The Week in Review

October 21 - 25, 2013

We provided the children with blocks, wooden slats, and marbles. We stacked the large wooden blocks like stairs. Then posed the question, how can we get the marble to travel from the top stair all the way to the bottom stair? The children came up with various strategies such as angling the slats between blocks, adjusting the slats so they align and adjusting the large blocks. At the beginning of the week we took pictures of the children’s work to capture their ideas. These pictures helped the children build on their ideas throughout the week.

                     

 Ms. Doris provoked the children’s ideas about transformation with sugar, yeast, warm water, and cold water. Ms. Doris and the children observed what happen when cold water was added to the sugar yeast mixture, and what happened when warm water was added to the sugar yeast mixture. The children noticed how the warm water created lots of little bubbles when it came in contact with the yeast. As time passed, the children noticed how the bubbles were multiplying and creeping up towards the top of the container. CJ stated, “Its rising.”

        

              

The children have been working on manipulating the flow of water. We provoked the children’s thinking with funnels, clear plastic tubing, a water table and a plastic peg board. The children experimented with the clear plastic tubing by weaving it in and out of the holes of the plastic pegboard. The children noticed how the tubing that was intricately woven in the pegboard, required a large amount of water in order for all the water to travel through the tubing.  The water easily flowed through the tubing that was looser. The children also manipulated the tubing to make the water flow more easily.