9/18/09

I guess it really is time to say goodbye to summer weather. The children (bundled in fleece jackets and sweaters) enjoyed playing out in the September sunshine and autumn air this week. Inside the classroom we were quite the scientists. With help from a science project book we talked about tightrope walkers at the circus and the center of gravity. Our experiment consisted of having our Sunnybrook friends stand with their backs against a wall and then lean over to pick up an object. They discovered that it was impossible to do so without falling over. We then tried it in open space and it was much easier. We concluded that your center of gravity really is necessary to pick an object up off the floor...or to be a circus performer.

The beautiful food coloring paintings you may have seen were the results of a science discussion/experiment about air turned art project. They really did come out nicely.

Our Friday students did an experiment in which we tested different objects to see if they sank or floated in water. We hypothesized which objects would float and which would sink. Most of the time we were right but there were a few surprises (the plastic glove floated but the plastic cheetah did not). We also got out the microscope and viewed a few slides. Very interesting and hopefully an activity we will repeat with different slides in the near future.

We enjoyed the "Dinothesaurus" book which has some great poems and facts about Dinosaurs. We heard about some of our favorites (Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops) and learned about some new ones. We also tried hard to pronounce Micropachycephalosaurus.

Our community and family theme lead us to talk about different jobs and people in a community such as, the librarian, the postal worker, the fireman, the doctor, etc. We even have a great song about the people in the community (sung to the 'Wheels on the Bus' tune).

We've had some colorful music activities this week with the movement scarves and Hap Palmer's color song. The children have also enjoyed singing and moving to 'London Bridge' (and eagerly wait to get '"locked up" by the bridge) and the kangaroo song.