Force and Motion: Medieval Style

After learning about castle defense, I put out a challenge to the kids who were interested. I held up a foam cube and told them that the challenge was to design a catapult that would fling the foam shape the furthest.  They could use whatever materials they could find in our room. Many were very excited to take on this engineering challenge! They started exploring materials and testing out their designs. 

After the first challenge, a couple worked very well, but most still had some trouble! This lead to a discussion about why some worked and some didn't.  They looked at the designs of the ones that worked and noticed that they had a way to provide more power and force! 

The next day they all tried again.  I loved the way they would consult with each other and help each other figure out and solve design problems!  There was a lot of testing of designs collaboration, and problem solving going on!

The kids below came up with the idea to measure how far their catapults threw their shapes. 

We did the challenge again and this time almost every one was successful!  This lead to a great discussion about how things aren't our best if we only do them once!  Each time they tested and made changes their catapults improved!  It was a good lesson that showed them how persistence pays off!  

One group decided to design a catapult obstical coarse! I loved the thought, planning, collaboration, and problem solving that it took to create this!  Such a perfect example of learning important life skills through play!

Here are their catapult designs. 

There were a few more, some made with Legos, but they were taken apart before I could get a picture!  Here is the winning design:

We have now finished our investigation about castles! This week, the kids signed up to be in an expert group about a part of our castle inquiry! With thier expert group, they will create a presentation for other classes in our school and for our parents.  This is something new for me! I have had small groups take turns and present to other classes about inquiries, but I have never done a large scale presentation involving the whole class about an inquiry! I am nervous, but also excited and determined to give this a try!  I have met with three of the expert groups and they came up with a list of what they want others to know about thier topic and how they want to present their topic. I will meet with the other two expert groups Tuesday, then each group will investigate their topic further and work on projects for their presentation.

Stay tuned to find out how our expert groups are doing next week!

Investigating Castles Part 4: Knights and Defense

We learned that knights were the solders and heros of the medieval days. They started training at 7 by going to another noble families manor to learn manners, train, and serve food to the noble family. They next became a squire.  As a squire, they served and assisted another knight.  They helped the knight put on his armor, took care of his armor and weapons, and went into battle with him. They were very interested in the knights armor and wanted to make their own!  We created helmets to protect our heros heads.  It was very challenging to cut this mirror paper, but they used their strong fine motor skills and with persistence they did it! 

Knights put their coat of arms on their shields because their faces were covered. The coat of arms helped identify them. 

The girls wanted to be knights also. I loved how the helmet below has jewels added to it. 

They made swords since a knight must have a weapon. I wasn't sure how to make swords with the materials we had available. I showed them paper, paper tubes and told them I had silver paint. A couple students and I figured out a way by rolling paper, flattening it and using a paper tube as a handle. Sword problem solved! I was very impressed with how responsible they were with these weapons!  Swords could only touch swords, not bodies.  They were fairly gentile in their sword play because they didn't want their swords to bend or break. We talked about how they could use their swords in the classroom for training but not for killing! They did very well training to be knights! This was a great lesson in self control and responsibility!  I was very proud of them!

Swords, armor and crowns stored for future play!

They learned that knights had to live by a code of honor. A code of honor keeps us accountable for behaving a certain way. We have to stick to the code! We created our own code of honor for our class and displayed it, but I forgot to take a picture of it! I will add the picture later!  We also talked about chivalry and how that means behaving in a courteous, generous, trustworthy and polite way!

We explored other ways castles were defended. During our exploration time kids started making bows and arrows. 

They also created catapults for us to use as play and explore how they work. 

They had to predict what object would be catapulted the furthest and why! Many predicted that the lightest objects would go the furthest.

After experimenting, measuring and recording their evidence, they saw that the shape also had something to do with how far an object will go!

The catapults they made were set out and became a favorite toy as they experimented with loose parts to see how far they would go! We did have loose parts all over the place but they showed responsibility and cleaned it all up!

Because of the interest shown in catapults, I am putting out a challenge for those children who are interested next week to create a catapult here at school out of whatever materials they can find! They can use materials from here or bring some from home!  We will see who can create a catapult that can launch a foam cube the furthest!  Who could have predicted that a lesson in force and motion would have come from a study about castles!

The investigation phase is finished! We have turned our room into a castle while we investigated.  This week the kids will pick an area from our castle inquiry that they feel they are an expert in to create a project and get ready for our presentation for you parents and other classes here at school!

Another huge interest has been the challenge of producing both 2 dimentional and three dimentional shapes through drawing and construction.  They have been loving this challenge!  They all are determined to learn how to draw a hexagon, even though it is so much harder than constructing one! They have been coming up with their own statagies rather than me telling them how. I also love that those who know how are teaching others strategies that helped them!

Stay tuned to see what else our investigators, inquirers, experimenters, engineers and scientists will come up with!

Investigating Castles: Part 3 (Continuing Comparing Past and Present)

Again, we had another short week due to weather, but we still got a ton of investigating done!  We finished up our great hall with items from the past. They finished the candle chandeliers for our kitchen and great hall to provide us with more light as they did in the past before electricity. 

The nobel ladies continued using materials set out to create hats and jeweled cuffs. 

They saw in a book that tapestries were hung on the walls to keep out drafts. One of the kids suggested that we make one and the rest agreed, so I created a loom for them to weave a "tapestry." I also set out some yarn and a canvas for them to create art using embroidery. These provided a great way to give their finger muscles a much needed workout!  

We found out that in medieval days, they did not have cameras! If they wanted pictures of themselves they had to have an artist paint thier portrait.  They hung thier portraits on the castle walls. Our resident artists painted portraits of their friends as royalty and we hung them up in our great hall. 

We have investigated castles and castle life, focussing on how things were different back in the medieval days compared to the present. We are now investigating castle defense. We have learned all about knights the past two days.  Both the boys and girls are really interested in this! We will continue investigating knights into next week. I am going to save this for the next post, but I have to show you a sneak peak because it is so cute!

I'll bet you can't wait to see the rest! 

Investigating Castles: Part 2 (Comparing Past and Present)

This week was a short week due to a holiday and a snow day, but it gave us enough time to dive into how life was different in the Medieval days compared to today! Through our research, we have found out that things were very different in those days!  To show how things were different, we decided to turn the inside of our room into a great hall. We created a Then/Now T-chart to organize the differences we had learned. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of it. Then we used it to decide what we needed to create. 

The kids learned that in the Medieval days, they did not have electricity so they did not have lights. They created torches to provide "light" for our room. 

The torches are also providing us with "light" all over the inside of our room but it was hard to get a picture that truly showed the effect! They embrace our doorway, promethium board, and windows! Next week, they are going to add "candle" chandeliers in the kitchen and over the banquet table.  They will also make "candles" for the banquet table.

They made a giant fire place at the end of the great hall to provide us with warmth since we learned castles didn't have furnaces.

One group decided to turn our home living area into a Medieval style kitchen. We learned that instead of stoves like we have today, they used cook fires. 

We still need to find a pot to hang over the fire!  Our friend below is creating a soup.

They learned that instead of faucets and sinks, they used wells and buckets. They also learned that servants had to carry buckets of water warmed over the fire all the way up to the master bathroom to fill up the bath! Much more work than turning on a faucet! They also used ashes and sheeps fat for soap!  They created a well with a bucket for the castle kitchen so they would have water.

They have learned other differences  such as how they entertained themselves that we will explore further next week.

The kids also explored the people who lived in the castles.  The nobels were called lords and ladies.  They learned that the nobels were leaders and their job was to take care of their people.  They were the ones who worked to solve the problems as leaders are supposed to do! Nobel families had coat of arms with pictures that represented their families.  The kids created coat of arms, some for us to hang and some to use as shields as the knights did.

They studied how they dressed.  We learned that married women had to keep their hair covered. That is why they wore beautiful hats. The girls worked on beautiful princess hats and both boys and girls created crowns beautiful enough for kings and queens. They are in the process of creating bracelets also. 

They also learned that the servants and some knights also lived in the castle and we talked about some of their jobs.  They noticed that jobs were harder to do back then because they did not have the technology that we have today!

Here are some other things going on during our exploration time!

Castle building with these awesome casltle blocks a wonderful teacher in my building found for me at Big Lots! Thank you Brittany!

Because of the sub zero weather we are having, the clay on our window sill is as hard as a rock. We decided they would make good bases for wire sculptures to work those finger muscles! Someone asked what "sculptures" means! We discussed how paintings are 2 dimensional art because they are flat. Sculptures are 3 dimensional art because they pop out! Of course they made the connection to our focus on the difference between 2 dimentional and 3 dimentional shapes! 

The students created a small winter world area using materials I set out for them. They will add more to this as more materials are set out. 

Stay tuned as next week we will talk about entertainment, knights and castle defense!