Today was an absolute blast for the class! We started the day with a trip to the library, which is always exciting. I’m very excited, as I’m seeing people diversify their selections and really hunt for that perfect book, not just grabbing the first one they see; recognizing how a cover represents the book and previewing a book before committing to it are foundational skills for emerging readers. At the library we also used our time exploring the bristle blocks and magne-tiles to see what structures we could build!
Our science investigation was fascinating but challenging for us. Last week, we dyed our rice to learn how the intensity and color changed with the amount of dye and shaking we used. (some people wanted to make this at home, so here is the recipe I used: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/dye-rice-sensory-play-colored-rice/). Today, we experimented with combining different colors of rice. Anja and Rebecca observed that, when different colors were mixed, the rice didn’t change color; some of us even recorded our observations in our journals or on a paper. Sokrates theorized that this was because the rice was dry, so the colors couldn’t mix. Tove and Rebecca heard that and thought that maybe adding water would change it, so we added some water back to the rice, mixed it up, and put it on the window ledge; we’ll report on that tomorrow. We compared the way the colored rice and the colored play-doh combined. Gia and Teddy suggested we use different words for the way they interacted, maybe the rice mixed, but the play-doh blended?
In our volume investigation, we are expanding our mathematical ability by predicting how many scoops it would take to fill three of the same cup. Our initial guesses were all over the place, but after we found out that it took 3 scoops to fill one cup, some of us were very thoughtful. Once we found out it took 6 scoops to fill two cups, Paolo and Timo helped us realize that it was going up by three every time. Some of us even predicted that it would take 9 scoops to fill all three cups, and they were RIGHT!! Bisola was even able to predict that, if we had a fourth cup, it would take 12 scoops to fill them! These concepts (repeated addition and counting up by the same number) are the building blocks to get us to multiplication, and help us realize that skip counting and grouping are strategies that help us add quickly. We aren’t diving into formal multiplication any time soon, but it’s great to see their growing minds working on it!
A couple housekeeping announcements. First, birthday celebrations. We love celebrating our birthdays together. Speaking of, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEDDY!! This was a great celebration for our class. Teddy got to make his birthday crown, he decided if there were a few little things he wanted to give the class (max of ~$5), and picked out a book for the class to read together. Since his mom able to read to make it in during school hours, she read it to the class at 2:45. Now, to be clear, this is not an expectation, but it is about the upper ceiling on birthday celebrations, as any more would start to detract from our learning. If you have any questions about celebrations or larger gifts for the class, please reach out to me. The other housekeeping is pretty incredible; Ms. Dionysia’s class is doing a service project raising money for Hurrican Irma survivors. They are selling raffle tickets ($0.25 for one, or $1 for five tickets), giving away prizes like books and games. They are also raising money by selling “Out of Uniform Tickets” so the students can wear black and green instead of their uniform, valid for this Friday, for $2. They should be sending home information tomorrow, but I wanted you to know it was coming.
