Bey Blades

Since the beginning of the year the boys in our class have had an ongoing interest in Bey Blades. Since we have a "no home toy rule" at school the boys were forced to find a new way to enjoy their favourite at home toy. Admittedly, at first we fought them on it, as it often got wild and every day they spent the majority of their activity times making and battling Bey Blades. At one point we even took away their first Bey Blades attempts which were being made out of a gear toy. The boys persisted and soon the gear toy was replaced with a new material to build Bey Blades with.

We finally decided that instead of fighting them on it, we would work with them on it. So far everyone has gotten a chance to spin their Bey Blade and we all counted to see who's Bey Blade could spin the longest. I documented the times on the wall, with the seconds their creation spun for. Today the boys started to count the seconds on their own and record their name and time independently. Over the next few days we are looking to introduce more materials so the boys (and a few girls) can improve upon their original design and even test some new designs using those new materials.  

Gavin's Bey Blade creation

There was serious thinking that went into the design. They discovered that there needs to be a knob on the bottom to allow it to spin. We'll be talking about the concept of "friction" next!

The boys mid- Bey Blade battle.

A Bey Blade Design.

Another Bey Blade Design.

More Bey Blades.

A more intricate Bey Blade Design. They are starting to build on their original designs.

An original Bey Blade that was modified to have longer arms.

Our Bey Blade timekeeping board.

Black and Orange

Here's some of the action from Orange and Black Day:

What goes up...

We've had a jam-packed day today!

At the construction carpet, we introduced the vocabulary word "gravity". Children were busy building towers, then rolling marbles off and watching them fall. We learned that gravity is what makes things fall.



Unfortunately, we also discoverd gravity makes blocks fall on people's heads! We have a new rule for the wooden blocks....no towers higher than the hips.

We introduced the Poetry Books today.

This book contains many of the songs we share in class. Children are excited to practise these at home with parents, brothers, and sisters!



Encourage your child to track the words with a finger and to sing with experession.

This morning, we noticed our pumpkin has changed:

We decided to put it outside and watch it to see how it changes over time.

Predictions include:

"It will change colours."
"It will go white. I saw a white pumpkin once."
"It will go all mushy."
"It will grow into a new pumpkin."

 We'll leave it in the field, along with some other gourds and apples, and check on it every few days.

Soon after placing the pumpkin, our boys discovered the ditch. What ensued were more experiements into gravity....aka rolling down the hill!

Science is everywhere!



Spooktacular fun!

While it looks just like play, Halloween is actually a rich source of learning.

The children learned how to take on roles (drama), retell stories about picking out costumes (oral language) and counted how many Spidermen/women we had (math). It was a busy and very full day.

Special thanks to the families on treat patrol. Delicious!

All ramped up

Many of the boys in our class are condicting an inquiry about ramps and pathways.

They were at first engaged by this big block, which they lifted up onto another.

Krista asked "I wonder why you're doing that?"

"To make the cars go fast!" one replied.

"I wonder if you could change the ramp to make them even faster?"

"To go faster you have to go fast and let go."
"I put the end on the shelf to make the car go fast."

To test this hypothesis, the boys experimented with different angles, using the shelf to add height. They found that eventually, the ramp became too steep and it just led to crashes. Even putting a blue block at the end couldn't prevent this from happening. They reflected that the third shelf was too high. Our next step will be to use longer pieces of wood to see if that makes a difference.

From there, the boys experiemented and tested double ramps, going both up and down, and with double level ramps. "It's like a waterfall!"

"I wonder if the cars could jump!"

A few days later, we borrowed some marble tracks from another class and the ramp inquiry took on a new angle. The marbles we highly engaging, and despite only having a few the children did well at sharing them.

" I wonder why it keeps falling off right there?"
"I fix it!" (adjusts alignment). "See, it's magic!"

Some children built marble ramps through other blocks...

...and discovered how to make the marble curve around a corner.

Problems were identified and fixed. Experiments were tested and refined.

"Why did it fall off right there?"
"There's a big hole. Let's fix it! Maybe we can put a little piece of paper to fill up the spot?"

Stay tuned for more scientists at work in the construction centre!

What is this thing?

 The ELK program is based on inquiries...wondering about something, exploring it, asking questions, testing ideas, and refining hypotheses. 

There was lots of wondering about this:

Jaxin:                 I wonder if this is a machine for putting holes in the apples.
Cameron Hu:     I think it's a jail for apples!
Cameron Hat:    It squishes it into applesauce.
Sarah:                It squeezes it into the pot.

The children were fascinated by all the moving parts. They discovered you could turn the crank, pull levers, and move the arm on the suction cup.

After sorting....

 And washing....

The teachers helped load the machine and operate it.

Springs!

 Many children helped chop the apples up, with a little guidance.

 Cinnamon and sugar into the pot.

 After 4 hours in the slow cooker, we had a tasty snack.

Jaxin discovered that the discarded cores had seeds. He's planning on planting them and seeing what happens.

The wondering continues!