Tunnel Learning Group - Week 10

Hanging Tubes with Multiple Openings

The implementation of the tenth inquiry involved children expanding on their exploration of the big idea "Where did it go?" The children wanted to study the motion of an object passing through another. In this activity the children explored and investigated tubes hung from the ceiling with several openings. The children tilted the tube a certain way to get the marble to come out of an opening. Some children did not like tilting the tube different way to get the marble to roll out and took the T tube apart. After taking the tube apart the children rolled the marble through the straight tube. Other children wanted the marble to stay in the tube and blocked the opening with their hands to keep the marble inside. The children had to problem solve to get the marbles out of the tubes. Some concepts the children learned during this activity include the concept of motion, cause and efface, fine motor skills and directionality.

Tunnel Learning Group - Week 9

HANGING TUBES!

November 19, 2012

The implementation of the eighth inquiry involved children expanding on their exploration of the big idea "Where did it go?" The children wanted to study the motion of an object passing through another. In this activity the children explored and investigated tubes hung from the ceiling. They first just swung them around and enjoyed watching them twirl around. When they tried to put a marble in the swinging tube they realized that it kept moving away. They used one hand to grab the tube and hold it steady and place the marble inside with the other. The children also noticed that some of the tubes were slanted and picked them up to place marbles inside. They knew that the marble would not stay inside of a tilted tube. Some of the children also put two tubes together and rolled a marble through them. The children had to problem solve to get the marbles out of the tubes. Some concepts the children learned during this activity include the concept of motion, cause and efface, fine motor skills and directionality.

Sound Learning Group - Week 8

During this week’s inquiry lesson we expanded our exploration of sound to look more closely at sound travel through water.  In our previous exploration we used tuning forks in the water as an introduction to this concept.  The children began to show an understanding of how sound travels in water.  This week we used pipes and instruments in the water table.  Some of the children used the pipes to talk through which is how we used this material in a previous lesson.  Some kids watched me put the pipe to my ear.  They mimicked my actions and put the pipe to their ear.  When they did this they commented and said “I hear noise”.  Many of the kids used the instruments to bang against each other to make noise.  They children developed an understanding that sound can be heard in water as well as through using force by shaking or hitting with drum sticks. 

To extend on this lesson I plan to explore height in relation to sound.  We can use different materials such as balls, cotton ball, and feathers and drop them into a bucket from different elevations.  This will help the children make observations about how sound changes depending on height. 

Tunnel Learning Group - Week 8

 Vertical Tubes

November 12-16

The implementation of the eighth inquiry involved children expanding on their exploration of the big idea "Where did it go?" The children wanted to study the motion of an object passing through another. In this activity the children explored and investigated the vertical stationary tubes by rolling marbles through them. They noticed that the marbles get stuck when it hit the carpet. They were not sure how to get it out and tried looking inside the tube to see if the marble was still there. They then attempted to use their hands to get it out. Then some of the children figured out that by twisting the tube sideways they can release the marble. The children had to problem solve to get the marbles out of the tubes. Some concepts the children learned during this activity include the concept of motion, cause and effect, fine motor skills and directionality.

Cooking Week 7

Cooking Investigation: Week of November 5th, 2012

This week we explored a hodge-podge of different things.  We started off the week revisiting our original ingredient exploration of flour and water.  As Ms. Camardese observed the children she quickly realized they were not making the connection between the flour and water turning into dough.  The children seemed to understand there were three entities, flour, water and then dough but they seemed confused about how the mixing led to the dough.  To help get this idea across we mixed fruit into fruit cups, then used the cups to make smoothies.  The idea behind this was the children could still see the single ingredients as one combined entity.  Then the combined mixture would become the smoothie.  This was also an opportunity to practice our utensil using skills; the children helped cut the fruit using plastic knives of course.  Making the fruit cups and then having smoothies for snack was a treat the children really enjoyed.  As Ms. Camardese mixed the smoothies in the blender she asked the children, “what is happening to the fruit?”  Fiona said, “it going round and round.”  While examining the finished smoothie, Ms. Camardese asked, “where did the fruit go?”  Jack said,” it all in there!”  Building on the idea of eating together and sharing food, we had the smoothies for snack then we shared out left overs with the other teachers in the building.  The children enjoyed sharing the food, visiting the other rooms and eating together.  For our final day of exploration we practiced our table setting skills.  The children have been helping set the table at snack, building on the idea of eating and cooking together.  We watched videos of other people setting the table then practiced using real dishes, utensils and napkins.  You’ll see our finished table at curriculum night this week!

Over the next week we plan to prep for curriculum night.  We will be using the ideas we have learned about recipes, utensil use, table setting and group meals to prepare a tasty snack for our visitors on curriculum night.  Make sure you stop by to see what we have prepared!