Let's make a bird house!

Ms. Szymaszek’s Investigations:

Can we tape them together?

March 21-28

Since early February, the children have utilized the classroom "citiblocks" to create birdhouses.  These blocks, similar in size to Jenga game pieces but slightly less deep, have been the medium with which the children have created flat "houses" for the birds.

One of the children used the blocks on the window to create a block structure similar to the wooden birdhouses seen below.

With the warm weather in the month of March, the children noticed an increase in the number of birds at our birdfeeder.  As a result, the children have brought their observations inside—using the citiblocks to create birdhouses.  One of the children found the blocks would not stay together when she tried to build “up” the three-dimensional object.  Following a model created by a teacher, the child used packaging tape to keep the structure together.  She built the two frames first, then planned how to keep the two pieces together.  She taped the two halves together, cutting the tape and adding on blocks to the sides as needed.

What was that sound?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Investigations:

Can we drop the keys?

March 12-26

 

 

On Monday, March 12, one of the children took a handful of keys and dropped it on the ground.  A teacher promptly said, “Oh no!” thinking the sound was shattering glass.  Another group of children ran over to see the source of the sound.  One child stated, “it sounds like music!”  Another child said it sounded like an “instrument, like the piano.”  The children proceeded to take handfuls of keys and explore the sounds the keys made.  One child took the pencil basket from the sign in table, removed the pencils, and then filled the basket of keys.  She proceeded to dump the keys from the basket onto the hard tile floor.

Do we need some more bandaids?

Ms. Szymaszek’s Investigations:

Do we need some more bandaids?

March 5-9

In continuing our exploration with the amaryllis, the children noticed the flower had bloomed.  In observing the flower, the children noticed that the flower was leaning over.  After lifting the flower stalk up, the children noticed the leaves and the stem had cracked.  “Oh no, it’s broken.  We need more bandaids.”  “We need to make it stand up.  We should tie the pieces together.”  Using yarn and cardboard tubes from the open-ended shelves, the children created a support system for the plant.