I am so exited...first of all because of the beautiful weather that we have been having lately! We have finally been able to go outside the whole hour with the kids and they have been absolutely loving it! Since the weather has really been good to us here in Madera I took full advantage of it and decided to head outside and have free play on Monday! The kids loved it, some were playing dodge ball and others were playing with the hula hoops we have!
The children asked me if they could show me a few games they had created and of course I eagerly watched! They also asked if they could play the games they showed me the next day and they also put on a show with hula hoops, juggling, and magic! WOW!!! (They were still crazed about the movie we had watched a few weeks back...(Madagascar 3)...the next day they practiced for a bit then they put on the show! They raced the hula hoops, juggled and "made magic...it was so much fun
Someone even brought bubbles and they tried to see who could get the biggest bubble out of the bunch! The next couple of days I took advantage of a lecture/teachable opportunity...I wanted to teach them about illusions and hypothesizing. It took us the next couple of days to explain what hypothesizing was and what we were going to do. Science at work. I wanted to keep it real simple so I went to the dollar store and got some of those growing capsules that turn into animals when they expand with water. First I showed them all the materials we were going to use and wrote it on our worksheet. Next we defined what hypothesis was and we then hypothesized what was going to happen with the materials as we implemented the procedure. I had them write that down (so we could have something to compare to actual vs. hypothesis).
I instructed the children on what to do step by step:
1. Take a cup
2. Fill it with water
3. Take capsule and put it in cup
4. Let sit for about 1 hour (in our case until next day)
5. Explain what happened (by today the capsule would've busted open and the figure would've formed)
6. Ask the children to write if their initial hypothesis was true
Last week was so much fun and the children learned so much but they didn't even notice it because they were so preoccupied in hypothesizing in knowing what the capsule really was! It was great! Also, an update from last post about the fair, I finally got our fair collage of drawings and paintings together and am now looking forward to decorate and have lots of fall activities! Enjoy and Happy Fall!!!
