This week, we have been exploring what happens when certain materials are heated, cooled or made wet. We visited Finnley's dad, Mr. Ware, in the High School Science department and Mr. Zobrist and friends in the Design and Technology department. The children were treated to some wonderful demonstrations of some of the more dramatic ways materials can change. We learned many things, the highlights included discovering how nappies were invented for astronauts, how fireworks explode, how to mould plastic and all about 3D printing!! It was a fantastic learning experience for the K2 children and huge thanks must go to all the teachers and technicians who gave up their time to help us out with our ongoing inquiry. Taking our learning outside of the classroom in this way often makes the experience more meaningful for the children.
Towards the end of the week, we explored how materials can change under certain circumstances (such as twisting, bending, squashing etc) and recorded our findings in a simple table. We also touched on how materials can change state from solid to liquid to gas...and back again! We filled a zip-lock bag with water and left it in the freezer overnight. The next day, we had a bag of ice! Carefully, we hammered (!) this into small pieces and dropped them into a kettle. Mr. Morley then turned on the kettle and, a few moments later, he poured the contents into a dish and we noticed the ice had changed back into water and that there was steam coming off the surface. Mr. Morley then placed an upturned tray on top of the dish and, after a few minutes, we noticed that water was starting to collect on the surface of the tray. We collected this water in the freezer bag and placed it back in the freezer.
Next week, the children will be presented with another (even trickier!) challenge which they will work on in groups over the next couple of weeks. More details will come later but they will need to use everything they have discovered about materials as well as everything they understand about collaboration and teamwork.
In Writing Workshop, we have continued to explore ways to enhance our work such as adding to the illustrations, adding more words, checking and changing words, including speech bubbles or labels and so on. We have spent a lot of time discussing how illustrations and text work together in a piece of writing. Adding more details to your illustrations often gives you more ideas on how to stretch your writing and include more than one idea on a page. We are also beginning to think about the idea of ‘action’ in our writing.
In Reading Workshop, the children have focused on partner reading. They have been thinking about what makes someone a good partner and how partners can work together to improve reading skills and strategies as well as make reading a more enjoyable shared experience. Talking about your books helps you fully understand what you are reading and helps you make informed choices in the future.
In Mathematics, we have concentrated on counting and comparing. The children have explored a variety of activities that encourage them to describe the relationship between number and quantities and identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than or equal to the number of objects in another group. This comparison also includes the idea that quantities can be compared without assigning numerical values to them. We spend a great deal of time on this in K2 as genuine number sense is developed through an ability to count.
Away from the classroom, the children have REALLY enjoyed their first week of swimming. Mr. Hart tells me they were "super" in the pool and I believe him!
We ended the week on high with the visit of Sebastian's dad, Tim, who shared some fantastical experiments with us all. We found out about dry ice and how it never melts! We also all took turns at making beautiful and very colourful patterns in milk by mixing soap and food colouring. Last of all, we dropped some Mentos sweets into a bottle of Coke with explosive results!!
A heads up that Week 8 is our K2 Workshare Week. I will be in touch nearer the time with specific times for everyone but it is likely to be a 40 minutes (or thereabouts) slot towards the middle/end of that week. Lastly, a big THANK YOU to Julia, Katrina and Manu, our Class Parents, who have put together a google doc where you can sign up for volunteering in the class. If you missed it, here is the K2BeM Volunteering Schedule.
Have a great weekend
Next week, the children will be presented with another (even trickier!) challenge which they will work on in groups over the next couple of weeks. More details will come later but they will need to use everything they have discovered about materials as well as everything they understand about collaboration and teamwork.
In Writing Workshop, we have continued to explore ways to enhance our work such as adding to the illustrations, adding more words, checking and changing words, including speech bubbles or labels and so on. We have spent a lot of time discussing how illustrations and text work together in a piece of writing. Adding more details to your illustrations often gives you more ideas on how to stretch your writing and include more than one idea on a page. We are also beginning to think about the idea of ‘action’ in our writing.
In Reading Workshop, the children have focused on partner reading. They have been thinking about what makes someone a good partner and how partners can work together to improve reading skills and strategies as well as make reading a more enjoyable shared experience. Talking about your books helps you fully understand what you are reading and helps you make informed choices in the future.
In Mathematics, we have concentrated on counting and comparing. The children have explored a variety of activities that encourage them to describe the relationship between number and quantities and identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than or equal to the number of objects in another group. This comparison also includes the idea that quantities can be compared without assigning numerical values to them. We spend a great deal of time on this in K2 as genuine number sense is developed through an ability to count.
Away from the classroom, the children have REALLY enjoyed their first week of swimming. Mr. Hart tells me they were "super" in the pool and I believe him!
We ended the week on high with the visit of Sebastian's dad, Tim, who shared some fantastical experiments with us all. We found out about dry ice and how it never melts! We also all took turns at making beautiful and very colourful patterns in milk by mixing soap and food colouring. Last of all, we dropped some Mentos sweets into a bottle of Coke with explosive results!!
A heads up that Week 8 is our K2 Workshare Week. I will be in touch nearer the time with specific times for everyone but it is likely to be a 40 minutes (or thereabouts) slot towards the middle/end of that week. Lastly, a big THANK YOU to Julia, Katrina and Manu, our Class Parents, who have put together a google doc where you can sign up for volunteering in the class. If you missed it, here is the K2BeM Volunteering Schedule.
Have a great weekend
Wow! What a fab week you have had with all those experiments! I don't remember my K2 year being quite so engaging.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the newsy blog post and wonderful photos Ben. We really appreciate it.