This week we tested the strength of aluminum foil boats and pennies. Our goal was to sink each boat with as many pennies as possible. Most boats would hold between 6-10 pennies. One child found it humorous to hand me a paper stating, "I sank my boat with 0 pennies".
This extension of 'sink or float' gave us a way to reuse the new school lunch covers AND explore the power of surface tension. We look forward to creating a graph on Monday as a way to chart our data.
On Friday we enjoyed the company of a classmate's pet bearded dragon. We found a photo of it in our book on amphibians and reptiles, but not a lot of information. Thankfully this classmate could tell us a lot about his diet, his tank, and his typical behaviors. It was a wonderful chance for each child to touch and learn more about bearded dragons.
Like many children at this time of year in this country, there have been a lot of conversations about turkeys. One of our classroom adult volunteers told us about the names for the parts of the turkey: the beard, the spur, the snood, the wattle, and the caruncles. We found the card about a wild turkey in our card set from temperate forests of North America and we looked at the other animals commonly found in this biome. The children were interested when hearing a story about a flock of wild turnkeys that visited our adult volunteer's home in North Carolina every single morning over the course of a month.
Sadly, we are not in a common range to see wild turkeys, but there are many domestic turkeys in farms throughout the Redlands. The Little Farm, (http://thelittlefarm.us/), is a great place to learn more about turkeys and other fowl.
On Tuesday we look forward to sharing a meal with our friends and family for whom we are very grateful. Please join us at 12:00 and get ready for a feast! The children have a break this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and we hope you have a fun-filled holiday.
All the best, Ms. Joanna Boone