Ms. J's Kindergarten Class: We are engineers!

Kindergartners can be engineers! Did you know that last week was National Engineers Week? I didn't know that either until one of my students' dads Frank brought it to my attention last month and asked if I'd be willing to do an engineering activity with him, some of his coworkers, and my class. Of course I said YES! We brainstormed ideas and decided to do a lesson based off of the popular children's story The Three Little Pigs. The first step in the engineering thought process is to address the problem. Our challenge was to build a house strong enough to withhold the "big bad wolf." The next steps were to explore materials and design a plan in our science journals. Before Frank and his coworkers came to visit on Friday, I had the class look at what they'd be working with: drinking straws, Popsicle sticks, and LEGOs. To keep it simple, I had each student build with one material rather than all three. After they knew which material they were responsible for, they sketched out ideas on what their house would look like. The letters stand for: S = straws, P = Popsicle sticks, and L = LEGOs. The groups that had straws and Popsicle sticks were also able to use Play-doh and tape to help bind the materials together.

Friday was our BIG building day with our engineering friends. Each and every one of my kindergartners was fully engaged, getting their hands busy with the different building supplies, and thinking if their house was strong enough. I was curious to see if they would try copying each other, but it was nonexistent. They had their own ideas and unique ways of thinking. Some kids started from the ground up while others started with the roof and worked their way down. It was fun to see how they used the tape and Play-doh to help hold the straws and Popsicle sticks. The LEGO people took an extensive amount of time finding pieces to build a four walled structure. Also I noticed that many of the houses had 2D and 3D shapes within the design, such as triangles, cubes, and cylinders.

One of the engineering steps is to test it out and make it better. I emphasized to the class that engineers don't get it right the first time. They learn from their mistakes and when things go wrong, they go back and change things to see if it will improve--they don't give up. I know with kindergartners, they want to get it right the first time, so hearing this message that it's okay when things don't go correctly helped them know that it's acceptable (and encouraged to an extent) to make errors.

When their house was fully constructed, each student got to test out its strength with my "big bad wolf" which happened to be my hairdryer. They LOVED it! They were able to see if their pig or house blew away and went back to the drawing board to see what they could do to make their house better.

Here we are at the beginning stages of our house building.

Now to test out the houses' strength with the big bad wolf!

Why yes, I do wear a tutu on a daily basis. (Kidding!)

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this was one of the coolest, most rewarding lessons I have ever taught in my teaching career. Every single student was absorbed into what they were doing and constantly thinking of the engineering process of designing, experimenting, and improving. It gives me chills! If only I could have their attention like this 24/7 for every other lesson I teach. ;) A teacher can dream...

It happened to be mix and match day on Friday. What a great first impression to leave on our engineering visitors! A huge thank you to Frank and his coworkers for coming out to Jeffers Pond. It was such a pleasure to have them.