This term saw the Allen Centre explore the key competency of THINKING.
We decided that a very good way to explore and practice our thinking was to do so through flight.
The first flying exploration was the paper helicopter! If you would like to have a go at this at home, this website has a great paper helicopter to make:https://babbledabbledo.com/diy-toy-paper-helicopter/
So how does it work?
The force of air upward on the blades as they fall is what causes the paper helicopters to spin. As a paper helicopter falls, air presses on each of the blades with an equal force but in the opposite direction and the helicopter spins around.
The Engineering: Once you know how to make a paper helicopter, you could try to expand the project by introducing engineering challenges.
Some of our kids modified the basic paper helicopter and explored how each modification changed its behaviour.
We tried:
- Switching the direction of the folds for blades A & B.
- Weight affects how quickly the helicopter spins, we added additional paper clips and watched how the helicopter spun faster!
- Make the helicopters in different sizes. We found the bigger the helicopter the better it flew....(sometimes).
Next was the straw gliders!
Followed by paper planes of all sizes and shapes and straw rockets that flew really far!
Then we finished off flight with making some kites for Matariki.
- Tried out many lego challenges:
- Played all sorts of thinking games:
- Played Snakes and Ladders by coding with the Bee Bots:
- Made some very tricky origami critters:
- Cleaned up some bones for exploration: How big is your rib?
- Puzzled our way through some thinking puzzles seen below:
All and all a very successful term had by all. Have we achieved our goal this term? Hmmm. I ponder a thought or two......... The dictionary states:
We at Outram much prefer this one!
Happy holidays. See you back term 3.
