When Mrs. Wanke told us that we did not want to miss today...she was NOT kidding! We came to school to find Mrs. Wanke dressed like a pirate and a treasure chest locked up! The treasure box had three kinds of locks securing it. One was a number code, another was a litter code, and the last one was a key lock. We wanted to know what we had to do to see what was inside the treasure box.
Mrs. Wanke explained that we would have to do a series of challenges to learn the codes and earn the key! We were ready and motivated to complete these tasks!
The first thing we did today was listen to some pirate stories.
Then Mrs. Wanke explained to us our first challenge. We were going to create our very own buried treasure map. We had to follow specific directions to create this map.
When we finished this challenge we earned a the letter K. Mrs. Wanke explained there would be two more challenges to earn the letters E and Y to spell the word KEY. She went on to explain that when we spelled the word key, we would get the key to open the lock.
Our next challenge was a STEM challenge. Our challenge was to work with our partner to create a pirate ship that could actually float and sail across our ocean (kid pool) carrying 3 pennies.
We were only given certain materials. Aluminum foil, 3 strips of masking tape, a small ball of clay, a coffee filter, and a straw.
We worked really good with our partner. We developed a plan and worked together to problem solve when things did not go as planned.
We had SO much fun creating these and watching them sail across the ocean. We would jump and hug our partner because we were so happy!
Here is just a video of one of our ships sailing across the ocean!
We would blow the ship across...so our sails had to work!
This challenge earned us the letter E!
After lunch we came back and were ready to get that treasure box unlocked! We had several activities to do during math! The first one was to create as a team a giant 100's chart with gold coins!
This was a VERY difficult challenge! We worked so hard and persevered! We erupted into cheers when we got our last letter Y! We finally got one of the locks open!
Our next math challenge was to find the missing number in the number bonds. Each correct answer gave us a letter for the code below. The secret code spelled out the three number for the combination lock.
Once again, Mrs. Wanke was SO impressed with how hard we worked to complete this challenge.
All our hard work paid off and we learned the combination and opened our second lock!
Our final challenge of the day had to deal with our spelling! Mrs. Wanke gave us a sheet of paper for us to write words that had the spelling pattern we have been working on. On this page four spaces were circled. If we successfully spelled the words, the circled spaces would reveal the letter combination for our final lock!
Well...guess what? WE DID IT! We got the final lock opened. We could barely contain ourselves when Mrs. Wanke opened the treasure box. Inside was GOLD OREO cookies!
Today was also Dawson's birthday so we ended our day with gold Oreo cookies and a birthday treat! We had an AMAZING day!
