Science Talk...

Last week the children had the opportunity to place lima beans and/or beans they found outside on the playground on a wet paper towel in a Ziploc bag.  We taped the bags to the window and have been watering/spraying/observing them everyday.

During choice time today, I sat with the children at the science center table and listened to them as they shared their observation and ideas.   Over the three day weekend the children discovered that the beans changed!   I asked each child..."Do you think your beans changed?"   Zach was so excited when he saw his beans!  Over and over again he kept saying,   "Mine growed, mine growed!"   Noah said, " Mine are magic beans that will grow a bean stalk."   Adam said, "Mine are yellow not white anymore."   Micah R ," Mine growed when I watered them!"   I continued to ask the children questions like "Do you remember what the beans looked like when we placed them in the bag?"   Then I repeated and asked again, "How have they changed?"   I  encouraged them to open our Science Log Journal and draw an observational drawing. 

One way to focus children's observations and thinking on growth and development is to help them compile a journal of drawings and notes they make over time.  We will continue to encourage the children to use our Science Log to record changes in the beans growth and development.  Eventually we will plant the sprouted beans in some potting soil, and continue to track the plants growth over time.

Friends!

Friends...Walk hand in hand, dance, make observations, discover ,sing, build, and smile together!

Science Talk...

Today in our morning circle  we placed the frozen toys on the rug and passed each cup around our circle.  We then encouraged the children to observe, think, question and explore each cup.

The dialogue:
Noah: "Well it did not turn brown it's just stuck." 
Elias: "It pops out of the cup and it's the same shape of the cup." 
Josh:"It drips!" 
Elias: "Why is the water with the stick yellow?"
Teacher: "The stick is painted, the paint washed off in the water. Why don't the toys move around in the cup of water?" 
Adam: "Because they are frozen and now they are stuck."
Teacher: "What will happen if we leave the frozen cups in the sensory table?" 
"They will melt!" 
Teacher: "How long will it take to melt?"  
"One day, !00 minutes. 1000 days, 4 minutes..."
We left the cups in the sensory table for the children to observe, it actually took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to melt.

How children approach this exploration and what they learn, is influenced by a range of factors including different experiences, needs, skills and ideas that young children bring.  We are looking forward to our next science discussion!

Science Talks...

 

Three-to five-year-olds have been exploring water all their lives, whether in the bath, at the sink, in the rain, or on the beach.  Ideally they have had regular opportunities to explore at the water table in the classroom too.  This open exploration of water builds on children's prior experiences by giving them plenty of time to explore water with materials selected to highlight water's movement and its ability to take the shape of its container.  In addition, open exploration introduces children to science talks with the whole class, which continue throughout open and focused explorations.  Science talks give children opportunities to reflect on their observations, experiences, questions, and theories, and they create a group sense of shared purpose and excitement.

During our morning circle we invited the children to fill up little cups of water , select an object in the classroom, and place it in the cup of water.   Then we asked them the following questions:
-What happens to water when you put it in the freezer?  Micah -"It freezes."
-Does water move when it's frozen?  Noah-"No it becomes hard."
-Will the water or toys change color?  Noah-"Yes it will turn brown because when my Mom put bananas in the freezer they turned brown." 
-How how does water freeze?  Adam- "Like this!"  Adam put his arms out to the side of his body and became still...Frozen!

Following our science talk a few children walked down to the Community Room kitchen and placed the small cups of water in the freezer.
Stay tuned for an update on our observations and explorations tomorrow morning!

Which animal makes a good classroom pet?

Yesterday, the Kohavim children discovered a spider creeping around. We captured the spider in a glass habitat and observed the spider carefully. We began to discuss the idea of keeping the spider as a classroom pet. After some research, the children found out we were not prepared to take care of the spider and decided to release it. Today, the children continued their discussion of which animal might make a good classroom pet. Below is their conversation:

Eliza: A bunny because it eats carrots.
Molly: How about a bird?
Hannah: No because it makes noise. It will interrupt when we are having morning meeting.
Zack: Maybe you should get a parrot or a snake.
Hannah: A cat
Molly: But are you allergic to cats?
Hannah: Yea
Jesse; If you are allergic would that be a good pet?
Molly: Then you can’t come to school.
Hannah: I used to not be allergic to cats but my first time I met a cat I was allergic to them.
Jesse: What about an elephant?
Jacob: No! Because it would make noise at morning meeting. Maybe a giraffe.
Molly: No that would get too big and break the ceiling.
Hannah: What about if we get a baby giraffe?
Molly: No because it will get big.
Hannah: But when it grows up we can get rid of it.
Molly: But then we wont be able to get it out the door.
Jacob: Maybe it can go upstairs in the Haifa class.
Hannah: What about a chicken?
Molly; A chicken would be running around.
Jesse: What about a horse?
Jacob: No because it makes noise.
Hannah: What about a worm?
Molly: But it will get dried out in the hot sun and stuff.
Hannah: But we could get dirt and leaves.
Lily: A bunny is good because we have carrots
Hannah: It doesn’t make noise.
Lily: And it’s really soft and we can get a cage for it.
Zack: I want to get a parrot cause I just want to.
Dylan: It (parrot) repeats your words.
Zack: And if you get into a fight, maybe the parrot will say the same thing and you might win.
Dylan: But the parrot would fly over all the places.
Ryan: Or we could put it in a cage.
Ryan: A puppy. A pug.
Dylan: We can name him Tucker.
Dylan: How about a kangaroo?
Zack: I think it would be too hoppy.
Dylan: How about a crocodile? We can make him calm.
Zack: Once I touched a baby crocodile.
Dylan: How about a cat?
Zack: Molly and Jesse are allergic to cats.
Ryan: Oh I know!
Noah: A dog.
Jesse: How about a penguin?
Zack: I don’t know what it eats. Maybe fish.
Eli: Because he likes to be cold.
Dylan: How about we get a cheetah?
Zack: It would be so fast. If we would play tag we would never be able to get him!
Zack: I love parrots cause then it would go on my shoulder.
Dylan: But we don’t have a cage. We could buy one.
Zack: One of my friends has a parakeet, maybe a parakeet.
Dylan: How about a pet fish? Because it doesn’t do anything. We could feed him stuff.
Ryan: We don’t have fish food.
Max Greenstein: We can prepare a house for it, so it feels like its at home.
Ryan: If we got a penguin we would have to be cold.
Max Greenstein: How about a dog? Dogs are easy.
Jesse: Well I am wondering about when the dog has to go to the bathroom.
Zack: I have a dog. They go to the bathroom on the grass.
Jesse: What if it is morning meeting and the dog has to go to the bathroom?
Ryan: Maybe there would be people on the playground.
Max Greenstein: I’m gonna draw a hamster.
Dylan: Yeah, because the hamster likes the rolly thing.
Max Greenstein: But we don’t have food for the hamster.
Dylan: We could buy it.
Jesse: What about a turtle?
Ryan: I want to have a turtle as a pet here.
Zack: He would be so slow.
Ryan: Because I like them and they would be a good pet.
Eli: I made a worm and a penguin.
Sabrina: I made a mouse.
Ryan: But he might be a little too quiet. His whiskers might be a little too ticklish.
Zack: If you play hide and seek, he would be so quite we can’t even find him.
Dylan: He might be too small.

The Kohavim children had many ideas about which animal might make a good classroom pet. They also thought a lot about how you take care of the different animals and the qualities that make an animal a good pet. They even designed an experiment to discover if a penguin might actually be a good pet. For more information, see our blog post about our "Penguin Experiment." And stay tuned for updates on if we find out which animal might be a good pet for our classroom!

The work of true affiliation

What is the best way to handle a situation when the same child is picked last for a team? How can caring adults make things fair when children choose to be on a particular child's team, and no children choose to be on another child's team? This happened in our classroom today, and we worked very hard to help the children see what was going on and figure out a way to make sure the same situation didn't happen again. In today's game, one of the children was upset because most of the other children chose to be on a different team. We played the game anyway but this child's team ended up losing----not because of lack of numbers. After the game ended, the child lay down on the floor, covered his face, and was very still. Most of the other children rejoiced in their victory. Two other children entered the room and asked what was wrong with the child on the floor. They showed genuine concern and caring. I called all the children together to talk about the situation. Why was this child so upset? How could everyone help? One by one each child approached the upset child and asked what he or she could do to make him feel better. They said that it made them sad to see him so upset. They said that they hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. Together they brainstormed a number of different ways to form teams the next time they played. Slowly the child on the floor looked up. He then joined in the discussion with his own ideas. Within a few minutes he was playing happily with his classmates in the sandbox. An important lesson was hopefully learned. We are committed to continuing this kind of work in our class.

Discussing Chanukah with Rabbi Todd

Today was a special day for all of us as Rabbi Todd or "Dadeeee!!" as he is better known in our class, joined us for a discussion of Chanukah. Rabbi Todd began by asking the children what they knew about Chanukah. The children knew that the Jewish Temple or "house" had been "knocked down", and the Jews "redid the Temple." Several children knew that the Temple was in Jerusalem, and that the leader of the Jewish army was Judah Maccabee. Rabbi Todd showed the children old pieces of pottery from Modin. Looking and feeling the fragments, Sam said "they're brown from the wall falling down, and they're all dusty." Rabbi Todd led us in saying the blessings and lit the beautiful oil menorah that Maria just bought. It was very interesting to see eight containers of oil where candles are usually placed. Rabbi Todd confirmed that an oil menorah would burn longer than one with candles. He also said that the menorah in the ancient Temple was made of stone. We talked about the miracle of the tiny drop of oil lasting 8 days. The children wondered why the shamesh in our new menorah was a candle and not a vial of oil like the other ones. Rabbi Todd explained that it would be very hard to use the shamesh to light the other candles if it too was a vial of oil. "Where should the menorah go?" asked Rabbi Todd. The children all said in unison that it should go in our window. It looked absolutely beautiful there. Thank you Rabbi Todd for such
a special visit.