3,2,1 Blast off

Nile and Riko moved immediately to the literacy table together this morning to use the whiteboards and colored markers to write letters and words. Toku headed straight for the dress up corner and took the electric guitars from the hanger and started posing as a ‘rock star’. On the small table in the art area we looked at a book all about the planets and saw the size of the Sun, Mercury and Venus. The next planet is the Earth and so we needed to make the planet Earth using art clay again. We used the same technique of rolling the art clay in a circular motion in our hands until it was round and smooth. The planet Earth was a little bigger than Venus in the book and so we used a little more art clay for this. Once we had rolled it we used a toothpick to make a small hole for the string to attach. When it is dry we will paint it blue and green like the Earth and attach it to our individual mobiles in the classroom. Next to the paper clay we helped Darren attach our planets Mercury and Venus to the mobiles. The mobiles didn’t balance easily and so we found some clear recycled pens and took the centers and tops out to leave a clear tube. We then threaded the hanging line through the tube and then with the teachers help we glued the pen part to the top of our mobile to make it balance when we hang it up. Both Mercury and Venus were then attached to the cross frame using the hot glue gun and we made sure that Mercury was very close to the sun and Venus a little further away. On the main table there was a lot of colored paper, some glue, some wiggly eyes and some markers. We made our very own alien picture using these materials. It was a little hard to cut and make the body parts but a lot of fun. We will add some more to these pictures tomorrow morning too. On the carpet Jennifer and her friends used the wooden track blocks to make a tower. It got to about waist height before falling over. Doctor Olivia was in the hospital again today trying to get as many volunteers for treatment and soon she was joined by Lucinda and Alexis. After clearing away the toys and eating snack we had fun in the library where Ayaka read a book all about space to us. We then moved to the carpet area where we checked the calendar and decided correctly that today is Wednesday and that there are most months 31 days. This is how long it takes for the moon to circle the earth one time. Next we did a little experiment to see whether heavier objects fall faster than light objects. Before we started we guessed which object, the big yellow globe or the smaller blue globe would win. To our surprise they both hit the ground at the same time. Next we tried a wooden block and the smaller blue globe and the results were the same. Lastly we tried a feather and a block and saw that the block hit the ground first. The teachers then asked “Why did the feather drop so slowly”? Alexis said it was because of the wind. We knew the wind was made of air and we found out that the air is a bit thick and sticky and so the feather moved slowly through it. Darren then told us they tried this on the moon and because there is no air in space the block and the feather hit at the same time. We then had some fun looking at rockets like the space shuttle and saw that when the shuttle is on the ground it is like an airplane. The pilots would usually sit like we do on an airplane but when the shuttle is turned vertical the pilots must be facing upwards. We then tried this by sitting in chairs and the teachers then lowered the chairs backwards. With our friends help we counted down from ten and blasted off into space. When we reached space the teachers helped us move the chairs horizontally again. This was lots of fun and made us all laugh. We knew the earth looks blue and green and Ethan told us that the blue part is the sea and with our friends help we thought of green things like trees, grass, fields, vegetables and flowers. We saw in a book that Earth may be the only planet with living things and we then went to the table to plant some flower bulbs from last year. We hope they will grow again in the spring so that we can plant them in our garden at the park. Have a great afternoon.