Health, Hearts, and Cars

 I always struggle to come up with catchy titles...today it a list of topics!

HEALTH:
Our assistant to the superintendent started a steps challenge for February - April.  I joined since I know that these activities help with health care premiums or something equivalent.  Plus, I also have wondered how many steps I really walk in a day.   My phone tracks steps but I do not carry my phone ALL the time.  
So I got a very basic fit bit tracker with a connected app.  The app that I am using is Very Fit Pro.  I will try to figure out the name of my device too...My mom got me a smart watch a couple of Christmas ago but it was not what I needed at the time.  I might dust it off and try it again too and compare.
Here is a link to a very similar model at Walmart of my device - Watch tracker

Take aways:
The device needs 10 steps to register...so take the longer path to the fridge.
I should take the ramp at work not the stairs.  One or two extra trips up/down the ramp adds LOTS of steps.
It lets me know about phone calls and when I am sitting too long.
I can track my sleep and get idea of how well I am sleeping

Goals:
Just get a baseline of my every day activity.
Find simple ways to increase my movement

Steps this week so far:

HEART:
This week, every class learned a few basic heart facts and reviewed from the Kids Heart Challenge.  We used the health module in Pebble Go.  One cool fact is that your heart is the size of a fist!

Then we colored a diagram of the heart.  The K - 2 used one from Crayola - link to that page
Simple Heart.  While the older 3rd and 4th graders used one from Education - link to that page Complicated heart.

Some of the students were fascinated...some were grossed out...a few were not interested.  But the goal of STEAM is letting students see a variety of topics.  I see health and science working hand in hand.

                                                  

CARS:

Finally, my own kids were working on their Pine Wood Derby cars for cub scouts.  This is always a labor of love.  They were really not sure what to create.  The cars were created in December and sat in boxes.  Finally, we looked at them and had to figure it out.  Lucas had a very basic car with a simple design.  TJ had a more complicated design that needed a creative design to work.  Lucas decided on a basic Roblox symbol on black background.  Some painters tape and some paint.  He was done.

TJ had this weird cut out that called for a rider/driver.  As the Winter Olympics wraps up, he decided on a bobsled.  We found a random character and painted wings and decoupage on some stars.  

Here is a cool article on the history of Pinewood Derby - Derby cars history

I will let you know how we did and pictures of the boys with their cars.

#4 is TjJs bobsled car that won most creative

#5 with the Roblox symbol won scariest

Have a great weekend.  Onto Read Across America week...K is working on patterns, 1st grade is working on ?, 2nd grade are going to start our back scratcher project, 3rd grade is going to learn about either Ozobots or Spheros, and 4th grade is doing a super hero digital citizenship activity from Code.org.