The Week in Review

November 4 – 8, 2013

The children have been exploring how the marble travels from varying heights. We provided the children large wooden blocks, pvc pipes sawed in half, and marble. They have been working really hard to create a stair like structure out of the large wooden blocks. We have progressed from building a few stairs to several stairs. The children then placed the pvc pipes on top of the wooden blocks. They immediately tested their marble on the stair like structure. They noticed in order for their marble to successfully travel down the stairs the pvc pipes had to be aligned, they had push the marble for it to travel down or they had to place a small wooden block underneath the pvc on the top stair.

 Ms. Tyler and the children explored the question: how does water change a substance? Ms. Tyler provoked the children with water, oil, plastic water bottles, and water coloring. Ms. Tyler assisted the children when pouring the oil, water and food coloring into the plastic bottles. The children observed how the oil floated to the top of the bottle, while the water and the food coloring settled on the bottom. The children explored the mixture by shaking the bottle very vigorously. They noticed the shaking produced a lot of tiny bubbles within the bottle.

The children have been investigating how to start and stop the flow of water. We provided the children with a water table, plastic pegboard, clear plastic tubing attached to valves, funnels and plastic cups. We dyed the water with food coloring, so the children could see the location of the water in the plastic tubing. The children have become more comfortable using the valves to start and stop the flow of water. The children were very focused on the idea of trapping the water between the valves. In order for the children to be successful at trapping the water they have to work on communicating their thoughts and ideas with their classmates.