A Mystery of Our Own

Today we were able to work on one of our own mysteries, but it all started with our stick. Since we painted our stick with chalkboard paint and practiced drawing on it, today we drew Halloween decorations on it to get ready. Sokrates drew a Frankenstein’s monster (complete with gray bolts in the neck) and Timo drew stitches on the branch itself. Juniper drew a pumpkin patch, and Anja laughed as she made some pumpkin pies. Teddy added some Jack-O-Lanterns and Gia drew a spooky skull. How ssspppppooookkkkyyy!!!

That was when our mystery started. Sokrates came back and someone had drawn over his drawing, but no one admitted to it. What a mystery. The class set right to sorting it out. Yianni said it couldn’t have been him, because he had blue chalk dust on his hands, not white dust. Then, we started using the word ‘alibi’ and seeing what we could learn. Niki said it couldn’t have been her, since she had just arrived and had been with her mom and sister. Gia and Rebecca pointed out that they were playing together over by the cart, on the opposite side of the room. Anja and Juniper were working on cutting out other decorations, so they said they couldn’t have done it. Paolo showed the class the pumpkin he was drawing at the time, so it couldn’t have been him. We couldn’t find the culprit, but it was great working through it using what we’ve learned from our mysteries to investigate our own mystery.

I want to highlight three cool interactions from today. First, there was a 3rd discussion of momentum, thanks to a marble track. Tove and Teddy were playing with it when they noticed that, if there was a marble laying at the bottom of the ramp and another came down, something interesting would happen, which Teddy described as ‘kicking it’s butt’. Instead of both marbles launching or both staying in place, the old one would get launched and the new one would take it’s place. We talked for a long time about why that happened and the class did a great job explaining their thinking. The other was a great social moment. Tove and Max were both working on a puzzle when Tove realized that she knew where Max’s piece should go. She grabbed it, which upset Max a little bit. Tove saw he was upset, so she asked if she could put the piece in its place. He said no, since he wanted to do the puzzle piece himself. Tove thought and asked if they could put it in its place together? Max smiled and they both put it in the right spot together. Honestly, it was such a touching little exchange and compromise that I almost teared up. Finally, I hope you enjoy a snapshot from Juniper’s journal that she wrote all by herself. Have a great weekend everyone.

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