Upper El has been hard at work on several projects in the afternoon. On top of our science and engineering work, we also prepared our Variety Show performance! I hope you all loved it!
We wrapped up our unit on gravity over the last two weeks with an engineering project that doubled as an art project. Students created pendulums of their own designs, and we used them to make gravity art! You might still see some of the remnants on the DGS driveway, on my boots, or when students came home looking like smurfs : ) I wish I had taken pictures of them all painting their pieces, but I was in the moment with them, and we just had fun!
Since it was so fun, I thought, why not do it again? And bigger! That's what we did for our art auction project in the afternoon. I split the class into three groups, and each group got to pick their paint colors, mix the paint, and get their turn at the pendulum. Everyone could choose how to spin or "launch" their paint across the canvas while gravity did the rest of the work. I think they look amazing!
We also finished our Mission Specialist research projects and began presenting at the end of the week. We have about half left to present, which we'll finish when students return from their trip next week!
Other "random" happenings in UE include some extra art time with Ms. Maya, getting a little wild with stickers (ok, me too), puppy time with Ms. Heidi's Bambina, and some great talks in peace circle about how we can do amazing things in this world if we decide to do so.
I shared a picture of a city in Germany (Dusseldorf) in 1990 and the same scene in 2017. We saw the highway and concrete that dominated the scene in 1990 make way to a green park with people out and about enjoying the beautiful day in 2017. We discussed what the people who first designed the roads and the city were thinking that led to the picture from 1990. A larger population, getting people around, etc. Then, how those problems probably only grew over the years, yet we found other solutions to create the future we want. It was a great discussion, and this group had a lot of good thoughts to share on the matter.
This has been a great couple of weeks, and I hope UE enjoys their trips so much next week!