Busy, busy, busy!

Benjamin Franklin said:

             Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Oh how true for littles!

Add a story, a challenge, an "I wonder what will happen..."

and the work doesn't seem like work at all.

In Science, we are Building Things.

The students heard a version of the tale of The Three Little Pigs,

but there was a twist.  Instead of the fourth character being a

big, bad wolf it turned out that it was the big bad blowdryer!

In small groups of three students, the students found a way to

choose their house to create (rock, paper, scissors never leads to arguments!)

Each student in the small group used a small milk carton (I've

been saving these for months!) and using paper for straw,

popsicle sticks for wood or Lego for bricks, they worked over a series

of days to finish their little house.

The big bad blowdryer showed up and we all gathered around

one of the tables, and thought about how scientists do experiments.

Scientists make sure the experiment is fair.

Notice how all the houses are lined up with one side against the 

line between the tables?  That is fair.

Scientists think about what they think is going to happen.

That is called a hypothesis.

Scientists make observations.  That means they watch very closely.

Oh my goodness!  Sometimes scientists (and Grade One students)

are amazed that things don't turn out the way they thought they would.

Look!  The wood house moved the least, the straw house moved more BUT the 

milk carton inside the three sided brick house house the most!

There is LOTS of time for thinking:

What did you think was going to happen?

Did it happen?

Why do you think this happened instead?

Sometimes, they cannot share, only think.  After more observations,

they are able to share their thoughts with words that show their ability

to compare and contrast.....

Really, in this picture, they aren't bored.....they just didn't know that they

were going to be in the picture.

LOOK at that brick house!  They were so impressed with the

kiddo who built it that they burst into spontaneous applause!

Yep...it didn't move at all!

They could explain why!

What else have we been up to?

We are learning to listen carefully and share various elements of stories.

For this month, the students are listening to a variety of different versions

of stories about Gingerbread.  The first three stories were about a

Gingerbread Man.  They all had the same title, BUT the gingerbread man

met different characters, sang different words and the stories ended

differently.  Later in the week, the students heard about the

gingerbread man's younger and wiser sister.

There are gingerbread men everywhere in out class,

and lots more books to read and compare.

The students made a fold out story board in the shape of three gingerbread men,

with the first one telling what happened in the beginning 

of the story,

the next one telling what happened in the middle

of the story and

the last one telling how the story ended.

Since this was new learning, we did the work as a class.

One of our other science units is about our senses, so I plan to 

have the students decorate and then eat a gingerbread cookie next week.

I am not aware of any allergies that I should be concerned about.

If there is, please let me know asap.

Can you imagine the excitement this morning when the students went

to put on their shoes and found a tiny orange, a candy cane

and some chocolate coins in their shoe?!?!?

Of course, today is December 6th and this is the feast day of St Nicholas.

The students learned that St. Nicholas was a real person and

for many children in Europe, this is the day that they receive their

gifts, often in their shoes which are left by the door.

They learned that the generous bishop had helped a family by throwing a

sack of money into their house through an open window and that

the sack of money had landed inside a sock which was hanging to dry

on the fireplace.....does that help you make a connection to today's traditions?

We have our own St. Nicholas doll now, reminding us to keep Christ

in Christmas!