Month: April 2019

Today, to help us understand why Egyptian tombs were so full of things, we created our own tombs and filled them with the things we loved. Yianni tried to explain why he wanted hilopites in his tomb, and they sound delicious! Tove wanted to make sure both Luigi and Mario were included in her tomb, while Timo decided to include his family, which definitely has a precedent in history. Niki lined her tomb with sweet fruits, and Sokrates included a chessboard, obviously. Anja and Gia, however, decided to go all out and build their own pyramids, both of which turned out pretty awesome.

We also continued checking on our undead apples, which are getting a little creepy. Rebecca noticed that the apple was getting softer, which Paolo thought was interesting, since it had made the salt get harder. Teddy also pointed out that the apple turned orange and brown, which was not something he expected. After their investigations, Max made sure to cover his apple all the way up with fresh salt. Can’t wait to see what happens next week!

Enjoy the long break everyone and see you all on Tuesday!

Today we started with a little bit of an ancient Egypt project. We read how Egyptians used salt to dry out their mummies, so we decided to try it out. We cut up apples and covered them in salt to see what would happen. Teddy predicted that the apples will dry out, while Sokrates joked that they would turn into a mummy, possibly with the bandages and everything. Paolo thought they would get darker and gooey, maybe even moldy. We even recorded the predictions in our journals, along with how long it would take them to change. Yianni thought they would change in 2 days, while Tove predicted it would take 28 days. Gia was even impressed that her handwriting improved while writing her predictions! Considering the length of some of these predictions, we were shocked to come back in the afternoon and see that there were already changes! Rebecca pointed out that the salt had gotten hard, which got everyone wondering why. Anja thought the salt might have gotten sticky from the apple, like her hand did after touching it. Timo countered that maybe the salt was drying out, since things get harder when they dry out. Hmmm, maybe we’ll be able to figure out another experiment to sort this out!

Our other big exploration today was finishing up our amulets. Since these were supposed to symbols of power, I decided to bust out the oil paint Tove donated to the class, which everyone found interesting to work with. Niki pointed out that the orange was a darker, more red color than she was used to, while Juniper was curious why the paint came in a bunch of little tubes, instead of the big jugs we were used to. Max was even thrilled with how well the paint covered, since it let his snowman be really white instead of kind of sloppy. What a treat!

Don’t forget, we have early dismissal tomorrow at 1:30. We will still probably be going to the bank, so make sure to send in those deposits.

I didn’t get a chance to write up yesterday, but I thought I would get a chance today. Then the class had another great discussion, so you get a double blog today! Enjoy!

 

We’ve been to the library so many times that I sometimes forget the learning that takes place there. As I was walking around, I saw Tove glancing at the end caps to see where Girl Scout books, which she saw would be in 423. Rebecca used another endcap to look for pegasus books, which was a pretty fun section to explore. Niki was surprised to see Ancient Egypt stuff in her book, but those connections are always a delight to find.

As we were leaving the library, Teddy pointed out that one of the posters in the entryway had been graffitied; a girl had a beard drawn on her face. Sokrates wasn’t sure why they had drawn it, but Teddy though the culprit was trying to be funny. Anja explained that they cared more about being funny than how it would make people feel, like the people that made the poster. Juniper pointed out that, it would be okay if the girl in the picture had a hairy face, but they were just trying to be mean. Timo  assured me they would never do anything like that, but I explained that as a kid I tried to be good but still pulled down streamers in our hallway. Yianni explained that, even if I had made a bad choice, I learned from it and am doing better now. When we got back, Gia noticed that someone had drawn on one of the spring decorations, which prompted us to consider what it means for something to be graffiti. Max started a discussion about drawing and painting on buildings, which got pretty deep when people asked about how the artist should respond if police don’t know the graffiti is art, not someone being mean. What a complex situation. We were also lucky enough to have Paolo back with us, and get the shells (or rocks, for Godzilla) he brought back . What a fun Monday!

On Tuesday, we started our new book, the next book in the Magic Treehouse Series. We made predictions about how it would be the same and how it would be different. Niki thought Jack and Annie would still be in it, while Gia predicted that it would be in a different place. Yianni said it was probably gonna be pirates instead of mummies, while Sokrates wondered if they would get another letter of the person’s name. Great predictions everyone!

As we were working, we worked on some other English grammar and spelling discussions. Timo wondered how to spell ‘picture’, which Max guessed might have the ‘sh’ in it. After I explained how it is spelled differently from how it sounds, Teddy wondered why there was an ‘e’ at the end. I said that we have an ‘e’ at the end of some words, which helped Rebeca read ‘car’ and ‘care’ correctly, but ‘picture’ doesn’t really follow that rule either. As we were reviewing our vocabulary and recognizing that ‘pirate’ and ‘parrot’ would be a little hard to keep straight, Tove pointed out that ‘pirate’ sounds like ‘pie’, and starts the same. We even went over punctuation marks, with Paolo guessing that Annie uses a lot of exclamation marks when she talks, which Juniper agreed with, since she is usually pretty excited. We also dove into some place value explorations and started making amulets for our mummies, which are looking pretty great. Two great days in a row everyone!

We’re nearing the end of our mummy unit, but that doesn’t mean the fun is wrapping up (LOL). Timo asked what mummies were really like, so we discussed different ways that people care for their dead, which was a surprisingly beautiful discussion. Niki remembered a picture of a fantasy cemetery in one of our books, which was very moving. We talked about how we remembered people and why that was important. We also discussed what mummies look like, with Max saying they didn’t look scary to him. Tove asked if we could make mummies, which I thought sounded like fun. Sokrates remembered making mummies out of toilet paper and asked if we could try that. I agreed, but pointed out that we need to do more than just wrap ourselves in toilet paper if we want to do this right. Get ready for a brief mini-exploration of Ancient Egypt!

Ms. Anna W’s class came by and taught us another new game, coincidentally called Pyramid! Yianni was teaching me how to play and explained that they needed to find a 1 or a 2 to pair with the 8 and 9 they had out. Rebecca pointed out that it gets harder as you play, while Niki was making sure to look at each card really carefully. Teddy was annoyed that his 7 wouldn’t make a 10 with any of the numbers out on the table, while Anja looked at the rest of her pyramid and saw that they wouldn’t have any more 2’s to pair with the 8. What a fascinating game. We also went with Ms. Anna’s class to visit the castles Ms. Bridget’s class made. It was quite an experience, with Gia curious to see how they made the castle and Juniper being fascinated with the decorations they chose. Plato Academy is a beautiful school to attend and teach at!

Our day started with a pretty cool conversation about money, which got way more naunced and advanced than I expected. Tove was counting her deposit and realized that she had 201 cents. Anja said that was a lot of money, which got us all talking. I asked the class if they would rather have 200 cents or $2, and I let them talk. Timo pointed out that was the same, but I pushed back, saying that 200 of something is way bigger than 2 of something. Niki disagreed, saying that we’re talking about money, not just a thing. So, we discussed how we care about the VALUE of the money, not the AMOUNT, which was a tricky distinction to make. Teddy helped out when he pointed out that if we add one to each (201 cents and $2). they wouldn’t be the same anymore. What a cool discussion.

Our discussion of a new book “The King of Nothing” by Nieto Guridi was pretty fascinating. It was an interesting book (the storyline is … different), but the art style is absolutely entrancing. Sokrates explained that the artist only drew the outlines, which is why Gia said she could see through the horses. This made Max wonder if the entire kingdom was imaginary, which was a surprisingly deep concept for the class to think through. Yianni realized the class could color it however they want, and Rebecca loved how at the end of the story everything was covered in flowers and color. Our Kingdoms of Everything should be up in the hall in a couple of days, so make sure to check them out. While I wouldn’t recommend buying this book, it was a fascinating read and a great discussion.

Today was pretty neat. We started exploring another fascinating part of water: surface tension, even though we haven’t really talked about what it means yet. We started this exploration with seeing how water beads on different surfaces, watching how the shapes change and how they come together. We attempted to see how many drops we could put on the surface of a coin, to some pretty comical results. Niki was counting and laughed as it went from 5 drops back down to 4 when some merged together. Timo was attempting to find out how close he could put them together, while Tove noticed that drying the coins off really well between attempts helped a lot. Teddy made some rather abstract designs with his and Juniper practiced using the pipette to control the drop’s size more accurately.

While our water explorations are a topic we continue to spiral around, we are doing more than just that. We wrote about things we enjoy learning, which prompted some rather intriguing discussions. Yianni wants to learn more about basketball, since he knows that will make him better at playing it, while Rebecca apparently wants to learn more about zombies? I guess I know what we’re going to be learning about next? We also continued practicing our plays, which was a little different today. Sokrates enjoyed practicing Timo’s play, since it was short and they managed to practice a bunch of times and the play went super smoothly. Max enjoyed getting ready for his play, which featured a mix of nice and scary monsters. Sadly, however, even though I announced that people should be practicing their plays, Gia suddenly realized that they had to go on stage and hadn’t practiced her play at all! Anja suggested that Gia give up her role of guinea pig and direct instead, which worked out okay but was still rough. I definitely think that, next time, they’ll make sure to rehearse and not just work on sets. Gotta love learning and growing through natural consequences!

Today had a lot of great learning (plays, painting, water predictions and analysis, discussion of how entrenched sexism affects the children’s book market), but I wanted to dive deep into one part of our day to give a full picture of the discussions we’re having. Today, we looked at this painting. We started with just seeing what people noticed. Yianni noticed someone hanging upside down, which he thought might have been a way to make people laugh. Tove wondered if people were fighting, while Juniper saw someone falling. Anja saw something that looked like a hula hoop, while Sokrates noticed the people making food (it was right before lunch time). That was when, however, I revealed that the title of the painting was “Children’s Games” and saw how that changed our understanding of the painting. Gia explained that she thought she saw a baby, but now she thought it might be a doll instead. Max figured out that people were doing handstands and playing something like hockey. Teddy saw people riding each other’s backs and Rebecca realized people were playing catch. We went from that to interpreting what we saw, like Tove wondering if it was a picture outside a school, since there were all the kids hanging out. Timo wondered if it was a long time ago, since there were all old games. Niki pointed out that the buildings were old too. Paolo clarified, saying it was older than now, but newer than Ancient Greece, so like 500 years ago or something (a really great guess, as it turns out). Love the depth of conversation everyone! Have a great weekend and see everyone next week!

There was a really touching note as we got started this morning as our classmates talked about how Rebecca is still out sick. Tove explained that Rebecca had surgery, just like she did. This got Gia wondering what tonsils are for and Timo was curious about how they’re removed. As I explained how the procedure is done (after some googling), I mentioned that they put you to sleep using an injection or with gas. This got some people thinking, as Paolo thought of the gas in the car and Teddy laughed about putting someone to sleep with the stinky gas our body makes. Juniper was concerned about how Rebecca was doing and was excited for her to come back. We explained what makes something a gas before coming back around to hoping Rebecca is doing better and will be back soon.

The other unexpectedly great part of our day was discussing a pair of poems we read today. We started with the classic ‘Casey at the Bat’, which was a bit of a shock for the class. The class was incredibly confused by Casey’s loss, but they tried to make sense of it in interesting ways. Sokrates pointed out that at least the other team was happy, and Yianni added that he needed to remember that it was more important to have fun than win. Max added that at least Casey and the other team at least weren’t bragging. This led to us discussing how Casey was acting and why the poet wrote the poem in the first place. Niki explained that the point of the poem was swinging and doing your best, which we could all agree was important. We also read “Joy In Mudville”, which was ground-breaking. Teddy was confused about why she wouldn’t be able to play, which was a great question. And we had a great discussion about how people should be able to pursue their own interests, with Anja adding how boys could play with her LOL dolls if they want to, which was really great. I’m so proud of my class. Have a great night everyone!