Fragrant Friday 12-1-17

We wrapped another fantastic week in room 3! Real quick, Plato Academy has a fundraiser tonight at Chuck E. Cheese in Arlington Heights. We are also trimming the tree with the ornaments the students made tonight immediately after school, pictures will be forthcoming.

In our read aloud today, we found out that both Despereaux’s community (his parents and the mouse council) and Princess Pea’s father, the King, don’t think they should be together. Anja thought that Despereaux wouldn’t get into trouble, since he is just a little mouse, but Yianni convinced her Despereaux would probably get put in ‘mouse jail’ because he forgot the mouse rules, “He even talked to the Princess!” Then, when Despereaux’s brother tried to get him to go to the mouse council, Timo explained that Despereaux kept reading because he didn’t want to go. At the end of the chapter, Despereaux was going to the council, and they threatened to send him to the dungeon; we’re all very excited to see what the council decides next week!

The highlight of the day was definitely our nasal investigation. We had a bunch of different things brought in, which we managed to keep surprises for our classmates. We did blind ‘smell tests’ and drew and wrote out what we thought was in each bag. Bisola said one bag made her think of french fries (mustard). Yianni complained one smelled like a sock (onions). Paolo realized one bag smelled like candy (starburst). Teddy made a face when he smelled one bag and shouted “I don’t like coffee!” (coffee grounds). Rebecca smelled coffee too, and she drew a coffee cup to help her remember it (coffee). Sokrates thought one smelled like onions (garlic and basil), while Jerome was sure he smelled garlic (mustard). Timo thought there were crackers in one bag (onion). Gia knew what the onions smelled like and made sure to blink her eyes (onion). Niki was hoping there were cinnamon rolls in one bag (cinnamon sticks) and wasn’t sure if a bag had cuties or oranges, since they smell the same (cutie). Anja was sure a bag had a fresh lemon in it, so she drew a lemon with the stem still on it (basil). When we debriefed at the end, we discussed on what were the easiest smells to identify: orange, onion, coffee, and starburst. Sokrates thought that those were the easiest because we knew those smells really well, which everyone agreed made a lot of sense. Our noses are truly pretty awesome organs!

Our art exploration was also pretty incredible, as it was our first day with our new lightboxes. Thank you to Teddy’s mom, Ms. Vash, for the containers and Ms. Noel for the Christmas lights. We remembered the stained glass we read about in the book and looked at some pictures of stained glass before we tried to make our own. Timo drew a person but made a sun for his head, since light was coming out. Sokrates went all out and drew a monster scaring him and Timo, but explained it was actually just his mom in a costume. Gia drew the dungeon from the story, while Niki drew a giant brownie that she wanted to eat. Bisola drew a calendar with hearts all around it, which was pretty impressive. I’m impressed with the way we used light and color to explore the lightboxes, and I can’t wait to use them even more next week.

We went back to an old favorite for our building exploration: build with 10 blocks and record it with a blueprint. Rebecca remembered the teamwork from the timed build and asked Gia to help her build; they then counted out how many of each block they would need to build it. Jerome explained he and Yianni built a rocket ship with a pointed top. Paolo built a model of a workout machine and showed how you could use it practice pull-ups. Teddy built something that balanced and showed how well balanced it was, as he could even spin it around without it falling over. We have done a great job pulling our previous experience into a building challenge, building ambitiously, and using blueprints to record our buildings. Next week we are moving onto new challenges, but these skills will continue being used, and I am so proud of our progress!

Thanks to all our students that were here early enough to read the Pledge for us this week!

 

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