It's Been A While...Part 2!

I've been meaning to make some posts this week, really I have. But between report cards, a plethora of meetings, the 100th day of school, and catching up on RHOBH...I didn't! So here goes, got lots of Room 161 goodies to share!


I wasn't too excited for our third quarter science focus when I began planning a few weeks ago. Physics was my least favorite subject in high school and had an even worse time with it in college...However, the past couple weeks have been pretty fun and my kids are lovin' it!  

Laws of Motion Download

I created a small "Laws of Motion" book that has helped us out tremendously! It's nothing special, but it's a download you might be able to use with your firsties. We discussed each law and drew pictures and wrote a few sentences to demonstrate what each law means to us. Here is a sample of Kendall's book:

We used our books to help us with some force and motion explorations. Each group of students were given 30 pennies, a large rubber band, a a film container (yes, we kicked it old school), and a meter stick. Students had to create a "sling-shot" with the rubber band and their feet. They launched the film containers and measured how far it went. Then students added 15 pennies and 30 pennies respectively to measure the distance.

Gracie and Grace work together to see how far their film containers would travel.

Some students where able to shoot their film containers from one end of the cafeteria to the other. We realized that some students where pulling the rubber band back too far, so a few days later we tried it again and controlled the variable (rubber band) and pulled it back only 2 inches.

Once again, I took pics with my iPhone instead of my camera!

I'd share the papers we used to document this exploration, but I took it from ScienceA-Z. (If you don't have a membership already, I highly recommend doing it!)


Most schools probably celebrated the 100th day a school a few weeks ago, but since we started so late...yesterday was ours! Our first graders created self portraits using 100 objects. Mr. Schottner created a couple videos of our STEMtastic portraits. Check them out!

100th Day Self Portraits: Part One

100th Day Self Portraits: Part Two 

Oh, and one of my students created a self portrait that didn't make it into the video...he brought it in a few days earlier and we had to eat it before it went bad. Aidan created his using 100 cupcakes. It was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen!

Aidan's Self Portrait

And last, but certainly not least...Our monthly Team Schappelkins' Super Tasty Engineering Treats! Each month we select a special 'creation' for our first graders to create. Each student is given the necessary materials as we walk them through the directions (which are read aloud). If you'd like to see some of the things we've done in the past, check out my pin board on Pinterest! 

Mrs. Whitley found some valentine robots that we created and the kids loved it! Take a look!

Cameran and Kendall working on their robots.

Xander worked hard to get his robot to stand up!

Jordan helps another friend with their robot.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get some more posts going this week!