This month students chose a topic they were most interested in (sun, moon, stars and clouds) and spent time in small groups learning about hot gases on the sun, craters on the moon, constellations and storms!
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| Our Sky Inquiry |
I wonder...
V.T. "Why does gravity hold peope down?"
J.M.X. "What is the sun made up of?"
Z.L. "How does the rocket ship go all the way up to space without stopping?"
S.B. "Where does the sun go at night time?"
K.H. "Why do the stars come out at night time?"
D.V. "How you can get out of Earth and into space?"
S.S. "How can the rain and snow come out of the clouds?"
S.Z. "How can rain turn into snow?"
E.R. (jk) about Chris Hadfield ' "How does the rocket ship move when he's not driving it?"
E.R. (sk) about Chris Hadfield "When the fire goes out (at the bottom of the rocket ship) how does it keep floating?"
S.Z. "Why does all of the stuff float in the rocket ship?"
P.Z. (replied to S.Z.) "If we ate the asparagus like that on Earth it would fall to the ground. The crumbs on the rocket ship would float away."
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We were excited to turn our drama area into something new and special. We had the idea to turn it into a Rocket Ship! We had lots of things to think about like what it should look like, what it should have inside and what it should be called.
V.T. came up with the idea to name our ship "Sun Conqueror" all of the students gasped (so did Miss Campbell and I!) and we thought it was perfect!
Students who wished to help with the Sun Conqueror were able to plan the design, decorate, make fire for the bottom with tissue paper. Students have also been watching Chris Hadfield videos to see what a real rocket ship looks like on the inside. We watched him brush his teeth and eat a sandwich in outerspace! Students quickly decided afterward that our rocket ship should not have a kitchen. We covered it up with white chart paper. We can't wait to facilitate more learning in our socio-dramatic area!
Our JK and SK students have been so curious about the sky and have been wondering a lo! When they ask a question we encourage them to write it on a speech bubble and post it on our cupboard doors.
Last week, S.S. asked "I wonder how rain and snow come out of the clouds?" We were excited to hear the students different answers... here is some of our thinking.
A.M. "I think the ice in the clouds melts and turns into water."
E.R. (sk) "I think the clouds go big, big, big and then smushes and the rain and snow come."
A.K. (jk) "I think first water vapor goes up to the sky. It turns to water and gets people all wet."
V.T. " The clouds feel angry, they blow up and makes rain, snow and lightning."
J.L. "The water turns to snowflakes when the clouds get cold."
S.M. "The clouds push out the snow and rain. If it's winter it's cold."
H.H. "Ice to snow. It's falling."
D.V. "I think the clouds are soft and the raindrops fall from soft stuff."
P.Z. "The rain moves the snow and then the snow drips down."
A.D. "The wind blows it out."
K.H. "The sun in the summer time."
M.O. "All the materials are in the clouds. When it's morning the fall down like the seasons."
S.B. "They get too big and then they fall out of the cloud."
I.L. "The clouds want to see the snow."
S.S. "I think the wind blows it out."
E.B. "Maybe the ice was in the clouds."
Z.L. "The clouds are so soft it's really easy for the rain and snow to come out."
S.Z. "When the clouds get bigger the inside gets bigger too."
D.M. "The clouds push it out."
L.H. "The snow turns into water when it wants. When its sunny the snow melts. The ice goes back up into the cloud."
E.R.(jk) "Rain and snow are friends and there is a secret passageway. And then they have a playdate."
U.Q. "The wind."
G.A. "It drips out of the clouds."
A.K. (sk) "The clouds push it out."
We read the book "The Water Cycle" to find out the answer to our question. We discovered the rain and snow come out of the clouds when the clouds are full and can't hold any more water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ez9vQV154U
We have been playing with water and sponges in our sensory table. We pretend that the sponges are clouds.
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| Keep sending in your beautiful stuff! We have been enjoying making pictures and using our imaginations! |
