Happy Friday!

Today was a special treat for us!!! High schoolers from Mr. Bond's engineering class introduced us to simple machines. We know that machines are supposed to make work easier, but we actually experienced it today!!!!! We're very grateful that Mr. Bond's class took time to come and teach us about simple machines. Here's what the class had to say about our visitors, as well as other things that happened in class today!

Jonathan said that we got to learn about famous Americans. Evan learned how to do a math problem to determine his famous American's age when he died. He also sketched his famous American to decide what his poster would look like. Jacob enjoyed learning about simple machines in the gym this morning. Elliott's favorite simple machine was the wheel and axle because he liked racing. Jay's favorite one was the pulley, where children lifted him on a machine. Robert liked that one, too, because he liked being able to lift a high school student. Emily's favorite station was the lever center. She liked it because she saw that using a machine to lift a person was easier than picking up the person by herself. Kaylee liked the nail center. It showed how a wedge made work easier. Kendall liked the inclined plane center because she found it easier to push the crate up a ramp than to try to lift the weight straight up! Jonathan liked the lever center, as well. Lilley liked the screw simple machine. She learned that the bigger the handle, the easier it is to use. She learned that a screw was just an incline plane wrapped around a cylinder.

We brainstormed about all of the simple machines that we use daily and don't even recognize. When Mrs. Bruno had her ankle reconstructed last year, her students had to push her up the handicap ramp in her wheelchair to take her to lunch. The ramp is an inclined plane. When we play on seesaws, we're using a simple machine called a lever. We use pulleys to take things from the ground to the top of our treehouses. We use nails, which are wedges, to hammer things together! If we chop wood with an axe, we're also using a wedge. When our parents pulled us in little red wagons, they were using wheels and axles.

Also, congrats to John Patrick for the best estimate of how many books would be sold at the book fair. He won $25 worth of books!!! Yea, John Patrick!!!!