Mechanical Mapping

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
Today we introduced another new-old toy, the Gear-O-Matic. From the early seventies, this awesome playset is made of wood and is comprised of a base, pegs, three sizes of gears and some pushrods. The gears are sized so the radii of 1 large gear + 1 small gear = 2 medium gears. Terms and concepts we learned and will practice are size, small medium, large, gear, crank, pushrod, teeth, mesh (how the teeth fit together), transfer, and rotation.

In our initial experience, we began with one gear rotating and had each student add one component so it would move through a direct or indirect connection to the crank-gear. This involved pretty sophisticated estimation (of radius based on distance between pegs) and cause and effect. Good old trial and error rewards or redirects the deciscion. Just as exciting is that some recognized the movement as similar to our woodworking tools (crank drill and saw) and the exposed linkages of steam locomotives.

So many great toys were made by small cottage industries that are now lost to time. Forget the stores full of plastic. Watch those garage sales and flea markets for some of the coolest, most unusual, educational toys ever made.

COLLABORATIVE COUNTING
While linking 'Pop and Groove Builders', our students began by counting their own lengths. Then they began by joining their segments together to make even longer ones, eventually deciding on the collaborative mission of joining every piece to see if it would span the entire width of the classroom. Together, in segments, we counted over 300 pieces that reached all but four feet to the wall. Each subtotal was met with a rousing cheer among the participants. We count everything.


TODAY'S STORY
Chapter 4 of Elmer and the Dragon, titled Flute the Canary. Elmer and the Dragon meet Flute the Canary on Feather Island. He finds out that the people who inhabited the island left years ago, leaving it to runaway canaries. However, he finds out there is an awful 'Island Disease.' King Can XI is dying of curiosity. No one knows what he's curious about because he won't tell. All the other canaries are curious to know what the king is curious about...and now, SO ARE WE!

Clay Day!

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
We worked with clay today, much to everyone's delight. The activity was completely wide open with students making, forming and building whatever forms and figures they wish. Of interesting note was how some carved and wrote in the soft clay, much like the scribes of ancient civilizations.

Madrid's "Racetrack with a guy on the side waving the checkered flag."

MORE HANDS-ON LITERACY!
Yet again, literacy emerges spontaneously as more children joined in forming the letters of their names. Some of the more complex letters to form, such as 'S', 'B', and 'R' were worked out with a little patience and perseverance. Even those not yet able to spell were eagerly constructing letters and arranging them to form different "What does that one say?" phonetic 'words'.




TODAY'S STORY
Chapters 2 (yesterday) and 3 of Elmer And The Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett.

In Chapter 2, The Storm, Elmer and the Dragon fly off towards Elmer's home only to be downed in the middle of the night by a treacherous storm. Fortunately, the water is not deep, yet they have to sleep standing up in the cold water, not realizing that they are on a sand bar.

Chapter 3, The Sandbar, finds the two weary and sore from standing in the cold water all night. As the fog clears they see an island nearby. They wade over to the shore where the dragon lies down to dry out and rest. Elmer follows a path which leads to a ladder up a cliff. Tomorrow, Chapter 4, The Island.

Flat To Form

ART CLASS AND THE GRASSY PLAYGROUND
Our Friday visit to the art studio had the usual variety of activities. The standout favorite was '3-D Wallpaper Collage'. The patterned, stiff paper strips were perfect for experimentation and exploration of structure and space. Of interest was taking something flat and bending it into form.

TODAY'S STORY
Bigger Than Daddy, by Harriet Ziefert and Elliot Kreloff. A son is eager to grow up to be big like his dad. The favorite part of the story is when the two reverse roles, with the daddy being 'too small' to do the things his son wishes. Beautifully illustrated with simple drawings and bright colors, this touching story elegantly illustrates a special relationship of father and son.

Mirror, Mirror

Taye: "The orange part on the wheel is fire!"
Nate: "Yeah it makes so much fire because it's so fast!"

SIMULTANEOUS SYMMETRY
You may recall several entries about symmetry as a graphic developmental precursor to the mathematical concept of "equal" and artistic concept of "visual balance". The illustration above depicts the work of two students, done simultaneously, alternating addition of details to produce two separate drawings that are virtual reflections of one another. This activity was completely spontaneous and lends insight to how children record, process and produce visual information. The visual processing here is exactly like that used to process letters and numbers and is completely natural and developmentally appropriate. I often joke that few kids are immune to writing their names backward except for AVA and OTTO. This is also why we occasionally confuse the drawings of AIDAN and NADIA.

As much joy as this academic-developmental observation is to us, I can't imagine it holding a candle to how these two felt when doing it. What could be cooler than having a friend so mutually attentive and in tune with you?

TRAPEZE ARTS FINALE!
Today marked the finale of our class' Trapeze Arts for the school year. Ready to go out with a bang, Stephan made sure to include both of our favorite activities. After a round of stretching excercises we honed our coordination and strength with the mini-trampoline and our balance with the circus bike. Even with ONLY six passengers, the circus bike never fails to enthrall!

While on summer break, why not plan a visit to Trapeze Arts in Oakland? Whether or not you enroll in a class, simply a few minutes observing classes and rehearsals can be as exciting as a circus, only without the scary clowns. CLICK HERE to visit their website.

TODAY'S STORY
Blue Rabbit and the Runaway Wheel, by Christopher Wormell. With beautiful color relief prints, Wormell illustrates a cautionary tale of Blue Rabbit's misadventure. While seeking adventure, Blue Rabbit wasn't watching where he was going and had a bicycle accident and lost a wheel. His runaway wheel caused great distress to squirrel, badger and tortoise. At first Blue Rabbit did not know that the 'whizzing thing' that left a trail of destruction was his wheel. As the story unfolds, he discovers this and neglects to offer any apology and flees. This is not your conventional tidy ending. The chorus of empathetic "HEEEEEYY!!" was deafening. It was, however, great launching point for a discussion about accidents, fairness and making amends.

We LOVE Tinkering

OUR NEW OLD TOY!
Our class just received a donation of Tinkertoys! Invented in 1914, these toys have provided millions of hours of mechanical exploration over the past century and will continue to do so well into our school year.

Our proficiency with wood and tools is well established. Now we are moving into construction and operation of simple machines, such as levers, pulleys, axles and all the things we can muster by combining them. I see 'Pullback Racers' in the near future. Best of all, they provide plenty of repetition for mastery, as parts tend to work themselves loose during operation and require a degree of critical thinking and recall for repairs.



Athena painted a picture resembling our tinkertoy construction.

TODAY'S STORY
Chapter One of Elmer and the Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett. This sequel to My Father's Dragon chronicles Elmer's journey home - FLYING ON THE BACK OF A DRAGON! They landed for a rest on the island of Tangerina, where Elmer finds out the dragon dislikes the sweet tangerines, but LOVES the taste of the peels! YUCK!

With The Flow

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
Building on prior knowledge of working with water and oil, we decided to make "wave tubes", or as our more daring students like to call them, "lava tubes." The children love affecting and observing the fluid dynamics between the two liquids. Additionally, the construction of them was quite interesting, as each drop of water color remained a sinking bead until agitated. Another discovery was the magnifying property of a tube filled with water. Can you guess the identity of this large-eyed creature?




CONSTRUCTIVE LITERACY
We have a manipulative toy called "Construction Builders", though I would change the name to something more fitting like "Arcs and Lines". Here Saiff-Deen engaged in the complex activity of creating letters with these elements to spell his own name. Every day we are pleased to see that literacy does not start and stop at the reading/writing table.

TODAY'S STORY
Chapter 10 of My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett. This chapter concludes the first book and the preview period for the series of stories. We will next engage in making props and maps to use in the formal reading of the story. Our students have warmed to the cumulative nature of chapter books and relish the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of previous events that lead to the current chapter. Additionally, the props lend themselves to critical thinking and applied knowledge. The story is so good that they are eager to hear it all again before launching into the second book in the series, Elmer And The Dragon.

Air + Water = Science!

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
Usha prepared a remarkably simple experiment about air pressure and vacuum. The focus was as much about devloping keen skills of observation as much as the science content. In doing so, she enables the children to repeat the experiment as many times as they wish in their water/sensory play. It went in two parts:

1) Submerge the empty cup upside down to the bottom of the bowl and tilt slowly. The students were enthralled with the roiling eruption of air. The air in the cup displaces the water, forcing the level to rise.

2) Fill the cup completely by turning it sideways at the bottom. Invert the cup an lift. The cup was remarkably heavy, lifting the water with it until the rim cleared the surface, releasing the vacuum with an enormous splash.

TODAY'S STORY
My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett. This is our first (and my favorite) chapter book. It is chock full of adventure, danger and humor tempered by an empathetic lead character. The challenge of chapter books is that they have far fewer illustrations and far more words than the picture books to which we are accustomed. This book is being presented chapter by chapter, entirely on a voluntary basis rather than a formal storytime. This pre-reading exercise helps to develop the schema (set of ideas and concepts) to aid in verbal comprehension when we formally tackle this tome.

Fun On Friday!

ART ROOM!
Today we split our time between the art room and the grassy playground. The level of cooperation, turn-taking and patience has developed exponentially for our young learners eager to try new activities. The mix of ongoing and temporary acitivties lends familiarity and confidence to their endeavors. Here is a sampling:



Ongoing cardboard square collage. Small overhangs strengthened by drying now span like bridges in a city.



Drawing with multi-colored dots to make shapes and patterns.



Working out tiny traffic patterns of people and vehicles.
(We've been singing songs about traffic safety)



Magnetic wands make metal and magnetic balls "jump" out of hiding in the sand.


TODAY'S STORY
Vera Goes To The Dentist, by Vera Rosenberry. Though quite long and detailed, this book held the attention of our students to the end. Vera is very apprehensive about going to the dentist. At one point in her appointment she gets scared enough to flee and run around the block. The dentist kindly explains what he's doing and she returns to finish with her checkup and cleaning. Afterward she selects a green toothbrush as a reward for being brave and cooperative.

A Telescopaphone?!

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
Our class decorated tubes yesterday with tissue paper and glue. Today they added blue and red transparency to the ends for a color-distorted telescope. Little did we know that our clever students would discover an alternate use for these contraptions - KAZOOS! Yes, (clearing ears) I know...
Next week, further discussions about sound and vibration. Science is EVERYWHERE!!

TODAY'S STORY
An advanced reading of Stay Awake Sally!, by Mitra Modarressi. As accomplished as our favorite children's book author is, Mitra really hit this one out of the park! The illustrations are beautifully rendered with bold compositions on each page. Sally Raccoon wants to go to bed, but her parents come up with reason after reason to stay up late with them. This role reversal was hilarious to our students who obviously recognized a few of these bedtime tricks (and likely made note of a few others). All the more rewarding to this teacher was a response in the discussion that followed - "Raccoons are nocturnal."

This particular statement was golden:
A) Great critical thinking, considering how to make sense of something absurd to us.
B) Vocabulary word 'nocturnal' was applied in appropriate context.
C) They immediately began thinking of more animals that are nocturnal.

Weee're Baa-aack!

Spontaneous block arrangement used to examine math concepts of shape and area.

E.g... 4 small triangles = 2 small squares = 2 large triangles = 1 med. rectangle. Cool!

At long last the Room 4 Blog is back online, thanks to the zippy new iMac Irene purchased for our school. I have a huge backlog of photos and will draw on these to enhance content.

THE BIG WHEEL!
The most popular activity of the day was 'The Big Wheel' (aka, the human hamster wheel). Perfectly scaled, with appropriate safety spotting, the children propelled the giant wheel from within. Some crawled, some walked, all had a fantastic time. Never before have our students exhibited so much patience and eagerness to WAIT for their turn. It's as socially developmental as it is energetic and empowering.


TODAY'S STORY
Arthur's Lost Puppy, by Marc Brown. Arthur and D.W. take Baby Kate and Pal to the neighborhood street fair. But suddenly Baby Kate starts crying. Arthur sends D.W. to buy Kate an ice cream cone, and she carefully ties Pal's leash to a bench outside the store. But when she comes out, Pal has squirmed out of his collar! The children cope with anxiety and work together for a happy reunion.