Dear Purple Room Families,

This week we will focus on what science learning looks like in a play-based classroom. We do not have “science time,” instead science is integrated throughout our day. We pay attention to the children’s interests and wonderings, and plan provocations that let them explore their own ideas. This type of physical exploration can actually change how the brain processes scientific information. Here is a fascinating, short article about how “hands-on” learning strengthens scientific understanding. 

Our current science focus– physics– actually began with an accidental discovery at the end of last week.

Did you know if you put a tiny plastic animal on one end of a triangular block, and hit the other end, you can catapult the animal in the air? 

After one student discovered this in the block center, there were soon animals flying all over the room, and children experimenting with different catapult designs. This was fascinating, but also not particularly safe for a classroom, so we took everyone outside to build catapults. What design makes the object fly farther? What design makes it fly higher? When children are exploring, they are natural scientists, testing ideas, discussing alternatives, and drawing conclusions based on their own observations.

We set up our science center in the classroom to further this interest. We added cardboard and plastic tubes, ramps, cups, and blocks for building marble runs. The children have been experimenting with different designs to make the marble roll faster or farther. We talk about how with a catapult, we apply force to make the object move, and with ramps we let gravity pull the object.

This learning extended into the art center. One child wanted to recreate the straw art project from a few weeks ago using a giant paper and a turkey baster. Soon several other children joined, with eye droppers and straws to move the paint around. As the paper got wet, it formed ridges and valleys. The children dropped paint onto the higher points and watched it roll down. “Just like the marbles roll!” They figured out if they pushed the ridges around they could manipulate where the paint would roll. Making connections across different disciplines helps students solidify learning.

Our “gravity painting”

When we went outside, the connections continued! Some children began to balance the large beams from the outdoor blocks across other blocks to create teeter-totters.  They practiced balancing with each other and seeing what happened when they made the teeter-totters taller or longer.

We read the book Balancing Act and discussed what happened when the mice tried to make their own teeter-totter. The children connected their own experimentation with the scenarios in the book, and got small sticks and toys to demonstrate what happened when more animals tried to get on the teeter-totter.

Suddenly the children remembered a learning tool we enjoy during math games: the math balance! “It’s like the numbers we put on and they’re the same!” “It’s equal!” “It’s three and three it’s the same on both sides! Like three and three is six and it makes the math balance not tip!” The children were connecting the physical act of balancing to the abstract concept of mathematical equations.

 

 

The math balance in action

As we demonstrated the numbers from the book on the math balance, one child noticed something– “when there’s two animals on one side and two on the other, the new frog should go in the middle! Then it would balance!” This led to a discussion of which numbers have “middles,” such as three, five, and seven (they can’t be divided equally– if you made two equal groups there will always be one number left over.) This is a concrete way to understand odd and even numbers.

 

Demonstrating our discover that three and five have “middles” and can’t be divided into equal groups.

Here are some more of the children’s noticings from this week:

Carmel: “We need a big wood to balance. Like a board, and we use screwdrivers to fasten it. Then we put a lot of things on and see if they don’t fall.”

Daniel: “We should have more pipes for the marbles. I want to make a marble run that goes all the way across the room. My bridge was very stable and the marble can go across it.”

Harvey: “If we had more cardboard pieces, we could make tunnels for the marbles. That way you can’t see where it is, then bam! Marble!”

Natan: “Me and Rylan are going to make a marble run down the loft stairs. We need lots of tubes and a block to stop it at the end.”

Rylan: “When the marble goes down the stairs it goes fast! We need to tape the tubes so they don’t fall.”

Jonny: “I want to put more things on the board outside to make a catapult. I want to see it go higher than me.”

Abigail: “Did you see my catapult! It made the pompom go extremely high! If you hit one end it just flies up!”

Shepherd: “I want to make a teeter-totter for lots of people. Like in the book with the mice and the frogs. And we can all go on and see how heavy.”

Yehonathan: “If you tip the ramp this way up the marble doesn’t go. If you tip it down it goes. And then you need something to catch it.”

Ella: “If you tip the tube higher the marble will roll. But if you lay it flat it just sits there.”

We will continue to explore physics next week, as the children’s interest has grown and they are asking for more specific materials to experiment with. If you have any toilet paper or paper towel tubes at home, we could use them!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Shaina