Pointing North: The Bear Cub Olympics and Making Compasses

The Olympics

are taking place right now just north of us, in Vancouver, B.C.

So we decided that we would have our own "Bear Cub Olympics." Our idea captivated our P.E. teacher and she decided to "do Olympics" with each class in the school. We may have been the last class to put on our event, but our obstacle course earned us gold medals!

First, climb up, then slide down,

run through the playhouse and scurry through the elevated tunnel,

get through the maze of the geodesic dome,

and crawl in or on the tube,

then cross the finish line!

We each were given a gold medal and had a handshake of congratulations!

We all cheered for one another and we all won a gold medal...

We learned about being good sportsmanship!

(And we remembered to thank Nancy for helping us and Judith for finding these fantastic medals!)

Believe it or not, we are all really happy!

Science: Exploring the world of magnets!

We are feeling very "attracted" to learning about magnets. We enjoy being able to experiment, build, and create art with magnets!

We all have explored an experiment to learn what objects the magnet attracts,

built with magneatos,

found a magnetic wand with magnet marbles rather enchanting,

cand created sculptures with magnetic shapes.

Then we made our own compasses!

First, we magnetize a needle by stroking it one direction on magnetic north.

We put corks on the end to help the needle float, then gently placed it in a bowl of water.

And we patiently watched as it turned and ''found" its way to North-South alignment.

We know this works because the earth is a big magnet!

We can't wait to show our families!

Have fun!

Judith