STEAM and Newton's Law of Motion

This week's STEAM challenge:  Make a top using perler beads and a skewer.  Figure out how Newton's law of motion applies to the tops.  We discovered that friction caused the tops to slow down and fall over.  It was fun trying different styles of tops and seeing who could keep theirs going the longest.

On Safari in the Ladybugs

There's something for everyone in the Ladybugs!

We invited the big kids to join us for a STEM project.

One of our Gumshoe friends made a slide show for us of animals he saw in Zimbabwe. 

He did an excellent job!

We are continuing our study of African animals.  One of our friends did a presentation for us on animals he had seen in Africa.  It was fun to see real animals in their natural habitat.

We had a new STEM project this week.  The challenge was to use pipe insulators to create a marble run that had elevation, a curve and use a container that could catch the marbles at the end.  We had a lot of different designs that created centrifugal force with gentle and not so gentle curves and loops.  Elevation was made using chairs, stools, blocks and lots of tape.  I love the way the kids, big and little, work together.

Getting ready for the auction!

                Preparations are under way for our fabulous auction project.  You won't want to miss it!

Science Fair

Science Fair was a big success!  The kids did a great job with their projects.  They explained their experiments so well.  Thanks to the parents for supporting us and helping with the projects.

Pre-k fun!

Lots of things happening in the Ladybug room!  Our peas have been transplanted into the garden,  we sang at gathering, we finished our study of "Pete the Cat" by making magic sunglasses and did lots of hands on math.  This week we introduced computer coding to the kids using a new computer program.  Computer coding will be especially important to this generation  of kids as most jobs in the future will involve computers in some aspect.