Cousins Book Club: Charlotte's Web

 

We had our first cousins book club on Friday night. I already can't wait until the next one. We had such a great time. We started with a discussion of the book. It was really fun to hear the comments made by the five cousins: Collin, Hannah, Luke, Josie, and Mae.

They shared their favorite parts from the book, and discussed what it means to be a good friend. Next, Miriam had prepared a garbage can full of pages torn from recycled magazines. The kids rummaged through the trash to find words that describe a friend. We glued them to our own version of Charlotte's web. 

Clean up was a breeze because Miriam had also made a sticky tape web using a hula hoop. Kids picked up the trash on the floor and threw it in the web. The kids took a break and played outside while Josie helped prepare the "pig slop" surprise.

She stirred up some ice-cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries, bananas, and Oreo cookies. And Miriam slopped into each kids' bowl with a ladle. The kids ate the slop like pigs...no spoons allowed. They slurped up the slop then ran to the bathroom to see how messy their faces looked. Lots of laughter there. 

We ended the night watching the movie Charlotte's Web. At the part where Charlotte spins her first web, Luke went over to the shelf and picked up the jar I had brought with a real spider in it. He held it tenderly and with respect, almost reverence and awe. My favorite quote from the book comes from the part when Fern's  mother is talking to the town shrink. Dr. Dorian says, referring to the words in the web:  

“I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.” 

Nature is a miracle we don't often take the time to appreciate. But it's why I love science. I am in awe of nature. I hope my kids learn to appreciate the ordinary miracles that happen all around them.

 

Happy Easter

What Makes a Ball Bounce?

I got to be the teacher this week at the preschool while Sherrie was out of town for spring break. I had such a great time. I fell in love with all the the new kids I met in just two days. I've told many people how wonderful our neighborhood preschool is and they have been curious to see it. I thought I'd post some pictures so anyone interested could see the school and the kinds of things we do at the school. I teach here once a week, but I usually just have the younger group. I subbed this week for the older group. Whenever I teach, the highlight for me is always the spontaneous science that happens. I love doing science with kids.

Today a boy brought a bouncy ball to talk about at circle time. (Children often bring "science" to talk about at school.) When I asked him why the ball was science he said, "Because it does this." And he bounced the ball. I said, "Oh, you think this is science because it bounces." I reminded the students that when we think like scientists we ask questions and try to find the answers. I said, "I wonder if there is a question we could ask about this ball." The kids didn't ask a question but they started spouting out hypotheses. "It bounces because it's made of rubber!" And, "It bounces because it's hard!" To which another student responded "But rocks are hard." And he clarified, "It bounces because it has air."

I explained that they had a good hypothesis: "Some balls bounce because they are rubber, and some balls bounce because they are filled with air. I think the question you want to test is: What makes a ball bounce? Should we add that to our question board? We'll keep thinking of what makes a ball bounce and see if we can find ways to test our hypothesis."

Serendipitously, when we later got out some balls for play at outdoor time some balls were full of air and some balls were flat. I commented that this reminded me of their ideas about bouncy balls. The children began to test the balls to find which balls were the bounciest and which balls were not. After some time for testing, the kids helped me sequence the balls from bounciest to least bouncy. Then they stood in a line and all dropped the balls at the same time. I took a picture of this for our class science journal. At closing circle I announced that their hypothesis was correct! Balls full of air bounce and balls without air don't bounce. But why? How does air make a ball bounce? Hmmm....we will keep thinking. And we sang our science song: Observe, Question, Hypothesize, Investigate, then Share!

The photos I took today reflect our two current study topics: 1) spring planting in the school garden, and 2) outer space (since the asteroid hit Russia and a comet is approaching next week). You will see those current interests infused in the learning activities we provided for the children these past two days. I am so glad to be a part of this great school. I have learned so much from my mentor and friend Sherrie. Enjoy the photos!

3-piece alphabet puzzles and flower graphing.

 

Bubble-making in the sensory table.

 

 

Making "My Garden" books.

  Birthday party dramatic play (with Dr. Seuss books).

 Reading to a sneetch. The kids really love The Lorax book since they've seen the movie.

Building magnet robots.
 

 
Building rocket ships.

Owen's Birthday

Owen got into all things space recently. Then when the asteroid hit Russia, he was even more hooked. He has asked a million questions about space, and other things too. We've been writing them down on a "Question Board". Once I started writing down his questions, it awakened something inside of him. He started asking even more questions and wanting to find the answers. He is such a curious, smart little boy.

He asks questions like: How does fire make rockets stay up in space? Are there volcanoes on Mars? If the earth is round, why is the ground flat? If the moon is a rock, how does it shine? Does space ever end? How did an asteroid come out of space and hit our planet? Is it always night in space (referring to the black sky)? Why is space black and the sky in our world blue?

Last week Owen told me he wants to be a scientist just like me when he grows up. Collin and Luke have never said this to me, so now Owen is my favorite child. :) On the way home from church today, Owen found a piece of the black top chipped off the parking lot. He picked it up and asked if he could take it home and study it. Of course I said he could and asked him what he planned to do with it. He said he wanted to look at it with a magnifying glass and figure out what it was made of. I can't believe how much I love this kid.

Owen turned four on Friday. We had a space party with rocket ship races, robot building with magnets, moon sand in the sensory table, and astronaut/alien dress-ups for dramatic play. Merritt stayed up very late (on his 34th birthday!) making a rocket ship out of recycled vacuum boxes. What a man I have. Owen invited four friends (since he was turning four), including two cousins and two neighbor friends. They all loved the play rocket ship the best. We still need to properly celebrate Merritt's birthday.

Anyways, I was really excited to give Owen my present this year. One of Owen's favorite books is Zinnia's Flower Garden by Monica Wellington. Owen, unlike his brothers, is not that into playing in the snow. He has been dreaming of spring for some time now. When he read this book, it inspired him to plant his own flower garden in the spring, and sell flowers just like Zinnia.

Owen has already started to prepare by drawing a map of the flower garden he wants. On Valentine's Day his dad and I took him to our local flower shop so he could help his dad pick out some flowers for me. He loved seeing this place and afterword we set up a flower shop dramatic play. So for his birthday I gave him all sorts of flower seeds, along with soil and planters. We both can't wait to start growing a flower garden. Oh, and I also included a garden journal and some lemonade mix in the gift. Zinnia keeps a garden journal in the book, and sells lemonade along with her flowers. I don't know anything about growing flowers, but here we go!

Other news...Tessa is crawling now and cutting her first tooth and talking. She waves her hand and says, "Hi Dada!" It melts your heart. The carpet for our basement will be installed this Tuesday. Yeah! And I finally got a good photo of the elusive woodpecker that I keep seeing in my backyard. It's a northern flicker, and the other day I saw not one but two of them! I was really excited. I think this bird is so beautiful. I love birds.