October, 2008
Classroom Newsletter #1

This week in science we were talking about push / pull and forces.

One of our favorite activities was to see if our fan could push several classroom objects. We tried a wooden block, cotton balls, super balls and balloons.

We measured and discussed how far each object moved, or didn't move, and why.

The children were coming up with ideas on how to modify the experiment and one student said, "What if we aim the fan straight up? What would happen?"

Well, we tried it and I don't think any of us expected the result we received...

The balloon hovered in mid-air. It didn't fall, it didn't blow away, it just spun in place!

We left it there for the rest of the day. It was still hovering when we got back the next morning. And, I'm quite sure it's still floating there still.

This experiment filtered into Writer's Workshop. We were working on poetry writing, so we wrote poems about the balloon.

This week writing was the "big hit". The children would get upset with me when I would tell them it was time to clean up!

I think they like it because they are feeling more confident now that they have the tools to be terrific authors.

In math, we have been talking a lot about tens and ones. Sorting items into groups of tens and counting by tens. We even created cute art projects about tens and ones on Friday!

Have questions? Contact me about my classroom.

Thank you!