What do you call these things again?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Investigations:

What do you call these things again?

February 6-10

To continue our investigation of plants in the classroom, the children used forceps to dissect roses.  After the thorny stem was cut off by a teacher, the children used the forceps to pull off the petals one at a time.  “What do you call those things again?  Oh, the tweezers.”  “Oh yeah, the forceps!”  Using their hands and the forceps, the children carefully pulled off all the petals and the leaves, and put them into a jar.  All the pieces—leaves, petals, thorns, and stems, were put into a jar for the children to look at next week when the investigation continues.

How can we build together?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Investigations:

How can we work and build together?

Week of January 30, 2012 – February 3, 2012

To continue our exploration with building, we asked the children “how can we work together to create one building?”  The children began taking some of the blocks and putting the blocks in their own piles.  Then they started to place them where each individual child wanted them. One of the children was directing the other children telling the others what they were going to do and make one idea and plan for their building.  Each child took on a specific role in creating this structure until they decided together they were finished.

 

In the above pictures, four children worked together to build a tower.  "We can all take turns!  You put one here and I can put one here."

 

 

In the pictures above, the children took a different approach.  They worked together to lay the blocks like tiles.  The children worked together, alternating blocks to cover the carpet--until they ran out of blocks.

What do snowflakes look like?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Morning Investigations:

What do snowflakes look like?

January 23-27

 

On Friday, January 20, the children were excited to hear that snow was expected to fall in the evening.  Over the course of a week, the children talked about what snowflakes look like.  During small groups, the children described what they saw.  “The snowflake has white and blue like behind it.  You can see through it.”  “You can see behind it because it is ice!”  Using various media, the children independently began to create their representations of snowflakes.  The children used paper to draw snowflakes and cut snowflakes as well.  Later, the children used geoboards to create snowflakes.

Three children were exploring with geoboards and rubber bands when one noted that it looked like a snowflake.

The children drew their representations of the snowflakes.  "There's a circle in the middle, and then the little pieces on the sides and all around."

The children also cut snowflakes out of paper.  First, they folded the paper.Next, the children made different cuts.  Finally, the children opened the paper to reveal the snowflake they had created.  "Look at my snowflake!  It's so pretty!"

Did those plants grow at all?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Morning Investigations:

Did those plants grow at all?

January 31-February 3

The children used a ruler to measure the height of the plumeria tree. 

 In a continuation of our exploration of plants, the children have been interested in finding if the plants in the classroom have grown.  We read the book My Garden by Kevin Henkes.  The children shared their ideas about gardens.  “My garden would have all chocolate bunnies so I could eat them!”  “My mom has a garden at the house and I can help her with it.  We plant Morning Glories.”  Next, the children pointed to the plants in the room and said, “Did they get bigger yet?”  The children used different tools to measure the plumeria from Hawaii, and drew how much the plant had grown.  “3 inches!”

The children compared the height of the plumeria to the height of the amaryllis.

The children drew pictures of the amaryllis, and wrote the numeral for how tall it was next to the image.