Monday, March 23, 2009

This morning we had our weekly 100 facts. Joshua graduated to subtraction and Sean is moving on to subtraction 5 minutes! Afterwards, we played a game of Pig. Ms. Stern won! Next, we got to make groups of 2, 3, or 4 to play with each other.

Ms. Eyer came in and talked to us about simple machines. We figured out what they were by thinking about the words “simple” and “machine” and began exploring where we might find them in our lives. Simple is another is word for easy or basic and a machine is something that helps us do something faster and easier. Darren learned screws come in different sizes and some screws are used to lift objects. Sophia learned that there are machines called pulleys. Isabella learned that an ax is another simple machine. Rebecca discovered that there are 7 different kinds of simple machines. Ms. Eyer asked us to think about simple machines and when and how we use them in our lives. The next time she comes back, we will be put to the challenge in using them!
During P.E. we played Pin Guard. You need two teams. Seven people guard a pin. Everyone else is trying to knock down the other team’s pin with a ball. While that’s happening, the guards are trying to protect their own team’s pin. At the same time, the teams are trying to score baskets. Our class beat Mrs. Yelin’s class by 4 points. Sean got 2 hoops (worth 10 points each) that helped our class with our victory.

We had some really good noticings about the mealworms! Last week, Ms. Stern took out the mystery “things” that we originally thought were either dead or babies. Ms. Stern had removed them all from the mealworm container. Today, we counted 18 new ones in the very same container. That got us thinking…Bartosz, Mia, and lots of other children think that changed from the mealworms. That makes sense because Ms. Stern didn’t add them so that means that whatever was inside must have changed somehow. We also noticed that the container with the “things” from last week had something new. It was a bug! We started doing some really difficult scientific thinking and asked some terrific questions, all to be recorded in our mealworm journals tomorrow!