Making Shade

To end our weather project, I am posing a question to the children, "Can you make a structure to block the sun?"

This might seem easy at first, but it gets harder the more the children experiment.  

Meet Rose (affectionately named by one Junior Explorer)

Rose doesn't like the sun.  She wants to stay in the shade.  I asked the children to come up with a plan to make a structure to protect her from the sun.  

Day 1:

The children were allowed to use anything in the classroom.  I came up with one rule:  The structure cannot touch Rose.  I did this because it would be easy to just put a blanket or piece of paper over her, but I wanted there to be more of a challenge.

The children immediately fled to the block area to grab materials they were comfortable building with.

Here are some first attempts:

Animal Research

During the school year, the children have worked on becoming scientists.  They have used tools, practiced experiments, investigated and solved problems, and done some research.  In order to prepare for an end of the year field trip, they were going to put their skills and understanding of research to use.  Individualized research has been something they have not done yet.  As a class we have focused on the same research questions and worked individually or as small groups to answer it.  Now they are getting the chance to do their own research by studying a zoo animal of their choice.

First they picked an animal that lives at the Detroit Zoo.  We talked about what they already knew about the animal.  The children started recording information about their animal in a book.  This helped them understand what facts mean and how to organize information.  

My animal likes to eat mice.

While filling out the pages in the book, I asked the children what else they want to learn.  This is when we started doing the real research.  How do you ask a question that can be researched?  This is the step we are on currently.  The children will then figure out how to share this gained knowledge with peers.