Minecraft

We asked a children for ideas on what they would like to change the house area into.  The class voted and Minecraft was the most popular choice with the children.

Here is what how the dramatic centre looks like after a few days. Since we have limited knowledge in the Minecraft game we had to have the children, the experts, explain it to us.

Roberto-
Steve tries to mine diamonds so he can make armour and hurt zombies and try to make material to make houses.  The material that he gets are all blocks.  Steve does a lot of work to get diamonds.  It's close to bedrock.

Antonio-
Herobrine, he was Steve he turned into Herobrine. There is slime and they drop slime balls.

Brandon-
In Stampy`s World, the zombies look different. And there`s even different villagers.

Both Brandon and Antonio explained the various drawings and faces that made up our Minecraft area.
Brandon- We made villagers.  The Skeletons shoot arrows.

Antonio- The chest is to put items in. We made spiders and they climb stuff and throw webs at you.

The children also made Creepers, Steve, and zombies.

Some children made Minecraft costumes to represent characters.

Diamond Steve, Gold Steve, Iron Steve

Pine Cone Inquiry

During our scientific observations about the buoyancy of certain objects in water, we discovered that the little pine cone floated. We presented a bigger pine cone to the children and noticed that it did not float. The children concluded that the little pine cone floated because it was lighter and the biggest one sank because it was heavier. We asked the children "How could make the big pine cone float?"

Giuliana thought it would float "by using something that is light to keep the pine cone floating."

Ava said "a boat".

Roberto mentioned that a rubber ducky would help the pine cone float. We did not have one but we looked for something made of rubber. Roberto found his rubber boots. First, he put one of his boots in the water to see if it would float. Roberto concluded that his boot was too heavy. He tried Rose's boot which was smaller however, it was still too heavy.

Evallie had a balloon in her hands. After talking about the observations made during the activity on buoyancy (hollow object contain air inside), we decided to put air in the balloon. We attached the pine cone on the balloon.  It floated but because of the shape of the balloon (round), the pine cone rolled to the bottom.

Roberto said: "Let's add water!" By adding water to the container, the children were able to observe that the big pine cone started to float. Kaitlyn observed that "it makes it lighter (pine cone) so it floats.


I explained that their was more water, so more force to push the pine cone up.

We shared those observations with our other friends during our large groupe gathering.


Giuliana had made a long boat using cardboard and masking tape. She said that not letting the water go in her boat would keep the boat floating and allow the big pine cone to float.

I helped the children understand, that because the boat was long there was more surface for the water to push up the boat. The big pine cone floated with the help of her boat.

Finally, I had the children observe what happens when the boat is made shorter by cutting it, consequently providing less surface for the water to push up the boat. We placed the big pine cone on the shorter boat and the pine cone sank.

Luke`s Caterpillar

On Tursday, Luke brought a caterpillar to school to show his friends.  The children got to use their 5 senses to make scientifc observations about it. We also measured the length, height and width of the caterpillar.

Length 3cm, height 1 cm, width 1 cm

Here are some observations made by the children:

Folu: The caterpillar is eating.

Evallie: It's eating lettuce.

Juliet: The caterpillar is moving.

Evallie: It smells like a leaf.

Ayvah: It smells like salad.

Ayvah and Ivy: It's soft.

Ayvah, Ivy, Evallie and Folu: It does not make a sound.

Luke: What color is the caterpillar? Brown/ Black

Luke: How does it feel when you touch it? Soft.

Luke: Does it make any noise? No noise.

Luke: How do you think the caterpillar is feeling? Sad, afraid, happy? Happy

Luke: What does the caterpillar smell like? Lettuce

Our Train

Noah is describing the train that he built with friends.

Noah`s been showing an interest in trains. We did an inquiry to know what he knew about trains and shared it with the class. Then, the other children shared what they knew and what they wanted to learn about trains. You can read about our train inquiry by going under the Our Inquiries tab. One question was how can we build a train. Noah, Colin, Jane and Antonio helped make a design of a train on paper.  Together with other friends they built the train using boxes, a recycle bin, construction paper and tissue paper (see picture above). Noah described the train as being a Steam Train. He mentioned that the driver of a train is called a "conductor". The children also learned that the first wagon of a train is the engine. It is followed by wagons and the last wagon is called the caboose.  Noah said that today's trains work on diesel gas. We watched videos that demonstrated how a Steam Train and a Diesel Train work.