Inclined Planes

Group Meeting:  The simple machine that we will be learning about this week is the inclined plane. An inclined plane is any slanting surface that is higher on one end.  It connects a lower level to a higher level.  We watched a very short video of a person trying to lift a container onto a truck.  When he used a ramp (inclined plane), he could easily get the container to the truck.

Story:  The story for today was Dinosaur Woods by George McClements.  Seven forest animals are trying to save their forest home from people who want to cut down the trees and build buildings.  The animals build a dinosaur that they can operate from inside and try to scare the people away.  However, the dinosaur draws more people to the forest.  A scientist notices that the animals are endangered animals and now the forest is protected.  Ask your child to tell you what inclined plane the animals used to get into the dinosaur that they built.

Small Groups:  Each group created an inclined plane using a long wooden block supported by a shorter block.  They were given a box of items from around the preschool to place on the inclined plane to see if they would go down on their own.  They documented their results by drawing the items.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ss.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was bread,  peanut butter, and juice brought by Weston.  The afternoon snack was cheese and Wheat Thins brought by Cade.  Thank you, Weston and Cade!