March 9-13, 2015

Welcome to the first week of trimester 3. With only one week before Spring break, we do need to fasten our seatbelt to move a bit faster than our regular speed. Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, March 17 and I am excited to share about the kids' progress at student led conference with all of you on Thursday, March 19.

My Journal center is open for business. We set this center as a one person at a time center to give each kid personal space to work without disturbing or being disturbed by his/her peers.  Having good senses of art, all the kids can't wait to have a turn to express their thoughts, feelings, stories and experiences through their drawings. 

5 apples for 5 dots on the dice

Red apple, green apple, red apple...

10 Apples Up On Top

Carefully added different materials to the socks

Preparing the puddle for the tweetle
beetles battle with paddle in a bottle

Mr. Brown can moo moo

The clay feels so cold

My sculpture is not ready yet

Yay! I can put this puzzle back together 

This is the final week of author study: Dr. Seuss. His books that we discussed this week were 10 Apples Up On Top; Fox In Socks; Oh, The Places You'll Go; The 500 Hatf of Bartholomew Cubbins; and Mr. Brown Can Moo. Discussing all Dr. Seuss' books for three weeks, the kids start growing their Seussical side. With their very limited reading capability, some of the kids can even tell which book is written by Dr. Seuss just by looking at the picture on the book cover. Marvelous!

Awed by the apple slicer

Lay the sliced apples carefully on the pan

Our apple crisp served with neapolitan ice cream 

Inspired by 10 Apples Up On Top book, we spent almost one hour to prepare our apple crisp. The highlight of our cooking class this time was the apple slicer. I am not sure whether they have seen or used this tool before or not, but when they tried to use it, they couldn't stop saying WOW. They were then more than happy to have apple crisp served with neapolitan ice cream for dessert at lunch time.

  

Lots of color we saw on Oh, The Places You'll Go gave us an idea to do this science experiment. Color changing milk is a very simple science experiment. Some very unusual things happen when you mix a little milk, food coloring and a little dish detergent applied on a cotton swab. What's happening? Milk is mostly water, but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk). The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap's polar, orhydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. This is when the fun begins. The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops.

Tia has become our class reader of honor at this week book share. She shared one of her favorite book, Madeline. Thank you for sharing, Tia.