Baby Spider Plants

Noticing that our Spider plant has baby Spider plants growing.  Using the magnifying glasses the children investigated how the baby plants were connected to the big Spider plant.

One student noticed that the baby plants were not in the dirt and that is also did not have any roots.

 After they talked about why the baby plants didn't have dirt and roots, they decided that we need to help them get some dirt and roots.  The question "Can plants live in water and grow roots ?"

The children cut the baby plants from the big plant and decided to place in a jar of water to test the theory on whether plants can live in water.  

Keep checking to see what becomes of our baby Spider plants.

Collaboratory

Some children went to build in the collaboratory. PW said, "We should all work on something together. Let's build a house." 

The children started with the floor first and used the long rectangle blocks. 

CI said, "Now we help with the walls. let's put them on the sides."

While some children continued their work inside the house, another group added a slide to the house.

After the house was built, the children pretended to play house. They assigned roles as mom, dad, brothers, and sisters. Some children went to the grocery store while others stayed and watched football on the tv. 

We left a note for other classrooms to enjoy the house. 

Using Patterns !

This morning the children started on designing their item that they want to make for the babies.  But before we started we talked about how sewing projects get started with patterns.  We took a tank shirt apart.  They were able to see where the seams were and how when it was put together.  They learned how to pin the pattern to the material and cut of the pattern.

The next step will be to sew it back together to create another tank top.  As they were cutting and pinning, they started to share about how they would like to add extra items to the tank top.  We can't wait to see what becomes of this tank top.1

How far am I from school?

The map continues to offer the children many opportunities for exchanging thoughts and ideas about understanding their place in the world. Last week, a small group of children talked about who is closest to our school so we did some research. Using the I-pad as a tool, we looked up addresses and recorded how many miles the children are from Ambrose. 

"How many inches am I from school?"- CS

The children supported one another writing down names and numbers. 

PW noticed that two children were really close to our school. We measured one, MP, who is 0.4 miles while the other, AB, is 0.6. We talked about what the point means when measuring miles. One child said, "4 is smaller than 6,"which helped us answer the question of who is closer to our school. 

We recorded our findings on a graph and will take a closer look next week. 

Harissa

We had a special visitor in the kitchen with us this morning. Judy and her family are from Syria and  and her mom, Rakad, came in to bake a traditional Middle Eastern cake with us called Harissa. As we were walking to the kitchen, Judy said, "It's delicious."

We helped to measure the ingredients- one of them being semolina flour along with butter, baking powder, milk, butter, and flour water.

The semolina cake also includes coconut. This was the reaction from one of the friends in Birch. 

Then we mixed all the ingredients together.

Now we pour the batter into the baking dish. 

And we waited for the cake to bake in the oven. 

While the cake baked in the oven, we made a simple syrup of sugar & water 

along with some lime juice.

Thanks for coming in to bake with us Rakad.

Check out our sewing skills!

The children have been working hard with mastering their sewing

skills.  They discovered that putting two pieces of material together

they can make things.  Check out some of their work.

Using a basic stitch, the children made some pillows.

Introducing new needles, the children used their sewing skills

to create these beautiful embroidery hoop designs.  

Now, it is time to get started with making something for our babies!  STAY TUNE!

Symbols and sign in the neighborhood

We took a neighborhood walk this morning looking for signs and symbols. We have been creating symbols to represent places we visit in Webster Groves. We noticed one as soon as we walked out the front door. 

"That is a handicap sign."- PW

"That tells you people are walking. If you are in a car, you have to stop."- CS

We noticed letters and pictures on a lot of flags hanging in the front of houses. 

"That flag has a W on it."- PW

We passed storefronts like the bike shop on Lockwood that had symbols. 

"That's a helmet."

As we walked, we paused at the intersection of Elm and Lockwood to discuss symbols and signs we were seeing noticing arrows that tell you which way to go and what happens when the stoplight changes color. 

The arrow is telling you to go that way. 

When we were back at school, we talked about the signs and symbols that we saw during our walk. The teacher asked what happens to the hand when you are crossing the street. One child said, "It changes to a human." Another child said, "And then there are numbers."

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A lovely day for a walk around the neighborhood. 

Small Capers

                         In Birch,Children from other classrooms helped us to prepare materials for our sewing work we will be doing.

We also shared in conversation about the Webster Groves map.

In Maple, children used large loose parts to build. 

We experienced rice with jewels on the light table. 

And interacted with the jungle in Spruce.

Sewing in the Air!

Today the children approached sewing in a different manner.  They stood up and used embroidery rings that were covered with material and that were dangling from the ceiling to sew.  They came to the area with much excitement and curiosity to how this was going to work.  Like always, we put some thread and a needle in their hands and let them work through it.

At times it was a breeze to go through and other times, they expressed that they needed a little help organizing what they were trying to accomplish.

The children are not done with their sewing, but if you get a chance, stop by the classroom and see how they are doing.