Wrap Up Friday 11-3-17

Our day was focused and in depth today, which was a great way to end our week together. Book orders are in backpacks today, so be sure to check them out. Recommendations are at the end of the newsletter.

Our big exploration today was investigating how ears work. We compared our ears to Godzilla’s and realized that our ears stick out, while Godzilla just has ear holes. To see how external ears might make us hear different from Godzilla, we made our ears even bigger with cups with the bottoms cut out. We walked around the classroom with our extra ears on to see how everything sounded. Gia was quick to realize that sounds got softer when she took off the ears, which helped Sokrates to infer that Godzilla probably hears worse than we do, since bearded dragons have even less ears than we do. Anja and Bisola worked together; Bisola realized she could talk through the cups which focused the sound. Anja suddenly realized that if she was listening through the cup and Bisola talked through the cup, it got SUPER loud. Tove and Rebecca were watching this and discovered the cups could funnel the sound and tell secrets without anyone else hearing :). We also had some students that experimented with the cups themselves, which was great scientific thinking. Niki came up to me and asked for a cup with a bottom so she could compare how they sounded with and without bottoms; I was blown away by her thoroughness. Teddy also realized that it sounded different if he listened through the top of the cup and the bottom of the cup; he explained that listening through the little end was louder and tried to think through why that would be the case. I was blown away at the way the students embraced this learning tool, used it in different ways, and applied it to what we were trying to find out about the ear.

Our other big investigation for the day was actually a blast from the past: finger painting! While this wasn’t new for us, in the context of all the other paintings we’ve done, it was interesting seeing how they approached it. Yianni felt he could almost feel the colors, as he explained that the red felt warm while the blue felt cold. Tove enjoyed dipping her fingers in different colors and watching as they came off in layers as she painted. Timo noticed and explained how if he put a lot of paint on his hand and put it down fast, he could make splash marks, which was pretty cool. Niki realized that the texture on the paper was coming from the lines on her hand, which was exciting to study. Bisola liked putting different colors down the side of her hand and making a rainbow by smearing it across the paper. Gia would put a bunch of colors on top of each other then scratch the smear with her nails to reveal the colors underneath. Paolo liked feeling how the paint would get sticky and go on differently as it dried on his hands. Jerome felt that it was better to paint with a brush, as they hold more paint. I really appreciate how even something they’ve done before gets new meaning, as they discuss the textures and techniques they are using.

In our read aloud, we learned about Sophie’s ‘plan’ to stop the mean giants. She is going to put a dream about the giants in the President’s head then convince the President that the danger is real. We enjoyed talking about plans and even came up with a few of our own. We hope the plan works, as no one wants to hear about kids being eaten!

A new book order went home today and is due back November 27th. If you want to see it online, you can see the flyer here. Looking through it, there are some really fun selections in here. The “Ordinary People Change the World” pack looks pretty great: the art looks incredible and it is always important for children to find role models to inspire them to greatness. You might not have picked up on this, but I really love projects. With that in mind, “Karina Garcia’s DIY Slime” book looks pretty great; if you have a go to slime recipe, stick with it, but it seems like a fun activity as the days get colder. Even better, if your child loves one of the recipes, I could have them teach the class how to make it! Remember, the books you order earn books for the class. Hope you find something you just can’t live without. Have a great weekend!

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