Kindergarten Outdoor Day & Middle School STEM

Kindergarten Fall 2017 Visit to the Middle School Campus

Check out this video of our day:

https://spark.adobe.com/video/N0vkdqgUFziTb

Wednesday October 18th the Kindergarten class visited the middle school campus for the first of a series of outdoor days. Their visit started with Mass where Fr. Tom invited them to lead the St Jude parishioners in an opening song!

During their visit the kindergartners also got a church tour from Fr. Tom, they read with 4th grade reading buddies, and they had lunch and recess with the middle school students. Most of their day was spent outside exploring God’s creation!

Exploring God’s Creation by looking for Water “Bugs” from Lake St. Jude!

Some of the critters we found:

Midge Larva

Daphnia 

Water Flea

Exploring God’s Creation by working in the garden!

The kindergartners collected marigold seeds to dry and plant this winter for our garden next spring. They also harvested some basil that we used to make Pesto Pasta. The class loved tasting the fruits of their mini-harvest on Monday!

Our favorite things about our day…

“I liked playing on the big playground”  Evy

“I liked finding bugs in the water” Andrew

“I liked eating lunch outside in the sunshine”  Lydia

“I liked going on a nature hike to find shelter for animals”  Wes

What's happening in Middle School STEM classes?

S.T.E.M. is an acronym for Science Technology Engineering Math. STEM class meets once a week with all classes in 4th through 8th grade. It is all about allowing students to use their critical thinking skills to design solutions to problems. This involves a lot of teamwork, patience and determination.

We have spent time building a structure using nothing but index cards and tape to support a bottle of water. We also had the challenge of putting together a 100 piece puzzle without being able to talk with teammates and not knowing what the puzzle would look like when completed. Students also recently built a Mint Race Car using nothing but mint Life-Savers, index cards, straws and tape. The challenge was to design a car that could travel the furthest down a ramp and onto the gym floor. The furthest distance a car traveled was 375 cm. by a team in the 6th grade.

Another portion of our time has been spent discussing our Invention Convention to be held in the Spring. An email was sent home in September to all parents regarding this event. A date and time has yet to be set, but you will be notified when both are confirmed.

If you should ever have any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Fillman by email: mfillman@asagr.org or phone (363-7725, ext. 1112)