On Friday, April 8th, Mr. Gaelen came to 1-304 for our first day of robotics! He showed us pictures and videos, talked about shapes of robots and how some of them worked, and even talked to us about the robots from Star Wars! Then, we sorted legos into different categories. Finally, at the end, we worked with partners to make something with the legos. We can't wait for robotics again!

First grade has been learning all about water. This week, we connected our water unit to our last unit about restaurants, when we talked about wants and needs. Water is a need. All living things need water to live. 

But we learned this week that millions of people around the world do not have clean drinking water. This is a BIG PROBLEM.

We learned about three organizations working to help people get clean water:

• Charity Water, working to help people around the world get clean drinking water.
• Community Foundation of Greater Flint, working to help the Flint Child and Health Development Fund to provide medical research, resources, and interventions to help the children who have been exposed to lead.
• Gowanus Canal Conservancy, working to clean the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

We debated to try to convince others of our opinion before we voted. Below is a short clip from the debate.

Then, we voted by stating our opinion with one reason. We will learn tomorrow how 1-308 and 1-310 voted.
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With the help of Ms. Zhang and Ms. Kelly, 1-304 asked the question: what happens to an ice cube when you put it in boiling water? We made our predictions. Many of us were surprised to see steam come out of the boiling water. This showed us the three states of matter: solid (ice cube), liquid, and gas.

We asked the question: What objects sink and what objects float? We made predictions about what we thought would happen. Then we experimented to find if our predictions were correct. Overall we learned that wood, plastic, and hollow things float. We learned that objects made of metal and objects with holes sink.

We asked the question: will water from a tall, thin container fit into a short, wide container? Many of us predicted that the water would flood over the sides of the shorter container. Our prediction was incorrect because the water fit! This makes us think that liquids take on the shape of the container in which they are poured.

On March 22, 1-304 went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art! It is a HUGE museum with art from all over the world! We learned that art has a lot of shapes. We looked at sculptures, similar to statues, and we even got to make some of our own with different materials!