A Volcanic Explosion

Dear Parents,

We began our week by letting our dinosaurs explore our volcano. They crawled all over it and peered into the crater. We had to ask them to crawl a little bit more gently, as one piece of the volcano fell off.  That’s asking a lot of dinosaurs. Our more ferocious dinosaurs were reminded not to touch friends‘ bodies roughly, so that no one would get hurt. We reminded them that people and dinosaurs did not mix.

On Tuesday we exploded our volcano. Someone asked if there was going to be fire? We asked the class if they thought it would be a good idea to have a blast of fire in the classroom. They knew it was not. We talked about why we have fire drills once a month. The class knew there would be no real lava in the classroom. 

We added our potion to the crater and watched while the lava poured out and down the volcano and onto the floor (into a bucket). We watched a video of the real volcano Pacaya in Guatemala. Everyone got to touch a volcanic rock from that volcano. At least two children said they had a piece of volcanic rock at home too.

Music with Alex was filled with drum patterns, and upon returning, the children all said they had new names. While some made music with Alex, the rest of us read more about magnets and played with magnet sticks. The children were drawn to the magnets.

On Thursday we played with magnets at the table again. Many noticed the opposing side of the magnets. Some said, “It’s like magic!” We read about the Earth having iron in it which acts like a magnet. The class noticed the N and S on two of our magnets, we read in our book that is for the North and South Pole.

We exploded our volcano again. Never a shortage of excitement! A chant continued from our last explosion: “Vol-can-o! Vol-can-o! Vol-can-o!” Many children hopped about the room during the chant, a couple sat and watched.

We read What Is the World Made Of? All about Solids, Liquids, and Gases, Blizzards!, and Clouds. We watched a pot of water boil and saw the vapor coming off of the hot water. We read about water having the ability to be a liquid, a gas, or a solid. The class knew to make it a solid you would put it in the freezer.

On Friday we excavated our dinosaurs from their ricey entrapment—they were hiding in our rice table in the big room. We talked about how paleontologists use special tools, including brushes to carefully take fossils from the earth. We used paint brushes. It was a hit, with everyone wanting more and longer turns.

We talked about how Spring Break starts tomorrow and that many of us are leaving town on airplanes. We read How Do Airplanes Fly? and shared where we are going for Spring Break. We read Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge and asked what is memory? Someone answered, “something that makes you smile, then you find it, then you lose it, then you find it, then you lose it…” 

We hope you make good memories on your Spring Break and that you don’t lose them!

Therese and Alli

Volcano Starts with a V

Dear Parents,

On Monday we started building our volcano. We read Earth, Moon, and Volcanoes. We read that sometimes there are earthquakes near volcanoes. We saw a picture in our book of a solar eclipse. We built our volcano using newspaper and tape. The class said it should be the shape of a mountain, or a triangle. So, we shaped a mountain out of paper, and the next day we added red Mexican clay, from the Earth. We wet it and smoothed it over the paper. After quiet time we saw the beginnings of a real solar eclipse. 

Someone asked, “Why are we building a volcano?” We looked up at our planet Earth and asked what planet has volcanoes. The class shouted “Earth!” We will ask what other planets have volcanoes next week.

We reviewed our six simple machines during circle. Which one would be the fastest way to get away from a volcano? After many ideas, someone shouted, “A race car!” Yes, wheels and axles! We also connected our simple machine study to a real NASA lesson asking children what simple machines could be used in a real spaceship? The class had many ideas, most of which involved safety issues. 

On Thursday we used papier-mache to cover the rest of our volcano by soaking red and orange construction paper in watery glue that one child described as white paint. Our volcano could blow any second, but as one child said, “Our lava is cooking.” 

We read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The children asked why the tree was described as “happy but not really". Someone said, because the boy took all her apples and branches. Another said, because the boy was old. Another said, because she had no one else but the boy. Someone pointed out that on the last page, she didn’t have her branches or her apples but she was still happy. We compared the pictures and saw that she was unhappy when she was alone, and happy when the boy was with her. Later we played in the big room with Lightning Bolt, our robot, and our spaceship. 

On Friday, we had music with Alex. While half the class was enjoying music, we read Mickey’s Magnet. We discussed how Mickey was making guesses about what his magnet would and wouldn’t stick to by experimenting. We decided to do the same thing with our alphabet magnets. We tried a cardboard tube, a screw, a wire bread tie, a plastic toy, staples, and a hole punch among other things. We made guesses about what our magnets would stick to, and were surprised by several results! Our biggest surprise was finding two very strong magnets hidden inside our hole punch, which we extracted for future experiments. 

We went to play in our muddy yard and continued to observe flowers blooming, insects stretching and waking up, and seeds and seed pods falling to the ground.

Have a healthy weekend,

Therese and Alli