The 5/6th grade physics book doesn't talk about simple machines. The general science book does a little, but I think the topic fits in better with our physics curriculum. So I decided to quick add a simple machine lesson to our agenda for the week. I found a hands-on lab online that has students build/use each of the simple machines, but I wasn't sure which supplies I'd need to buy. I did know that I didn't have a wedge, so last night after church, (my farmer came up again, yay!) we went grocery shopping and I found some wooden wedges that should work. I had forgotten to read over the lab supply list before we left, so I went off memory and hoped I'd have the rest in my classroom!
Surprisingly, it didn't take as much time to gather my supplies as I thought! I had boards handy for another physics lab we do, a lot of the machines use a stack of books for the fulcrum or the ramp (we have plenty of those!), and I had some screws/screwdrivers in my desk drawer. All I needed to grab were some spools from home (for the pulley and the wheel/axle). We didn't have time to get to the actual building part of the lab today... we'll save that for Monday. But everyone seemed to grasp the concept of simple machines very well.
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