Math and science, part 1

We have had some interesting things going on in math and science, this past week! On Friday, we had the great good fortune to spend over an hour with George Albercook, who is an amazing science teacher. George happened to be at the school that afternoon, and offered to teach the kids about the interaction between heat and changing states of matter: specifically, the amazing fact that when you heat a panful of snow on the stove, the temperature rises steadily to around 32ºF.... and then stays at that temperature for some time, although the burner is still on. Ask your children why! And from the same causes, you can even boil water in a paper container, directly on the stove. The kids pretended to be molecules, and felt with their bodies the difference between being connected in a solid, a liquid, a gas, and even a plasma! The kids were fascinated, and believe me, so was I.

Solid...

Liquid...

Gas...

Boiling water in a piece of paper!

the Mahabharata—a play

Our class will be putting on a play again this year! Last year, we had a huge success with our production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. This year, we're not doing Shakespeare; we'll attempt, instead, the Mahabharata, one of the great Indian Hindu epics. The class has been listening to the stories that compose this myth since before our winter break, and it is a long story all together! We'll have to compress it for our production, and to that end we will be incorporating both puppets and live action, and even masks.

We began the real work of the play in the first week of January, deciding which scenes to include, discussing the design of the production, trying out scenes and characters and designing puppets. Although parts aren't assigned yet, today we had our first scripted rehearsal, with everyone trying out the same scene in different ways. There was some beautiful acting on display!

We don't have a fixed venue or performance date yet, but Joanna and I are working on it. Our goal is to perform before the SK midwinter break begins on February 20th.

Dreamland Theater

What a fun field trip we had today! In keeping with our "theater and puppetry" theme, the whole school went to Dreamland Theater in Ypsilanti, where we got to see a puppet show and have a question-and-answer session with the puppeteers. Everyone really enjoyed the show; during each scene change, there was an enthusiastic burst of chatter and laughter from the audience as the children processed what they'd just seen. There was also some in-seat dancing to the scene-change music!

Back in our classroom after the show, it seemed like everyone had a favorite puppet or two that they'd seen, and some ideas about what they'd liked best in the production. It's great to hear the children's opinions on what they've experienced.

Many thanks to everyone at Dreamland for sharing their art with us!

A New Year!

Our class welcomes a new student this week: Laurea Wright, who is in 3rd grade, will be with us for the rest of the year, and we are very happy to have her. Welcome, Laurea!

In other news, here are just a few reading photos, from our read-in in December and from a short buddy reading session with Elaine's class today.