Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 5, “Creative Contraptions: A Study of Inventions” (1st-2nd)
It has been a fantastic week of learning together! I am so proud of the work that each of your students did while exploring simple and compound machines this week! We spent most of the morning putting the finishing touches on our inventions. Students completed a presentation form, which served as a template to help them share information about their inventions with audience members. We discussed that “tell others” is part of the scientific wheel of invention, because it is important to share our great ideas with others. Students will be bringing home their own creative contraption today! Ask your student to tell you about their invention: What problem did you solve? What is the name of your invention? Why would people be interested in this invention? What simple machine did you use?
After a snack, we moved on to a discussion of compound machines. Now that we are experts on simple machines, it was fun to discover that these can be combined to make compound machines! We brainstormed a list of complex machines and then used our journals to draw and label compound machines. Ask your student to look for complex machines in your home. They can continue to draw and write about them in their journals, which will be coming home today along with their yellow folders.
We took our break for lunch and time outside. Then, we spent a little time reading Mistakes That Worked. We learned about how Frisbees were invented. Each student is bringing home a copy of the book to keep. They are so excited to read more, as we have only read about some of the “mistakes”.
Then, it was time to share our hard work! Each student took a turn presenting their invention as part of our “Invention Fair”. We had a lot of fun learning about “The Wakey Wakey Machine”, “The Toy Grabber 3001”, and so many other inventions. Students who were not presenting practiced being good audience members and encouraged our classmates to be brave, as speaking in front of a group can be difficult. I am so proud of how they cheered for one another! Ask your student about their own presentation, as well as a favorite invention that a friend shared.
We wrapped up our day with a scavenger hunt around the building, looking for simple machines. Ask your child to tell you about what they discovered. Thank you for allowing your child to be part of our Creative Contraptions SAVY class. I have enjoyed spending time with them, and I hope that you will participate in another SAVY opportunity.
