Simple Machine Museum (open house) and Final Projects

Working with simple machines was a very interesting twist and connection to studying transportation.  The children had a great time getting to explore materials, and create their own simple machine.  This post will show all 6 different simple machines and the different projects they made for that simple machine.  It's always interesting because the students will be "hams" in front of the camera, but at soon as they realize they are being recorded they start acting shy.  You will see prime examples of this while looking at the photos and then watching the videos below!

First, I will share some photos from our open house.  We were thrilled to see so many families visit the "Simple Machine Museum."  The students were proud to share and showoff their projects and their hard work.

If you and your child were unable to visit our "Simple Machine Museum," the students put on an additional museum during the day while Mrs. Gores' friends visited the exhibit.  

Below you will find final project photos as well as a video of the students explaining their work.  We had several students not attend due to illness, which might be why you notice students missing from the video clips.  

Wheel and Axel

-Ferris Wheel-

Skateboard

Inclined Plane

-Hill of a roller coaster-

Stairs

Pulley

-Flagpole- 

Zip-line

Here is a more successful run of the zip-line!

Screw

-Corkscrew Water slide-

"Tornado in a bottle"

-We used the screw of the bottles and connected a piece of

plastic that has two screws to connect the two bottles together. 

Wedge

-Door stopper

Wedge Shoe

Book Ends

Lever

-Marshmallow Catapult

Teeter totter/See saw

The next 9 weeks are going to be a whirlwind!  Knowing the students are still excited about different modes of transportation, we will now begin studying differences types of maps.  Before we began the in-depth study on transportation,  we asked the children what types of transportation they wanted to study.  We got everything from railroads, air, land, emergency, and water.  We are planning on incorporating how maps help people get from one place to another.  I'm pretty sure this will take us to the end of the school year!  Be looking for another open house towards the end of May. 

Also, in honor of April being national poetry month, we will also begin studying and writing poetry.  The students will present one of their pieces at our "Poetry Cafe."  The date has not been set in stone but will be towards the end of April.  We will let you know as soon as possible. 

In addition, we will be celebrating our beautiful Earth by getting involved in many Earth Day activities.  The list of activities will be generated by the students and our 

job is to help the students execute their plan.

I hope everyone had an amazing spring break.  Take care!

Mrs. Julie Atkin