Science, Science, Science!

This week our mentors helped us make helicopters.  It was a good opportunity
 to practice cutting and following directions.

It was a little tricky to get those folds just right.

Then we needed a launching pad to see if the helicopter rotors would
really twirl.  (they did)  We tried using different folds and
amounts of weight on the helicopters to see what worked the best.

We love the teamwork involved in building this maze!

Add the contents of cup A to cup B and what happens?

Instant snow! 

It's soft, it's fluffy and it expands! 

Mostly it was an exciting surprise!

Snowflakes and crystals

This winter weather is the perfect opportunity to learn about crystals,

we started our crystal garden using epsom salts.
We're hoping for a bumper crop of crystals!

This week's challenge for our Ladybugs, Bumblebees and their
mentors:  build a structure using a 1 inch cube as a base.

Sometimes you just have to think outside the box,
this mentor wanted to know how much weight could be
balanced on a yard stick without it breaking.  I think he is still
coming up with more variables to test.

Back to school

The Ladybugs are back at work!  We're working with the Sphinx class to refresh our patterning skills.
This week we're learning about snow, symmetrical snowflakes and snowmen.  Thankfully our weather has been helping us out!

Snowflake Breakfast

One of our treasured traditions at Seabury is the Snowflake Breakfast.  The Ladybugs invite the rest of the lower school to join us for a pancake breakfast.  We enjoy the time spent together with lots of adults helping and cooking.  It's a fun event.  We finish up with a holiday singalong, this year the Ladybugs and Bumblebee classes performed the "Reindeer Okie Pokie".

Book reports Seabury style!

This week the Alchemist class shared the ABC books they had written as part of a book report assignment.  The books were amazing!  They shared books about dogs, cats, dinosaurs, space and even presidents. They did a great job.

Bridges and engineering

It started with some sticks and cubes. . . 

today's challenge was building a bridge.

A bridge needs ramps. . . 

and a place to go.

Today's challenge for the Ladybugs and Sphinxes was to use cubes and tongue depressors to build a bridge.  Before we started, we looked at pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and talked about why we need bridges.  We could have some future engineers in our class!