The Science of Air

November 2nd,

Our friends got to create their own kites to experiment with the movement of air. For this project we decided to have our friends figure out how to create something that would fly out of simple materials. Using only paper and yarn our friends figured out how to fashion their very own kite! Each child’s kite was unique  because we let them do all the folding and fashioning themselves.

Once our friends finished making and decorating their kites it was time to fly them! Our friends went down into the dell to finally experiment with their creations.

These children made the observation that if they ran with the kites that they would even fly when the wind was not blowing. Other children observed that running down the hill with their kite would make it fly higher!

Exploration in Textures

October 26th

Today our friends in 5K went on a walk to gather leaves from various type of trees. This was a follow up exercise from our previous tree identification activity. Our friends each were given a basket and told to collect at least four different leaves. These leaves would later be used for a class project.

Once our friends gathered four leaves a piece we let them enjoy their work times by playing in the leaves before proceeding into the next part of our leaf project…

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Once we arrived back at the nursery we used  our outside classroom to make sketches of leaves. We explained to our friends that if you place a leaf under a piece of paper and rub a crayon over the leaf that it would create an imprint. Our friends did a great job figuring out how to create colorful leaf imprints while also identifying the leaves the were tracing!

 

What kind of tree do you see?

October 10th

Our friends went on a mission to discover different types of trees that lived on Randolph College’s campus. Before heading out to discover trees Miss Shanna had me assemble a tree book with names of various trees and pictures of the leaves to match each one. The class then tried to identify the tree by matching the leaf to the picture in the book. Our friends caught on fast and soon were identifying trees left and right. Our friends were extremely excited when the leaves matched the book. This project helped them remember the names of trees such as the Ginkgo tree more easily.

After tree hunting we send our friends on a mission to discover which kind of tree produced acorns… it didn’t take our friends very long to figure out where the acorns were coming from!