina - Buildings and castles.
Mahmoud - Big couches.