With almost 3 feet of snow that fell upon us during the Nemo Blizzard, I thought our class just needed to get outdoors and sled down the one hill at our school. But, of course being a teacher I needed to make our sledding adventure have an educational purpose, right?
First, I thought about sleds. I did not want kids to have to lug cumbersome
plastic boards to school, so what better way to improvise? Trash bags. Kids were
asked to bring in various trash bags; grocery bags, trash can liners, kitchen
bags or garbage bags to use as sleds. They were as thrilled as I was all those
years ago when planning a day of sledding. Before the kids could begin the fun,
they learned of their task (besides having fun). Students were to predict which
bag they thought would be the fastest and which would travel the furthest (not
very scientific, there were so many variables involved, but they were thinking).
Then we “test” them.
The kids had a fabulous time sledding, or should I say testing out the trash
bags. How could I tell? Their faces lit up when approaching the hill, their
voices screeched when they glided down the short, but steep hill and from their
laughter when falling off the sled or crashing into a classmate, and they
playfully argued which bag was the most successful. Students quickly learned
that trash bags do make quite good sleds, and most agreed that strong, thick
garbage bags work the best in both distance and speed.
First, I thought about sleds. I did not want kids to have to lug cumbersome
plastic boards to school, so what better way to improvise? Trash bags. Kids were
asked to bring in various trash bags; grocery bags, trash can liners, kitchen
bags or garbage bags to use as sleds. They were as thrilled as I was all those
years ago when planning a day of sledding. Before the kids could begin the fun,
they learned of their task (besides having fun). Students were to predict which
bag they thought would be the fastest and which would travel the furthest (not
very scientific, there were so many variables involved, but they were thinking).
Then we “test” them.
The kids had a fabulous time sledding, or should I say testing out the trash
bags. How could I tell? Their faces lit up when approaching the hill, their
voices screeched when they glided down the short, but steep hill and from their
laughter when falling off the sled or crashing into a classmate, and they
playfully argued which bag was the most successful. Students quickly learned
that trash bags do make quite good sleds, and most agreed that strong, thick
garbage bags work the best in both distance and speed.
Visit the students blogs here to read about their individual experience
and be sure to leave a comment.
and be sure to leave a comment.