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How could you invent a trap?
Force Olympics Unit | Lesson 6 of 6

How could you invent a trap?

Force Olympics Unit | Lesson 6 of 6
Lesson narration:
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# Optional Activity: Be an Inventor
  1. An inventor is someone who comes up with ways to solve problems or make tasks easier. Check out the mini-lesson "How do you become a great inventor?" to learn more about inventions and inventors.

  2. A woman named Josephine Cochran invented the dishwasher so that people could clean their dishes more easily. Discuss: Do you have a chore that a machine could help you do?

  3. Choose a chore you want a machine to help you with. Then act it out — pretend to do the chore.

  4. Think about how a machine could help with your chore. Draw a picture of your machine.

  5. When your picture is done, find a partner. Tell your partner what your invention does and how it works.

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Featured Reviews

“Kindergarteners loved every piece of the lesson -- there was no point where they were not engaged.”
“We had such a good time with this story! It fit right in with my engineering and Kindergarten. Thanks!”
“We built traps after reading the story. The kids loved it!”
“The kids loved planning out and drawing their traps. We are going to use classroom toys to build their creations. They can't wait! Thanks for planning lessons that engage and motivate students!”
“Kids were interested in the subject and it was great for an interactive read along! :)”
“Get Up and Move was the best part!! Kids loved it. Discussions were great too. ”
“The students were very engaged with the story and making predictions. After the story we were inventors and made our own "Rube Goldberg" style Monster Traps. They are still asking to make more traps! ”
“The children were very engaged with the story. It was exciting for them and they got to talk with partners a lot to make predictions. Also, there were a lot of high frequency words I could have the students read for me as I read them the story. I like how each sentence is highlighted separately as you want to read it. ”
“The "stop and discuss" and move around parts are perfect for this age group!”
“We made a mock mouse trap using mini crates, toilet paper rolls, string, bells, and a matchbox car for the mouse. Students took turns playing the mouse or the trapper to see if they could trap the mouse.”
“The kids enjoyed talking about different ways to make a trap.”
“Kids were very engaged! ”
“They loved the story and wondering what was going to happen next!!”
Lesson narration:

Grade K

Pushes & Pulls

Forces & Engineering

K-2-ETS1-2

Activity Prep

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In this Read-Along lesson, twins Mimi and Lulu try different ways to catch a mysterious nighttime visitor…until they hit on just the right solution. The lesson includes a short exercise where students imagine how to design a good monster trap, and then pretend to be sneaky monsters. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Be an Inventor, where students draw their own inventions for machines that do chores.
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Grade K

Pushes & Pulls

Forces & Engineering

K-2-ETS1-2

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Pushes Read-Along Lesson 6: How could you invent a trap?

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