Tuesday, January 14, 2014

120-
The students are continuing to experiment with different solid objects.  They have a list of descriptive words for the solid objects and this experimentation is free and open to allow them to make more discoveries about what they are working with. R- we are making a big giant castle.
Eliani shows me that she made a cross out of Popsicle sticks- This looks like it's for the God.
Deyneira attempts to measure the castle with a ruler to see how big it is.
J helps R build but then he accidentally knocks the structure over. "I'm so sorry," he exclaims.
R tells him, "it's okay."
R and J then become very upset by Eliani, whom they feel is taking their supplies. They start to snatch and hoard supplies. 
Teacher- do you think you could solve this problem in a better way.
R- she took my paper, Miss! 
Teacher- so what should you say?
R- Eliani, can you please give me my stuff back?
Eliani complies and the table settles back into working.
N and Jean Luis remain quiet, watching their loud friends. I notice that R has now taken all of their supplies.
Teacher- R, do you remember what it felt like when Eliani took your stuff? I think you might have done that to your friends over there.
R looks over and quickly hands a pile of supplies back to his friends.

The mother

The baby in the baby's room

The experiment moves to the floor.

 Table three
Esmerelda asks for my attention again. She shows me what her table is building. 
Esmerelda- I'm making a person.
Jolimar is helping Esmerelda. 
Teacher- tell me about your person.
Esmerelda- This is a mommy and this other one is the baby. The mama said "do not cry" because the baby is crying and she wants the baby to go to sleep.
Teacher- do you have a baby in your house?
Esmerelda- I have a three-year-old brother.
She shows me parts of the body. The bottle cap is the belly. The Popsicle sticks with clothespins and twist-ties are the hands. She proceeds to make the baby's room. 
Teacher- What happens next? 
Esmerelda- the mommy will go to work and the baby will sleep.
Kialis notices the person.
Kialis- that looks like a ninja turtle!
Jolimar- yes, it does!

Table Two

Teacher- What are you guys making?

Gabriella- We're making things with clothespins.

Teacher- What is it? Tell me about it.

Gabriella tells me that she is making a chart like their class behavior chart, which uses clothespins to track their behavior. 

Table One

Table one has created a house out of the materials. The interesting thing I noticed about this table is that they moved to the floor to spread out. The table was too confining.  I thought that was an interesting development.

108- I wasn't sure if I'd be available the entire period, due to our visit, so I pushed in.  I was able to document two really interesting situations, so I'm glad I did!

The students in 108 are working with the blocks.

Teacher- can you tell me what you're making?

They tell me that one structure is a castle and the other is a restaurant. This is the class who turned their kitchen area into a restaurant and studied community helpers, so the restaurant idea is still intriguing to them. Castles are a constant theme in all of the classes, so I'm not surprised by that.

Kelis- I'm going to make the oven.

Jayden- how do the people get up here? Are they jumping?

Kelis- this is the fire! And the mailman is dropping off the mail.

Jailyn- the parents are talking

Kelis- this looks like a cake with people in it!

They build the restaurant to a height of about four feet and then they start to worry that it will fall on someone.

Jayden- maybe we should take one or two off

Kelis- don't add more- we can make another one!

Jayden- i have an idea! I want to put a person on each part

Kelis- we could just each make our own.

Nobody seems to like that idea, so they all continue to build one structure at a time, together.

 

The restaurant on the left and the castle on the right.

Jailyn notices that one of the thin blocks can create a teeter-totter effect. She tests this by tipping one side and the doll falls off.

Jailyn- if you throw something on this, it will pop up and fall.

At this point, the structure falls and they all erupt in laughter.

Teacher- jailyn, you noticed something with this block and a person.

She shows me now the person pops up when you hit the other end of the teeter-totter. The other students come over to test it out, as well.

The other structure "accidentally" gets knocked down (I'm not sure it was an accident) and they went back to building, abandoning this little physics experiment in favor of the building activity.

There is a definite understanding of balance and symmetry in these structures, even though they might not be able to describe what they are doing using those words.

At this point, they are no longer interested in building up. Instead, they build a wide rectangle that is only one block high all around.

J- this is our pool!

Jailyn tries to balance two thin pieces that meet at the top to create a slide for the pool. She painstakingly works to get the balance right and eventually succeeds. The boys place "diving boards" around the pool. Kelis and J start making a maze at the entrance to the pool.

Jayden- but we're making a pool!

 maze is how you get in the pool.

Jayden seems impressed with this cool entrance idea.

Jayden- so you go through the maze and then you get to swim in the pool!!

They added a fireman standing guard.

Teacher- what is the fireman for?

J- they are having a pool party so he's there to make sure there are no fires.

The maze continues to grow all around the carpet. Jayla is adding more diving boards. This is a pretty awesome swimming pool.

They build a bridge for people who want to skip the maze.

Jayden- the fireman is filling the pool with water for people to go inside it.

The pool with the maze entrance

Monah, yalin and joe are working with the gears. They've created fishing poles out of the gears and they are using the large bucket the gears came in as the water. Joe vividly describes the imaginary fish that Monah catches. 
Joe- you caught a little crawfish and now the shark ate it, so you can get him! It's a shark! It's huge with big teeth!
And they all scream in pretend fear.
Monah- oh no! Now I caught an electric eel!
She writhes around like she's being electrocuted and joe laughs.
Yalin is relaxing, fishing by himself in the reading chair. 
Aviyer comes over and yalin offers his fishing pole. 
Yalin- do you want to try?
He brings extra gears over and tells them that these are the fish.
Yalin- we need a lot of fish to fish! 
Aviyer started to put the fish in the bucket, but yalin said he wanted the rug to be the water. He's excited about all of the fish that are in the water now. 
Joe- this is a spiky fish!
Aviyer- the blue ones are the electric eels. Don't put one on me!
Monah immediately tosses one to him and he pretends to be electrocuted.
Yalin decides to build a fishing pole for Aviyer so they both have one. He then teaches Aviyer how to use it. 
I'm pleased with the social skills of this group. They are communicating well and paying attention to the ideas and feelings of the other students. 

Fishing is fun!