Cleaning dirty water

Dear Flower Class parents, This morning on the main table we saw some big pieces of white Styrofoam, some sparkly thread and beads. These were all the pieces Maki used to make some white clouds and raindrops last week for the ‘water cycle’ display. We wanted to make white clouds and raindrops too. First we used a marker to draw the shape of a cloud on the Styrofoam and then the teachers used a special hot wire cutter to cut the shape for us. Using some sparkly thread we then chose some blue and clear beads for the raindrops. We threaded the beads onto the thread carefully and tied each of them in place. We made several strings each and taped them to the bottom of the white Styrofoam cloud. Several of us finished our Christmas star gift today by wrapping them in sparkly yarn. We have put them all on the wall as decoration for the moment until it is time to give them to our family. On the second table in the free play area the bionomical Montessori cube puzzle was very popular. Ayaka showed us how to do the puzzle first and then we had a try too. Once you know how to do it, it becomes a lot easier luckily. We decided that because the weather has been wet these last few days that we would go to the park a little earlier and also take our snacks with us. We sat on the benches in the sunshine and enjoyed eating outside. We took along the water powered dragster again this morning and watched a sit sped across the park. Unfortunately the dragster developed a fault and we will need to try and fix it before using it again next week. After returning from the park we had a special ‘Show & Tell’ from Darren. Darren pulled out a cup of water and told us all about where it came from, how it was fresh water and then he drank some. We soon figured out that some of the water comes back out of our bodies when we breathe, cry or sweat. We had some good ideas too about why the water coming out of our bodies as sweat or tears is salty. We then became little scientists and made a pot of dirty water by adding tissues, leaves and soil. We stirred it all up and wondered how we could clean it like at the water treatment plant. We saw in a book that the first step catches all the big things like leaves, twigs and rags in a kind of filter. We had a kind of filter called a colander and poured the pot of water through it. It caught all the big pieces and the remaining water only had some small pieces of dirt in it. We then remembered the water bottle we filled with sol in the park and mixed with water. The soil sank to the bottom and left the clear water at the top. We had some good questions like “Why is water clear? And “Why does the dirt sink to the bottom”? We will have to look this up or talk to a scientist we think to get the answers to these questions.

Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all again next week.

All our love, Darren, Ayaka, Maki & Ryoan