Last week half of the students studied the whys and hows of static electricity, and this week we are moving on to explore current electricity! There is a really terrific piece of material out there called ‘Snap Circuits’, which is like Lego, only with circuit components. Maria Montessori would have LOVED it! It is a material which teaches by doing. Students follow increasingly complex projects and learn about switches, fuses, resistors, motors, sensors… fascinating!
We have two sets in the classroom, but if anyone has a home set and would like to bring it in to work with, they are more than welcome. Ask your budding electricians to sketch their latest circuit drawing!
The other half of the students are continuing their learning in Forces and Motion by building wooden and cardboard toys/games which involve the movement of a marble.
The students are really enjoying thinking about, making and playing these games (truth: so is Joe!) Hopefully we can share these with the rest of the school when they are done.
The very exciting UE tradition of learning how to make a Gingerbread House from scratch is happening again, this year! We are working on it in small groups, most mornings, all next week. The students are all making one spectacular house, with many delicious features. Thanks to the students who are currently doing the tricky job of planning and building the cardboard template! Students have made some batches of dough have already, too. The Gingerbread House will be on display in the library the last week of school, and we will be raffling it off to one lucky winner at the Holiday party! 
Joe’s Garage Band lives again! There is another UE Holiday Party Song in the works — a ‘nod’ to the Beatles’ famous ‘Come Together’ song. We wrote our own lyrics, and there are many ways for students to participate. Can’t wait to share it with you!
Students have voted in their classroom meeting to have a Secret Santa gift exchange. A group of students is organizing it. They are aiming to get out more information next week to families about the details.
Have a lovely weekend!
It all looks great!