early learning center journal

Here, There and Everywhere!

This was a full week--- making up activities from a missed snow day last Thursday, studying our breathing and lung power, working on our auction project, celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday by wearing our pajamas and making scrambled eggs... Can you believe that we did even more than that?

Take a peek into our week!

As we learned about lungs, we became very curious about how a part of our body can inflate and deflate. And how does something we can't even see (air) do that? We decided to do an experiment to help us visualize it all...

We measured out white vinegar and poured it into a tall bottle...

We stretched out the neck of a balloon and put baking soda into it, then carefully placed the open end of the balloon over the rim. We formed hypotheses about what we thought would happen... "The vinegar will turn white." (lots of agreement on that one), "The baking soda will sink to the bottom." Then we lifted the balloon and let the baking soda fall into the vinegar. Wow... What a reaction in both the bottle and the children! Immediately they noticed the bubbling action... "Hey those are bubbles!" , "What's making them burst?" , "I think I know... it's air coming out of the bubbles." , "Yeah, and it's making the balloon blow up!" , "The balloon is getting more and more bigger!" "Our lungs fill up just like that with oxygen and get bigger!, "Look how big the balloon is now!" Every child had an observation and keen interest...

Afterward, we formed our conclusions, then took a big breath and talked again about how our lungs work: What things are similar between the balloon and our lungs (they inflate with invisible gas), and how are they different? (lungs don't need vinegar and baking soda to do their job! , they send the oxygen to all parts of our bodies.) We have also talked about keeping our lungs healthy for our whole lives long through making healthy choices for our bodies.

One member of our class went to the doctor this week and explained the respiratory system using the terminology we have been using: trachea, bronchi, lungs, finishing with "and the alveoli pass the oxygen to the blood, and the blood takes the oxygen to all the cells everywhere in your body!" The entire medical staff was astonished...
and so pleased!

We took turns working on divider pages for our Science Journals,and recalling the many areas we have explored this year!

The development of mathematical thinking is ongoing throughout the classroom. Inspired by the mazes we have been doing, a collaboration began among several children to develop a maze for the small wooden cars to go through...

Placement of each block was very precise...

The runs required lots of physical control to keep the blocks in place!
Sweet and stable success!

We are all learning about place value and that 10 is the "magic number."

The abacus makes it so much easier to keep track of tens and count to high numbers!

Translucent, colorful geometric shapes are enhanced at the light table. We love combining them to make new and different shapes, as well as creating designs, patterns and pictures.

We are learning to dial the telephone... What is your phone number?
Pressing the numeral buttons in order, and the seeming randomness of every phone number, makes the task even more challenging!

Mathematical thinking is encompassed in music: including rhythm, beat, tempo and tonal gradations.

Studies show that musical training increases a child's mathematical reasoning skills... What a fun way to "feel" the math!

We worked on our auction project, putting our beautiful handprints on the flattened lampshades of the three-tiered lamp. Thank you for your patient help, Nathan!

We moved from handprints to fingerpainting, mixing two primary colors to make a secondary.

We'll link this sensory discovery to math by making "Color Equations."

Red + Blue = Purple

Blue + Yellow = Green

Yellow + Red = Orange

We wore our pajamas to school for Dr. Seuss's birthday.

A friend began orally reading "Hop on Pop," and several classmates gathered around to listen and help with the rhyming!

We made scrambled eggs... We know that Step #1 is ALWAYS washing our hands...

(and we do love bubbles!)

We love to crack eggs, then beat them with an eggbeater or a wire whisk.

Each child used both the whisk and the eggbeater, trading places at the table. Several children observed that the eggs were "more bubbly" when they used the eggbeater.

When asked why they thought that was, the children discussed what might be happening. Several recalled the experiment earlier in the week. "It's the air making the bubbles..." someone exclaimed. Another child added, "The one [eggbeater] that you turn makes more air go into the eggs." A third child confidently chimed in, "And more air makes more bubbles!" Wow, we were impressed by this spiraling transfer of discovery and knowledge from one experiment to another!

Cooking really IS a science the Early Learning Center!