Today was an awesome day. We definitely had a great time with the standard stuff, like working downstairs and counting our change, but we had so many new experiences I want to highlight those instead.
First, continuing our air mini-exploration, we today experimented with straws and puffs. I set everything out and made a game board, but then I stepped back and let them find things out on their own. Bisola realized that the puffs were light enough that she could actually inhale and stick them to the straw too, which was fun. Paolo decided that, instead of just trying to blow the puffs into a specific spot, it was better to compete against someone in an air shoving match. Jerome thought that the straw would be better than the coffee stirrers at blowing things, since more air would come through them. Sokrates was struggling to blow one of the heavier balls across the table and asked some people to help him, since more people would mean more air. Rebecca realized that the larger cardboard weren’t just a thing she could blow through, but was also something that would roll when blowed; Teddy liked playing with the larger tubes, but thought it was tougher because they kept rolling more than the puffs. Yianni was one of the first to realize that the little coffee stirrers could be launched out of the larger straws, which quickly became the most popular activity in the class. Timo took that activity and realized it was so accurate that he needed to make a harder target than I had for the class, which ended up being a tube he put up on one of the shelves.
Second, we experimented with a new way to paint: aluminum foil! Gia was one of the first to realize that the paint would get stuck up in the crinkles of the crumpled foil and then come out later. Niki loved the way it would scratch and would make dots and spots, but Tove felt it was harder to blend the colors. That worked for Anja, since she is coming to realize she sometimes comes to regret losing a particular shade when they all get blended together. This wasn’t radically different than anything they’ve done before, but it was different enough to get them thinking. (And they’re going to be seeing the foil again tomorrow, so that should be fun)
The other big news of the day was more experimentation in open gym with the ramps and pathways. There aren’t any big quotes, but the class dug the challenge of the day, which was going for height instead of length. The marbles were certainly going fast today!
