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**Please read carefully! You will push the plus button at the bottom of the this section and add your answers to the questions below by numbering them. Do not forget to add your name to your post**

In this section, you will make a post using the following:
1. Repost Link to your resource
2. Write out the standard.
3. Write out the lesson objective.
4. What would students need to be able to do/explain after engaging with this resource?
5. Why did you choose this resource to teach your standard? How does this resource support your students in learning the standard?
6. What changes you would make to your resource after answering these questions? (What would you add to this resource, take away from this resource?)

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In this collection phase, you can see that I have already uploaded the Wheels Project that we are using for inspiration to create our own wheels unit. You will also see the work you did with the wheels math problem in your STEM badge.

In this new unit we are creating from inspiration from the "Our Wheels Kindergarten Project," students are investigating wheels using the driving question: How can we make our classroom trash can roll to different spots in the room when it is too heavy to carry?

In this phase, you will add one resource that you could use to teach a standard given in the pre-curation unit that would help students be able to understand how to make a trash can in their classroom roll.

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These are standards that you can use to begin collecting resources for designing a lesson within a wheels unit. These are first grade standards. Review these standards to get ideas for resources you would need to gather to teach the standard within a wheels unit.

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This week you will curate for the Wheels Unit by using the Engineering Design Process that you are working with in your STEM Integration course.

Each section of the EDP must have:
1. A description of what the students are doing
2. A description of what the teacher is doing (we call these teacher moves). These should be specific.
3. At least 1 resource. (You can pull from the resources your peers and you collected from modules 2 and 3.) I suggest reading their critiques, as well. You will likely need to create some resources, too.

HINTS FOR RESOURCE CREATION: I like to use word. For example, how will students document their work? What templates could you create to guide them through the process? If a text you found online needs to be modified for their grade level, copy and paste it in word and then make it simpler.

Using the resources in the collection column, and the critiques you and your peers made in the critique column, use these resources (and other outside resources you find as needed)to build out the lesson into the EDP phases from slide #2- Identify the problem, explore, design, create, try it out, make it better.

(If you would like to use a different model than the one on slide 2 from your STEM integration course, you may. Simply copy the one you choose to use over and label the sections to match the EDP model you prefer.)

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1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWvAn_qc3YQ
2. MA.1.FR.1.1.
3. After viewing this video as a class, students will be able to partition shapes such as circles or rectangles into equal parts.
4. Students would need to be able to explain how to divid a shape into halves or fourths. This can be demonstrated through drawing and discussing. Students would also need to be able to identify when a shape is divided and wether or not it is divided into equal parts, halves, and/or fourths.
5. I chose this resource to teach the standard because it explains how to divide shapes equally into two and four parts. This resource supports the students in learning the standard because it explains the mathematical actions clearly and is made at a first grade level.
6. I think that the resource is good but students would benefit if I incorporated a worksheet or hands on activity that allowed them to practice partitioning shapes into equal parts. I would also like to incorporate a discussion that links this resource and lesson to the wheel's project; show students that the wheels must be placed on an object that is divided into equal parts in order to properly distribute weight to help it roll.

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1st Grade, Math, Week 6 Day 3: Partitioning Shapes in Halves

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Our Wheels Project: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary

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Our Wheels Project: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary

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https://ecrp.illinois.edu/v17n1/cowan.html

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Our Wheels Project: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary

Jane Cowan
Owl Child Care Services of Ontario

A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. ... Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. -Wikipedia

The Wheels Project took place from January to March 2012 in a junior kindergarten/kindergartenclassroom at the St. Nicholas location of Owl Child Care Services of Ontario in Waterloo. Owl Child Care Services, a nonprofit registered charity, operates seven centers in Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, Ontario. Owl is one of the largest center-based, licensed child care agencies in the Region of Waterloo, providing care for more than 800 children a day between the ages 3 months and 10 years old. Owl has served families in the region for more than 30 years.

In 2010, following a staff-led review of different learning philosophies, the organization decided that a change was necessary to remain current with evidenced-based practice in the field of early childhood education and care. The shift was made from theme-based to play-based learning with a focus on emergent curriculum based on Ontario's framework for early childhood settings, Early Learning for Every Child Today (ELECT).

One classroom at each center was chosen to be part of the pilot project for the philosophy change, and our room was chosen at Owl-St. Nicholas. Four registered early childhood educators in the room-Denise, Grazyna, Angela, and I-were involved in this project. (A Conestoga College student and a volunteer participated occasionally.) This project was a vastly different way of providing learning activities to children for us; three of us had worked in theme-based child care for many years. It was new for the children, too, but they quickly adjusted to the changes that began in our room in May 2011.

During the pilot phase (May to August 2011), Denise, Grazyna, Angela, and I honed our observation skills as we began to identify the children's play interests (e.g., shelters, water, farming). We learned how to create teaching webs based on what and how the children wanted to learn. We also made charts to remind ourselves what the children told us they knew and what they wanted to learn.

To further provoke the children's interests, we put out resources (books, toys, pictures) to encourage discussion or asked them what they knew or wanted to know about a topic. We also created a variety of webs that reflected the children's interests. Most of these interests would be pursued for two to eight weeks, during which the children led us to discover how important our observations were, how they knew more than we thought they did, and how they made use of the various resources we provided.

About 60 children were involved in the Wheels Project. The nursery school children attended two to five mornings or afternoons a week for two and a half hours each day; preschoolers attended two to five full days a week, and junior kindergarten/senior kindergarten children attended two to three alternate days each week. Many were beginning readers, which helped them when answering questions or thinking of their questions about wheels. We wondered if the differences in age and interests in our classroom would hinder our project or enhance it.

Our center is in a Catholic elementary school. Some of the kindergarten children attended an after-school program down the hall. This made the end of the day an important time for the project; children and staff could share what they had discovered about wheels with their friends who had been in school all day!

During this project, we learned a lot about giving children new materials and letting them try things they had never done before. Books, related materials, pictures, and documentation related to wheels began to fill our room and cubby area. We teachers also used the "Wings of Discovery" science curriculum as a source of ideas for related activities; the class had already done several activities about force from that curriculum.

Introducing Loose Parts

Near the end of 2011, program staff began to discuss making our new project work part of the curriculum. We were encouraged to observe the children's interests and to come up with ideas for a possible project such as those found on the Illinois Projects in Practice Web site. After reviewing some of the current projects on the Web site, we brainstormed and identified two ideas that we seriously considered because of the amount of interest in two types of "loose parts" in the classroom.

During the summer of 2011, I put some bungee cords and old toy shelf wheels into a basket in our room to see what might happen when we added these loose parts to our room (see Figure 1). Many times during the next few weeks, children included these wheels and cords in their play. Their play was usually safe, but some incidents with the cords made us wonder how safe those were. We persevered with reminders and redirection until finally they all seemed to understand. Parents also noticed the loose parts, and we reassured them that we closely monitored children when they played with them. We worked to create an environment where children knew the safety rules and could remind each other about them.

As the children returned from their holiday break, we noticed that many were still playing with the old wheels. We then decided to make "wheels" the topic of our first project.

Focusing Event

The focusing event happened one day when we noticed the children wearing bungee cords around their waists, pretending to be workers, for the entire day. They used the cords to pull and move things as if they had wheels attached.I decided to attach wheels to the bottom of one of the many boxes in the room and let children pull it around by a cord. I used large paper fasteners and packing tape to attach four of the shelf wheels to a large box. The children were curious about what I was doing, and a crowd began to form. I gave them rides in the "boxcar," which they said was lots of fun even though I went very slowly. I was afraid the wheels would break off, and, in fact, quite soon wheels began to come loose (see Figure 2). The children wondered why the wheels were breaking and why the box would not stay attached to the wheels. They tried to ride in the boxes without wheels, which they discovered was much harder. We could see their "wheels" turning: Wheels were important to making things work!

Books, the Internet, and Photographs

Denise went to the public library to find nonfiction books on wheels, gears, axles, and pulleys. The teachers also looked through book collections at home and at the center and placed selections on tables throughout the room. We posted pictures collected from our personal files and the Internet on the blackboard. One wintery day in January, I talked with a small group of kindergarteners and suggested taking the camera around the center looking for wheels they could photograph (see Figure 3).

Toy cars and trucks were easy to find, but the children and I also discovered that the toy pirate ship had a steering wheel and the iron had a wheel dial for setting the temperature. Then the children started to look for wheels that were not vehicle wheels. Janice, the cook, had a pizza cutter with a wheel. The children found a wheel on the can opener; they knew it opened cans but could not figure out how it worked. They noticed the computer mouse had a wheel, but they did not know what it did. I pointed out that the tape dispenser had a wheel; they saw it turn when we pulled a piece of tape off the roll. They were very involved in taking photos; we took about 75 pictures that day (see Figures 4-7).

I made a teacher web to identify what we thought these children could learn about wheels. We thought they would be interested in what wheels do, jobs that wheels do, what materials wheels could be made of, why there are different sizes of wheels, the history of the wheel, and what different kinds of wheels feel and look like.

What They Knew and What They Wondered

The next day I printed and shared the pictures the children and I had taken. A large group of interested children joined me to talk about what they knew and didn't know about wheels. We wrote what they said on sticky notes and posted them on the blackboard (Figure 8).

One child knew that cars have wheels. Another said that wheels can hurt you if they go over you. Someone wanted to know how to make a wheel and another child asked what wheels are made of. They noticed pictures of pulleys and gears and wanted to know what those were. One child noticed pictures of knobs and handles and did not think those were wheels; most of the children thought wheels were found only on vehicles.

The following two lists grew from the discussions:

You can get "smushed" by wheels

Wheels spin/turn/roll

They have a black part (the ones on cars)

Wheels can get a flat

Axle wheels have an axle

Car wheels have metal inside

Wheels can be big or small

A door knob is a type of wheel

Watches and clocks have gears

A horse buggy/carriage has wheels

Wheels are a circle

Money is a circle

A "Punch buggy" (a Volkswagen Beetle) has wheels

So do motorcycles and skateboards

Where do they come from?

How can we make a wheel?

How does the wheel system work on a car?

What is the difference between a wheel and a pulley?

What are wheels made of?

What is the metal called inside a car tire?

Why is a yo-yo a wheel? It is a toy.

Does a factory make wheels/tires?

How are wheels attached to a car?

Why do boats have tires hanging off of them?

How does a wheelbarrow work on one wheel?

Bike tires have lines in them. What are the lines called?

A fishing reel has gears inside. What do they look like and how do they work?

What is a pulley? How does a pulley work? Can we use a pulley in the classroom?

After identifying parts of our teacher web that we could cover with the children, we decided we could make this a project. Our goal would be to introduce the children to the "what, where, when, why, and how" of wheels and how this simple machine helps people do many important jobs faster and more easily.

We also realized that this project might go in an entirely different direction. The children might show interest in something we had not thought of, so we went into it with open minds and no firm expectations, which was quite easy because it was our first project. We hoped that there would be many "teachable moments." This marked the end of Phase 1.

Wheel Pictures From Home

We began Phase 2 by asking the children to bring in pictures of wheels that they could find in or around their homes. Kaitlyn (4 years, 5 months) brought in a page of pictures of wheels she and her sister found. I expected this to provoke discussion among the children about different kinds of wheels, and I laminated the page so it would survive more than one day. Many children noticed that Kaitlyn's wheel pictures were of different sizes.

Grazyna found an experiment in the "Wings of Discovery" resources that involved marking a front wheel (along the outside tread) of three different sized vehicles we had in our room with white chalk. We marked a vinyl tablecloth with a masking tape starting line and the children rolled each vehicle until the front wheel had gone around once. Grazyna marked where each wheel finished. The children noticed right away that the biggest wheel made the longest line of chalk. Some children measured the lines with a ruler, and they discovered the large tractor wheel went the farthest (13 cm), the medium-sized wheel went 9 cm, and the smallest wheel went only 4 cm. Some of the children remembered the earlier force activities and recalled that bigger tires go farther than smaller tires when the same force is applied. When we asked which types of vehicles have big tires, the children mentioned construction vehicles, trucks, some race cars, and "monster trucks." Scott (age 6) thought that larger vehicles use bigger tires because they need to do more work. He also thought larger vehicles went in mud more often and mud is hard to drive in, so that is why people use bigger tires on work machines.

Representations of Things With Wheels

Next, the teachers invited a group of children to paint pictures of "things with wheels." Denise provided paper, a variety of brushes, a bowl of water, and watercolor paint. Karrie (age 4.2) designed a "modern car" with many wheels and a picture of herself in the driver's seat. Angelica (age 4.4) painted a tricycle with lots of colors and different-shaped wheels. We displayed some of the paintings on the blackboard so the children could look at them.

The staff then discussed how the children might make three-dimensional representations. A few of the children had painted odd-shaped wheels on their vehicles, which provoked us ask them to make wheels using clay. Denise gave six children each a ball of clay. A couple of them had previous knowledge of how to form a wheel, but younger or less experienced children benefited from a demonstration of flattening the clay and rolling it into a circular shape. Some became frustrated because they wanted to copy their friend's wheels but did not have the skills to do so. We recognized and acknowledged these feelings of frustration and reminded the children how important it is to keep calm and keep trying.

We put a few straws on the clay table, and soon Scott had poked a hole in the middle of his wheel with the straw. He said, "This is where the axle goes." We set the clay wheels aside to dry. Denise also made triangular and cube-shaped wheels; as the days went on, children kept asking what they were for. When the clay was dry, we set out tempera paint and different-sized brushes. Some of the children who could read the names on the wheels called their friends to "come and paint yours." There was excitement in the air!

The teachers invited children to experiment with putting a straw through a circle-shaped wheel, a triangle-shaped wheel, and a cube-shaped wheel and rolling them on the table. The children soon discovered that the triangular and squared wheels did not roll easily and there was a big bump as they went over the "points." We laughed about how a car with square wheels would have a very bumpy drive. The children could see firsthand why wheels are shaped like circles. The reasons they identified were because the circle was not bumpy and needed less force to move. We asked them to draw with markers and pencil crayons to create imaginary vehicles with wheels in silly shapes to provoke more discussion about shape and size.

Late in January, we asked the children what types of materials they had found in wheels so far. A few of the children were becoming skilled at identifying the materials wheels were made of. As we looked at online pictures, books, and real objects, they identified materials such as rubber, soft plastic, hard plastic, wood, metal, painted metal, and even cheese! They found out that some wheels, gears, and cogs are made from two or more materials.

The Evolution of the Wagon

The wagon was a key part of the project because it provoked the children's play interests. When I turned it upside down to show the wheels, some children were drawn to this strange sight. The teachers asked what they thought the wheels were made of. One child said "mostly plastic," and another said "a little bit of metal." We left the wagon upside down for the children to explore more closely.

They soon turned it into a stretcher for injured kids, which evolved into an ambulance to take patients to the hospital (Figure 9). Sydney (5.2), Kaitlyn, Claudia (age 4.6), and Catherine (age 4.2) dressed as doctors and nurses trying to make Valeria (age 5 years, 11 months) feel better. They transformed the carpet area into a hospital using wooden blocks and many boxes (20 or more boxes had recently taken up residence in the room). At one point, at least six patients were in the hospital with various injuries bandaged up with tensor bandages and fabric.

Such interactions around shared interests encouraged the children's peer group entry skills and reinforced their helping skills. They practiced making friends, conflict resolution, and social-emotional problem-solving during the wagon/hospital play. After some time, the children asked to turn the wagon upright again. They then used it as a police car, a horse wagon, and an ambulance again. Discussion turned to how community helpers rely on wheels to do their jobs and help people. Many of the children had experience with community helpers, and this conversation was very long.

Active Play With Wheels

To introduce gross-motor activities, we brought square scooters in from the playground shed. The children were excited and proud to be able to use the scooters, which were primarily for the school-age children (Figure 10).

The children quickly determined that the scooter wheels were made mostly of plastic and metal. At first, we let children sit on the scooters and move them around the room with their arms and legs. Eventually they put boxes and toys on them and moved those items around. They then joined the scooters together with the bungee cords to make a train. When someone sat on the wooden dramatic play chair that was on top of a red scooter one day, I decided to make it safer and more secure by fastening the chair to the scooter using a bungee cord. This began the wheelchair experiment (Figure 11). The children found they could use the "wheelchairs" for many things. Sydney wanted to sit in one to eat lunch; the teachers let some children try that. It was interesting to hear how they thought the wheelchairs should be distributed because there were just five-not enough to go around. They thought the teachers should pick the best "tidy-uppers" to be first. The children soon took wheelchairs into the hospital play area, where the doctors and nurses used them to move patients.

We had to insist on a new rule when we noticed two children had put bungee cords around their necks and were crawling on the floor to pull a "wheelchair," pretending to be horses pulling wagons. We reminded them to "always, always, and forever " remember to not put anything around their necks and asked them to find other ways to attach themselves to the wheel toys. They decided to attach bungee cords around their waists and walked instead of crawling. The children were proud of their solution.

Learning About Axles

Grazyna facilitated an activity called "What is a car?" from the Wings of Discovery curriculum. In this activity, the children learned the parts of a car by making a model from a box, some straws, water bottle lids, and thin wood sticks. The children helped her label the main parts including the steering wheel, tires, wheels, and axles. When we asked if they thought every wheel had an axle (a center part around which to turn), most said they thought so. The question provoked investigation of all the wheels in our room. The first place many of them looked was the bicycle tire on the "interests table" (see Figure 12).

After much reflection, the children concluded that there is always a "poke-y part" in the center of a wheel that attaches it to an object.

Investigating Gears

The teachers helped the children take apart an old clock and investigate what was inside. They discovered some very small wheels, which we explained were called gears. We put the parts of the clock into a transparent container for the children to examine. Grazyna asked the children why we put them into a container. Kenneth said, "So we don't lose them because they are small!" Grazyna and a small group of children looked through a library book about gears, which explained that gears are wheels with teeth or cogs that join with other gears.

We looked for other opportunities to expose the children to other objects with wheels/gears. One day Grazyna brought the "Rotato electronic peeler" from the kitchen while we were having apples and cheese for snack. She had noticed it had a rotating disc that could hold an apple in place and wondered if the children would notice the disc looked and acted like a wheel. She asked them to look at the peeler from different directions and stated safety rules such as "look only with your eyes" and "only use it with a grown up." The children made a variety of comments. Someone noticed the apple was held on with spikes that dug into the fruit. They guessed that when the machine was plugged in and the apple turned, the blade would cut off the peel. Grazyna asked how they knew it could do that, and they said the blade was shiny and looked very sharp. We were impressed by their growing abilities to reflect on past learning experiences to reach conclusions like that. One child noticed that the Rotato box showed pictures of a pear and a potato, and right away the children were interested in using those foods on the machine. Finally, with some prompting the children identified the part of the machine that was a wheel as well as the axle that held it on the base.

Car Parts for the Playground

We asked Nathan's father, who owned a garage, if he would donate some car parts, specifically tires, for the project. He brought in three different-sized tires, an old steering wheel, and a hubcap. The morning he put them on our playground, it was too cold to go outside, but many children looked out the window and asked about the tires. It was great to see their faces when we told them they could play with the tires outside later-yet another opportunity to explore materials that many of them had never played with before! However, we had not anticipated that dirt would come off the wheels onto children's snowsuits, especially Catherine's light pink one! Denise and I apologized to a few parents about that, but no one was too concerned.

Numeracy

The children had noticed that vehicles might have differing numbers of wheels, so we provided some opportunities for them to represent those differences. Some children grouped pictures of vehicles according to the number of wheels they had. It was helpful that we had many models and examples of the vehicles they identified, although we could not find anyone with a unicycle to bring in for our children to observe! They grouped vehicles with two wheels, three wheels, and four wheels, then organized our toy cars, trucks, planes, and trains into groups with the same number of wheels. They found that many trucks had six or more wheels; one child commented, "It would cost lots of money to buy all of those wheels."

Children also helped tally how many cars their families had. We invited some senior kindergarten children to take a tally sheet around the classroom, asking classmates and teachers to print their names and put one sticker next to their names for each car their family had (Figure 13). They solved problems such as figuring out who had not signed the tally sheet and how to spell some classmates' names. The teachers offered to help with printing, reading, and organizing the chart. Some children guessed how many cars there were altogether, and then counted 37 cars. Children enjoyed finding their names and showing their parents at pickup time.

Documentation

Denise, Grazyna, and I had listed the types of wheels our class had identified, but we also wanted to create some large durable documentation for the children. We asked them to help us find pictures of different types of wheels. We covered the pictures in packing tape to make them more durable so children could take them off and stick them back on the chart paper. We posted the chart on the blackboard where the children could refer to it (Figure 14).

Items on the chart included:

Interesting Props

I brought in an old agitator from a washing machine, turned it upside down, put a hard cardboard tube on the post, and topped it with a bicycle seat. The children took turns sitting on it while a teacher helped them balance so they could stay on the seat (Figure 15).

In February, I brought in my blue suede roller skates so the children could further explore the movement of wheels. I moved furniture, rolled up the carpet, and marked off an area for scooting and skating with masking tape on the floor. Rules for this activity were: wear one roller skate at a time (tied by a teacher), keep your other shoe on when wearing a roller skate, and go slowly at first until you feel sure of your balance. The children practiced many things: waiting their turn, putting on and taking off shoes, trying to stand up, balancing on wheels, pushing off the wall, controlling their speed, deciding which direction to go, and stopping. First, I allowed six children on scooter boards and two children wearing one skate apiece. They quickly learned to go slow with the roller skates to be safe, and I quickly learned that eight children in this arena were too many. I decided to allow four children on scooter boards and two on skates from then on (Figure 16). The children decided to add a cardboard gas pump so one more child could play, having the role of gassing up scooter boards.

We allowed props into the arena once. Scott decided to attach two big pillows around his waist with a bungee cord. He said they would protect him if he fell down-and they did (Figure 17). Valeria tried lying across two scooter boards and "surfing" around the arena. She said two scooters were harder to move but were much more fun.

Pretending and Reality

One day on the playground when the children were tobogganing down a small hill, Grazyna asked if they could use their bodies to roll down the hill like wheels. They immediately started rolling, leaving their toboggans. They had rolled on the hill quite a bit while we were building it to help pack down the snow. When asked to compare their rolling bodies to car wheels, one child responded, "We don't have axles." "That's true," said Grazyna, "We don't. However, what if we pretended to be wheels on a car?" The children said "NO! Because it would hurt us to go on a road with a heavy car on us." Their knowledge of how car wheels work enabled them to generalize that being a wheel would hurt a human body because a car weighs a lot. They enjoyed pretending, but knew they didn't actually want to be wheels.

Investigating Cranes

After looking at the cranes in a library book, Scott decided he could make one. He asked for yarn and a basket to attach it to the classroom door (Figure 18). It was difficult to find a basket with handles that would not tip the load out onto the floor. We finally found one in a storage cupboard along with a toy crane with a windup handle. Scott decided to tie the string to the basket, then put the string up and over the door handle and down to his crane. It became a pulley system, and the door handle became the "wheel machine."

Later, Scott used a block toy to build a "base" for his crane. He put it on top of a toy shelf, and the basket hung down to the floor. As he turned the small winding handle on his crane base (Figure 19), he discovered that it could hardly lift the big basket. He thought this was because the basket was too far from the crane. When he wound the string up halfway and I held the basket halfway up the shelf, it was easier for him to raise the basket.

The crane had another transformation when some of the boys were building a platform near the wall in the block center using the large wooden block bucket. Scott wondered if his pulley system, which now used a lighter basket, could work with the rope hanging over the window handle. He wanted to move the Fisher-Price little people to the top of the "mountain" and back in his basket, which he called a gondola (Figure 20). Many children watched him, and a spontaneous discussion followed. One girl said she would not go up in a gondola to the top of a mountain, starting a conversation about who would and would not ride a gondola-a reminder to children that different people may have different feelings about an activity.

Another crane system involved a broomstick, string, a tool basket, and two wooden chairs. The two chairs supported the broomstick. Nathan attached the string to the broomstick and added a big popsicle stick to help turn the broomstick. Then he attached the tool basket to the other end of the string and wound the string by turning the broomstick (Figure 21).

We teachers had considered asking the hardware store for wood and pulleys and asking Denise's husband to build a standing pulley system for the classroom. We did not take these steps, but if we were to do another wheel project, I would try to include this type of prop. Letting children build working machines, even simple ones, encourages their resourcefulness.

Putting It All Together

We drew from another Wings of Discovery activity to have children explore how wheels turn or pivot to let a vehicle turn corners smoothly and safely. They could see that when a driver turns the steering wheel, it turns a cog that then turns the axle, which is attached to the wheel. Bicycles work the same way-turning the handlebars turns the post, which turns the axle to which the wheel is attached. The children and I made a pretend bicycle from some of our props: a bike wheel, big wooden blocks, a hubcap, and the agitator turned upside down with the bicycle seat mounted on the tube. They used the steering wheel Nathan's father provided as the handlebars (Figure 22).

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Many children lined up beside the bike for a turn. I sat behind the riders so they would not fall backward. The children talked about where they were going and how long it would take to get there. "Infinity years" was one idea.

Wheels and Art

At one point, the teachers prepared a theme-based wheels activity many early childhood programs have done: We gave the children plates of paint and small toy vehicles so they could paint with wheels. Some children "drove" them from side to side on the paper like cars on a road. Others used the vehicles as paintbrushes. They noticed the different tread trails. Later, Grazyna showed the children how to color the wheels of the wagon and the tricycles with chalk, then observe the tread patterns as the chalk came off on the pavement.

Another art activity related to wheels involved a salad spinner. Angela pointed out to the children how the lid, the basket, and the spinning wheel inside the lid fit together. Children took turns putting teaspoons of red, blue, and yellow paint on small paper plates at the bottom of the basket. One child would hold the salad spinner while another turned the handle. They experimented with turning the handle slowly, quickly and "really, really fast!" We asked, "What happened to the paint?" Sydney said she thought "a force" made the paint spin toward the edge of the paper, kind of like when you ride on a "spinny ride." People also noticed new colors on the paper, such as purple and orange (Figure 23), made when the colors mixed.

Discussion of Wheels and Circles

Late in February, I was reading aloud from a picture book when a young child commented, "There is a wheel on that tree." The child was referring to a round window in an illustration. We then had a teacher-led discussion in which it was decided that those were circle-shaped windows, not wheel-shaped. Multiage grouping helped with this; the senior kindergarteners explained to the younger children that wheels are circle-shaped; however, not every circle is a wheel. I asked children to search our room and find some circles that were not wheels. It was a challenge for many of them, but eventually they found round blocks, the round magnifying glass, a round plate, and crackers. They were thinking logically about differences between wheels and circles.

Tires in the Parking Lot

One day, Denise asked the children what types of things they could see outside that we could count. They noticed trees, cars, people, and signs, to name a few. She then asked how many cars they thought were in the school parking lot. We decided to tally them on a piece of paper on a clipboard while walking from one end of the lot to the other. We counted 48 cars. Denise then suggested making a chart to document how many wheels were in the parking lot that day. The children took turns guessing how many wheels there would be. Denise asked how many wheels a car usually has. Four was the popular answer, although a couple of older children had noticed a few vehicles with a round object on the back. Denise started a chart with the children on which they used black circles to represent tires, including the spare tires. They discovered that three vehicles had spare tires. When all the black circles were glued to the chart, we counted them with the children and found there were 195 wheels in the parking lot that day!

The teachers planned a March field trip to the Region of Waterloo International Airport, 20 minutes away. We had considered a trip to a construction site where there were cranes and big wheels to see, or a Canadian Tire Store where the children could look at the tires for sale. However, when the opportunity came up to go to the airport, we decided it might provoke a new interest for our children. As we planned the trip, we talked to the children about what they might see at the airport. Their list included big and small planes, people who drive planes and fix planes, wheels on the bottom of the planes, trucks that load suitcases on the planes, fire engines to put out fires from crashes, and runways where planes land. The children could see how wheels worked in a travel setting and get a very close view of airplanes, which interest most children. We decided it could be a perfect finishing point for our project.

One of the staff welcomed us to the airport and showed us up to the classroom area. We reminded the children to walk quietly and show respect for the class in progress, explaining that those people were learning to be pilots. An enthusiastic, engaging woman pilot explained the different types of planes, including gliders and twin-engine and single-engine planes. She had the children use their bodies to imagine they were planes (Figure 24).

The class then toured the hangar to see some of the small planes. The tour guide told the children to never walk or run under the airplane wings; a few children were told to go back and walk around the wings when they accidently walked under one of the wings of a plane. They learned it is dangerous because someone could bump their head or damage the wing.

In the hangar, the class saw small wheels on big planes. They also saw many tools and watched a man inspecting a plane for broken parts. The children were surprised at how small the planes' wheels were compared with car wheels or bike tires. We talked about the materials the planes were made of, including the wheels, and they identified metal, rubber, and possibly plastic. The pilot thought there was plastic on the inside of the airplane. We looked for the axles and saw a metal handle used to pull the smaller planes.

We went outdoors and looked at planes on the tarmac. The children heard many new and interesting noises and saw planes taking off and landing, which they thought was extremely cool! The pilot asked if we would like to ride on our school bus down the tarmac to the fire station next door to see the fire engines. The bus driver got permission from the bus company, so the class boarded the bus on the tarmac and rode down the runway to the fire station. Some children wondered why the fire station was at the airport, but figured out that the fire engines are there in case of a fire at the airport. Firefighters showed the children their protective gear and the parts of the fire engine. They let the children sit in a fire engine, and we watched the fire truck spray water, just as it would to put out a fire. The children enjoyed watching the rainbow that the water and sunlight created.

The project was wrapping up just as we hoped it would. Like every wheel used in our project, it was moving forward and building on knowledge with each experience our children had. The teachers considered what might be the next project or the next play topic. Some possibilities were flight, water, or jobs people do.

Writing the first version of this article, titled "Our Wheels Project," helped me remember the details and order of the very first project I had ever been a part of. It was written initially so my co-workers and I could keep a compact version of all of the documentation we had written, as well as some of the pictures and the children's artwork. We put the finished document into page protectors in a binder so parents and children could look at it and reflect on all of the "wheels" activities we had done. We displayed it during our Mother's and Father's Day socials. Because the Wheels Project was the first project done and documented by any of the Owl Child Care sites, the organization decided to link to it on Owl's website.

It was amazing to see the children using new skills they had learned and practiced during the Wheels Project. I learned during this project not to be afraid to try anything new, because if you are, the children might miss out on a cool way to learn. Yes, they can also learn in other ways, but if you can experience a truly teachable moment, why wouldn't you? Having teachable moments almost every day during this project was very fulfilling for me.

I was surprised by how easily the project activities flowed one after another. Activities related to "wheels" were exactly right for the children in the junior kindergarten/kindergarten room at that time. The project activities appealed to the diverse population of young children in the room-whatever their ages. Every child, no matter what their disposition, got involved when we provoked their interests in the right way. A project may become bigger than you think it will. Children are amazing!

This topic also was the right one for the teachers in the room. We learned along with the children. After almost 25 years in the field, I already trusted children to know what they wanted to learn, but I relearned how to trust them. Our children are "tech-y" -they know how things work, but they want to know more! They read at younger ages. They have humorous answers to teachers' questions. It meant a lot to me to learn along with them. I didn't realize what a variety of activities the project involved until I reflected on them to complete our documentation.

Each day we spent different amounts of time doing project work with the children. We didn't limit or pressure ourselves to plan the project time. It was difficult to keep my enthusiasm for the Wheels Project under control and remember to keep up routines such as eating lunch! I enjoyed bringing in props for the children to try out-being surprising and providing experiences they may not have had before and opening their eyes to the possibilities. It was difficult for me to avoid making impulsive decisions about what the next activity would be. I had to keep in mind that my two co-workers also had ideas and opinions.

One of the things that I would do differently next time would be to take more pictures and keep a journal with more details, such as what each child said and did. Although we did not address all of the children's original questions about wheels, I do not think it really matters in the end if those questions weren't answered; their new questions were. It was even difficult to keep up with all of the things the children wanted to do during the project. We might never have had lunch on time if not for the five-minute warnings that lunchtime was almost here.

One child especially benefited from the wheels project. This child took most of the initiative to push the boundaries throughout the project and emerged from being a solitary child to a leader of group activities!

Providing inspiration to my co-workers is one of the main reasons I have written this article. I wanted to reflect on what was for me the most honest, easy way to teach children while learning right along with them.

Jane Cowan is a registered early childhood educator (RECE). During the Wheels Project, she was working in the preschool room at the St. Nicholas location of Owl Child Care Services of Ontario. Jane has worked with children and families at Owl since 1986 and is currently a preschool teacher at the organization's Saint John Paul II location.

Jane Cowan, RECE
Owl Child Care Services of Ontario
2-10 Washburn Drive
Kitchener, ON N2R 1S2 Canada

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Our Wheels Project: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary

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Our Wheels Project: Finding the Extraordinary Within the Ordinary Jane Cowan Owl Child Care Services of Ontario A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. ... Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines.

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ELA.1.R.3.3
Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic.

Clarification 1: Students are being asked to compare and
contrast. During instruction, give students opportunities to
see visual representations of similarities and differences
using tools such as Venn diagrams or T-charts

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In this new Engineering Design Process lesson we are creating from inspiration from the "Our Wheels Project," students are investigating wheels using the driving question: How can we make our classroom trash can roll to different spots in the room when it is too heavy to carry?

The problem is that the trash can gets too heavy after breakfast in the morning and the young children cannot pick it up and move it around the room to fill it up. The room is getting messy because of this. The students decide that they could add wheels to the trash can so that it can move around the room with them.

Remember: This is for a 1st grade classroom- our standards are 1st grade standards.

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1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU71DF6Jhz0
2. MA.1.FR.1.1
3. After viewing this video as a class, my students will understand how to partition circles and rectangles. My students will be able to recreate this process on their own.
4. To meet this standard, my students will need to be able to partition shapes on their own and explain the fractions that correspond with what they have partitioned. I plan to have them demonstrate their understanding using activities where we color on paper rectangles and paper plates.
5. I chose this resource to help me teach this standard because it is provided by a reputable source (USA test prep) and is thus aligned directly with the standard at hand. I also like this resource because it is created for elementary-level students and presents the information using student-friendly language.
6. This is a good resource to a moderate extent because its purpose is primarily supplementary. I will incorporate the activity and a worksheet into this lesson because the video does not give my students the opportunity to think for themselves. In the activity, they will demonstrate what they have learned and I will be able to retain data that I can show to anyone looking at the student's performance.

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NzYPVn7Cz5XhmW9EqN_5mPfP6mECbrTU5YVrEw7llig/edit?usp=sharing

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MA.1.M.1.1 Estimate the length of an object to the nearest inch. Measure the length of an object to the nearest inch or centimeter.

Benchmark Clarifications:
Clarification 1: Instruction emphasizes measuring from the zero point of the ruler. The markings on the
ruler indicate the unit of length by marking equal distances with no gaps or overlaps.
Clarification 2: When estimating length, the expectation is to give a reasonable number of inches for
the length of a given object.

MA.1.FR.1.1 Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal-sized parts. Name the parts of the whole using appropriate language including halves or fourths.

Benchmark Clarifications:
Clarification 1: This benchmark does not require writing the equal sized parts as a fraction with a
numerator and denominator.

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Think research here - What resources can the kids use to learn about wheels - How could this tie into your ELA or math standards in the pre-curation section?

Answer Questions 1-3:
1. Students would be gathered on the carpet area as a whole class. Students will watch the video above, giving an insight of the topic that they will be interacting with.

2. The teacher will present the YouTube video on the board. When the short video is finished, he/she will ask students a few questions: What do wheels do? Where do you see wheels inside the classroom? Where do you see wheels outside of the classroom? How do they help us? The teacher can then present the driving question about the heavy trash can and create a connection with the possible solution of adding wheels! From there, the teacher will then play the Think Like an Engineer video to start the connection of the engineering standard.

3. The Wheel Invention video & Jessi Has a Problem/Think Like an Engineer video

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The Wheel: great inventions that changed history | Educational Videos for Kids

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1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM04n0-QtNo

2. K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

3. After this introductory video, students will understand the steps engineers take to invent new things, and demonstrate the same steps during the lesson activity.

4. Students will need to think critically to identify the problem, brainstorm a possible solution, build their solution, and test their solution.

5. I choose this resource for two reasons; the first being it aligns to the standard in which a way that can be used to allow student exploration with the driving question, and secondly multimedia (alike this video) can be engaging and thought-provoking for students. Students are able to directly brainstorm their possible solution first through sketching or drawing, and then creating a physical model where they are able to test the successfulness of the problem's solution.

6. I really like this resource for introducing engineering steps to solving a problem. Since this is for first graders, I think  having a lesson prior to this one about what/who are engineers, along with some real-world engineers and their inventions could be beneficial. This could incorporate ELA (short reading passages or picture book read aloud) and Social Studies (history of past engineers/inventions) standards as well. Also, pre-teaching vocabulary of important words for this lesson can be added previously too.

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This video is perfect for introducing students to measuring inches and using a ruler!
-Abigail Hudgens

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K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function
as needed to solve a given problem.

K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and
weaknesses of how each performs.

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How are students going to design? What are they designing (refer back to the Identify the Problem section)? This is more brainstorming/planning than building. What resources could you create to help them design their idea?

1. Students will be given the stem journal sheet. They will be paired by the teacher, then together the students will first define the problem (which will be guided by the driving question), the move onto the discover box where they can research more about wheels and the differences between large/small/rubber/plastic/etc. Students will then create their own idea through drawing/sketching of how they think they could possibly solve the problem. Students will then turn to their partner, and discuss why they think their idea will be able to help their trashcan problem. The students will collaborate on which design would be better, maybe even combing both ideas together to create a new, improved design! The pair will then work together to brainstorm what steps are needed to create a model. Students will begin building after presenting their sketch to the teacher.

2. The teacher's role for this lesson is to be a facilitator to exploration, supporting and guiding when needed. The teacher will be observing student pairs collaboration, engineering ideas, and aiding when supports are needed. Some students may need more of a foundation than others; therefore the teacher can model the steps engineers go through alike the introductory videos. The teacher will pass out laptops or iPads for students to research more about wheels. The teacher will provide students with appropriate websites and online resources beforehand. When it is time to build models, the students will go to the teacher to 'approve' their design sketch. The teacher will give students the okay to gather the supplies they need to start building. The teacher will provide various supplies; play-doh, cardboard, straws, different types of wheels, and more to name a few.

3. The STEM Journal sheet

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1. https://youtu.be/by_Qf0gNYSI
2. MA.1.M.1.1 Estimate the length of an object to the nearest inch. Measure the length of an object to the nearest inch or centimeter.
3. After watching this video, students will be able to estimate and measure the length of a given objective to the nearest inch.
4. To meet this standard, students must be able to use a ruler, understand basic measurements, and make educated guesses on what something may end up measuring.
5. I chose this resource because it is a great introduction to "the whole inch", which many students may not understand up to this point. It directly relates to the standard and walks them through how to measure an object or distance.
6. I would maybe choose a slightly more animated or fun video to teach them over this more lecture-like video. Because the students were so young, something with maybe a song or rhyme to help them remember the materials might stick with them better than the information given in the format I chose.

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MA.1.FR.1.1 partitioning circles and rectangles

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MA.1.FR.1.1 partitioning circles and rectangles

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU71DF6Jhz0
-grace barnwell

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Think about what this phase will look like. What should it sound like? How are students going to test out their design? What criteria should their product be able to do? How will they document their product's abilities during this phase? Hint- You may have to create some of these resources yourself.

Answer Questions 1-3 here:
1. This phase sound be collaborative, meaning there will be a decent amount of "noise" inside the learning space. Students will be verbally talking with their partner building and testing their model. There will also be the noise of the possible trashcan falling to the ground if the model was unsuccessful. Student's models should first be able to carry the trashcan, secondly it should be able to allow the trashcan to move from the starting line to how ever far it is pushed. Students will not be penalized for the model not moving far, just that movement is possible with the filled trashcan on it. This chart will allow students to organize their data in one place, and will help them recognize what improves added more distance from the start line on the floor.

2. Alike the previous sections, the teacher will be there silently observing. The teacher can help students when they are needed supports or even if they ask for some assistance. Overall, the teacher will be watching what students are building and testing, and their ongoing collaboration.

3. The Testing chart I created on PowerPoint.

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1. Repost Link to your resource

2. Write out the standard.

ELA.1.R.3.3

3. Write out the lesson objective.

Students will be able to compare and contrast two texts on the same topic.

4. What would students need to be able to do/explain after engaging with this resource?

Students will be able to tell how far or how close objects are by measuring the object's width, length, or height.

5. Why did you choose this resource to teach your standard? How does this resource support your students in learning the standard?

I chose these two books because they are both relevant to not only the ELA standard but to the math standard as well. The books are about how to measure objects which would be useful in finding out our guiding question,

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ELA.1.R.3.3Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic.

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ELA.1.R.3.3Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic.

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How Long or How Wide?: A Measuring Guide by Brian Cleary & How Tall, How Short, How Far Away by David Adler.
These two picture books about measuring aligns with the ELA standard. Students can compare and contrast the information in both books for their lessons.
-Jessica Panaguiton

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Here students have an opportunity to use the data they collected from the try it out phase to improve their product. Maybe they will need to make design adjustments. Maybe a video would be helpful here to jumpstart groups that may struggle with problem solving, maybe not? As the instruction designer, make a plan to support students here and still give them the space to do the critical thinking themselves. What does this look like?

Answer Questions 1-3 Here:
1. If students are having trouble improving their designed model, they can revert back to watching the original engineering video on a laptop or iPad. This way, students are able to backtrack and examine the steps that could help their model if they went back to brainstorming.

2. The teacher can give some ideas on how to improve their model; maybe using different sized wheels, adding more balanced support by wheel placement, etc. The teacher can model the steps in the video while giving some ideas that could possibly aid the students in the foundation of a new design that they could improve as well.

3. Jessi Has a Problem/Think Like an Engineer video

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K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

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K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

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This would be a good video to introduce how and what engineers do. Then, the teacher can introduce the driving question: "How can we make our classroom trash can roll to different spots in the room when it is too heavy to carry?" The teacher can have the students first draw their invention that could possibly be the solution. To further the lesson, students can create a small 3D model of the invention for the trashcan; for the models, a  heavy basket could be used as the trash can to test if the invention is successful.
Mickayla Pecoraro

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K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

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K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

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I think this would be a great follow-up to the video that was
given for this standard as well. In this lesson, students are working on objects that push and pull which I think would help give some background knowledge to different shapes and objects and how they move. https://www.coreknowledge.org/free-resource/cksci-unit-1-pushes-and-pulls/
-Sydney Rigdon

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Focus: In this unit, students investigate what causes changes in motion by exploring pushes and pulls. Students will then use prior knowledge and information gained from their observations during various tests to design a miniature golf course. Students explore concepts that include the following:

Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions.

Pushing and pulling on an object can change the speed or direction of its motion and can start or stop it.

Students will explore these concepts with both visible and invisible pushes and pulls, and contact and non-contact forces. They will recognize that motion is affected by the strength and direction of pushes and pulls, the characteristics of objects, and the surface on which objects are moved. Students will learn how motion changes and develop an understanding that pushes and pulls of different types are the cause of all changes in movement.

Engineers and engineering designers use knowledge of forces and motion as they develop solutions to problems and make things that are useful to people. This series of lessons incorporates learning goals that support the principles and practices of engineering design, such as defining problems and evaluating and optimizing possible solutions.

Number of Lessons: 3, each lesson is divided into 3-5 lesson segments.

Instruction Time: We recommend that you plan for approximately 30-45 minutes for each lesson segment. We further recommend that you spend a minimum of sixteen days and a maximum of twenty-four days teaching the Pushes and Pulls unit so that you have time to teach the other units in the Grade K CKSci series.

Please note that a Pacing Guide template is provided in the Teacher Guide so teachers can map out customized instructional days for this unit.

Additional Search Terms:
cause * effect * touch * distance * speed * gravity * compare * test * improve * problem * solution * magnet * metal * opposite * record * prediction * nonfiction * informational text

CKSci Grade Levels: CKSci units are correlated to topics at the grade levels specified in the K-5 Core Knowledge Science Sequence.

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CKSci Unit 1: Pushes and Pulls - Core Knowledge Foundation

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Focus: In this unit, students investigate what causes changes in motion by exploring pushes and pulls. Students will then use prior knowledge and information gained from their observations during various tests to design a miniature golf course. Students explore concepts that include the following: Pushes and pulls can have different strengths and directions.