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.

Salt activities

Many, many thanks to Caroline Richardson (Max's mom) for coming in to talk with our class on Tuesday. Our class learned some fascinating things about salt and the human body, and the necessity of maintaining a precise concentration of salt in ourselves. There were some fascinating stories told!

The children have also been conducting some exciting cooking projects with salt. Two variations on an old-time catsup recipe are awaiting their taste trial tomorrow, and I expect they'll both be delicious. Yesterday, the class was served a scrumptious salad seasoned with lime juice and black lava salt—I highly recommend it! On our trip to the Spice Merchants store in Kerrytown last week, the children chose five varieties of salt to use in their projects, and the differences in taste are fascinating. And after break, we'll find out whether or not some brave students have managed to effectively preserve beef and salmon using various salts and herbs.

Yankee Air Museum

Photos

Here are just some lovely classroom photos from today, and some that I couldn't get to format properly yesterday:

Crystalline experiments

There have been wonderful scenes of unrestrained curiosity this past week, all related to crystals. To begin with, salt forms crystals, and last week the children got to examine salt crystals through magnifying glasses. We had two types of salt crystals, sea salt and Himalayan pink salt (both bought at Trader Joe's), and after the children had observed them at their desks for a few minutes, I mentioned that if anyone wanted to undertake an experiment using regular school materials, I'd be glad to help... That was all the input I gave. What followed was a burst of classroom-wide creative curiosity that was entirely student driven! Some of the experiments that have been completed (or are still underway) include—but are not limited to—:

— testing the properties of salt as an antifreeze, by placing two cups of water, one salted and one fresh, in the freezer

— sprinkling the two kinds of salt on different ice cubes, to see which cube would melt first

— dissolving the salts together in a pot, and letting the water evaporate, to see if the two salts would be combined or separate in the residue, and to see what form (separate crystals? a solid lump?) that residue would take

— taste-testing salt water to see if the two salts could be reliably distinguished by taste

— placing large salt crystals in a cup of water, without stirring, to see what would happen

— testing to see which type of salt dissolved faster

— finding out whether warm or cold water dissolves salt faster

As to other types of crystals: the beginning of our salt theme coincided with the first snow of the year. We've taken the magnifying glasses outside, examining and drawing snowflakes on different days and at different temperatures. I've heard exclamations from all around the playground: "Oh I found a really good snowflake, come look at this!" "I think they're made up of tiny crystals, in strings..." "This snow is totally different from yesterday! It's like balls instead of snowflakes... almost more like ice than snow."

And yesterday, I got called over to the sandbox at recess to examine a piece of sod with ice crystals hanging below it. It is absolutely wonderful being around these observant, curious children.

December

We are ready to begin a new theme! Although the Summers-Knoll classes usually follow a common theme each month—each in our own ways—this month, our class is departing slightly from that tradition. While the rest of the school does author studies, we will be studying salt.

There are so many possibilities! Salt is (and has been) a crystal; a chemical compound necessary for human life and the functioning of our bodies; an economic staple of more than one civilization; an object of superstition; a symbol of social standing; and one of the most commonly used ingredients in cooking throughout the world. In the next three weeks, we're going to discuss salt in all of these contexts! We've begun already, and today the children plumbed some of their own knowledge about salt: that it is a rock, that it was used to pay Roman soldiers, that it is tasty, that our bodies require it and expel it, that it can be gathered by causing sea water to evaporate, and much more. As you can see, they are well prepared for this theme. The plans for salt month include a visit from Caroline Richardson (Max's mom), who will be coming in to talk to us about salt and the human body, and a class trip to Spice Merchants in Kerrytown, to see the many kinds of salt for sale there (and, perhaps, to buy some for a project...). I'm also looking forward to studying Gandhi's march to the sea with the children, in part because we've been hearing stories from the Mahabharata, one of the great Hindu epics of India, and it will be nice to tie that in with a more modern story.

There are several other field trips and special activities coming up this month, as well, including a school trip to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops perform at the Michigan Theater this Friday. On Wednesday, December 15, we will all be going to the Yankee Air Museum (harkening back to flight month); and on Friday, December 17—which is an early dismissal day—our class will have a read-in! Those students who were in my class last year will remember that on read-in day, everyone comes in pajamas and brings blankets and pillows... but most importantly, everyone comes with lots of books to read. Except for snack and recess, we'll spend the whole morning reading together.

This is going to be a tremendously fun and busy month in the classroom. I am looking forward to it!

Peter Pan

Since we finished Gwinna a few weeks ago, I've been reading Peter Pan aloud to the class. I love this book, and the children are really enjoying it. But it is startlingly different from the Disney movie! One of the first things the children noticed was that Peter himself is not always a kind or thoughtful character; while he is brave and fun and in some ways principled, some kids have already mentioned that he sounds like a bit of a bully. There are also all sorts of adventures in the book that never made it into the Disney film.

One question I've been asking the kids to consider as we go along is, "In what ways is this book different from a book that might be written today?" We began simply, noticing that the language is a bit different from ours, the people wear different clothes and have different routines (much earlier bedtimes for children!)... but gradually we are approaching some of the points that make this book slightly tricky for modern readers. Women and men are not treated equally. English people and Native Americans are not treated equally. And, as one child remarked today, a modern book might have characters who doubted or questioned themselves more, and had internal conflicts to address. We've begun writing journal entries and having class discussions on these topics, and it's possible that they may come up at home as well.

This is a wonderful book, despite its political incorrectness. Shakespeare also had standards and beliefs that don't align with our modern culture; all these works are worth enjoying with children, but they do need to be set in context and discussed. The children are bringing a good deal of perceptive attention to my questions about the time when this book was written, and it's a joy to see their focus deepen and their understanding broaden.