Leaves & Branches, Trunk & Roots

It’s very interesting and unexpected, but Gr changes his mind! He decides that we could use wood for axles. I am very surprised – especially after he was so adamant about using metal and not wood. By this time, the rest of his friends are not interested in listening to him. Metal it is. Gr feels left out and goes off on his own for a while, rolling tires around the yard.

I try and convince him that we voted and we decided so we can’t change our decision.  Eventually he comes along.  Thank goodness we haven’t gotten far on revolutions and re-votes yet.

We explore the shed and find two green plastic rim-like structures.  (Actually, these are the plastic “rolls” that our Christmas lights came on.)  The group thinks they might be perfect for making the rim. I ask them how we could attach it to the tire.

After some thought, they think of tape and wire. We decide to get some wire from the atelier and use it to connect the ‘rims’ to the tire.  (Surprise!  Tape again.  Thanks a lot, Teacher tom!  Wait until you see our….artistic…..tape sculpture that the two’s have made.)

Next week we will have to brain-storm and problem-solve. We might also need to make some compromises… it is possible that our tractor might be a stationary one rather than a mobile one if some construction issues can’t be solved.  Will this be acceptable?  The long term goal for this group has consistently been to create a mobile tractor and all non-mobile models created in the atelier have not been acceptable.

This week we focused our energies on figuring out how we would connect our tires that were donated to our tractor project, to the red wagon base. The group has formed a solid understanding of rims and axles and have successfully been able to apply that knowledge ( learned through building models using Lego) to our tractor.

On Tuesday, we worked on moving the pair of tires to the backyard. We then scavenged the back and front yards for material we could potentially use to put our wheels together.

We need little big wheels – Davs

Steady ,steady – Il (as they moved the tires to the backyard)

This has to be flat – Davs

If we put these wheels it will be very tall – Fr

We need to hold the two tires together – -Gr

We did teamwork – Il

We’re going to stick the wagon into the two tires – Il

That is the base – -Davs

This somewhat disjointed  conversation occurred while the boys were exploring the tires and trying to see how the wheels would fit on the wagon.  The boys are extremely interested in the tires, and are still distracted by the joy of rolling the tires around the yard.

We could not find anything conclusive to use for our rims and axles but we have an idea – it has to be round and long for the axle and It has to be metal.

Wednesday

We decided to explore the rims and axles on the tractors at the farm so we walked over to the farm.

The bolts are holding them together – Gr

The rim is there to hold the wheels together we can put the wheel on this spot – Et

Et thinks we can use wood to make an axle after he concludes that a long rounded log looks much like an axle.
Gr strongly disagrees

No, because its not metal – Gr

Lets check everywhere for metal. – Gr suggests. So the group runs all over the place trying to find something that could be used as a metal axle.

I think I’ll take a piece of this wood, it looks like an axle – suggests Et who is very convinced that we could use the wood.

It has to be metal – Gr

There’s no metal here! – Et

Maybe on the shop or in the ground, there’s metal– Et

We have a vote because Ethan and Griffin are getting into a very heated debate about metal or wood. What do the rest of the team members think? Surprise surprise…Metal wins. So we must find something that’s metal.

the slide! Its metal – Fr

And it has a round piece like the log – Davs

We go and explore the slide – could take it apart to make an axle?

A letter by the four year olds, when they couldn’t come to a consensus about how to resolve a Princessship that shouldn’t be listened to:

Dear Mayor,

If you told us to do dangerous things, the kids would say no no no I don’t want to do dangerous things ever.  But if you told us to do dangerous things, you are doing a bad job but it’s still your job. So how do we ask for another mayor if the mayor is doing a bad job?  But it’s still his job.  Do we get police to take you to jail?  And then there is no mayor.

My dad could use dangerous stuff like a chain saw to cut trees, but kids can’t.  Batman and Superman can do dangerous things too.  But not kids.  Some people in New York can do dangerous jobs like ride camels.  But not kids.  This is a problem.

At school, we have a princessship at school.  It’s a kid’s teacher who is in charge.  If the princessship tells us to do dangerous things, we have to say no, but if the princessship isn’t doing their job, so they shouldn’t be the princessship anymore, but it’s still their job.

What do we do?

Asking the children to draw what happened yesterday when they sat on the teeter totters:

Sa: “I didn’t sit, I just pushed it down and the teeter totter went up”

Dr: “I fall down, Ew fall down, I went back and fall down again, went back on again, fall down again”

Miss Zahra: “How can you stop falling down?”

Dr: “I need tape on it, on the teeter totter and on the grass”.

Ew: “I fall down, I didn’t got hurt, then I put my hand up”

Ma: “LoB and Ma sitting on the teeter totter making friends, fall off so we go to Miss Zahra and then we feel better”.

Yes….that’s right….Tape is solution to the teeter totter woes!  Not actually bringing tape outside (since the two’s classroom is COVERED in tape, and starting to look web-like, we’ve all had enough of sticky stuff) we went back outside to explore the teeter totters several times, and the children’s understanding of how to build teeter totters, how they work, and when it is best to get off safely grew quickly….and grew into cockiness.  As soon as the children discovered they could make the child on the other end “bump” to the ground quickly by just jumping off of the teeter totter end, then we had to change the teeter totter game.

Rolling several large logs together, the teachers wondered aloud what might happen if we tried to build a teeter totter that doesn’t move.

Quickly, Dr and Ew understood, and two ramps and a bridge were built.  Here is the curious part: immediately all the children began running up the ramp and hurling themselves off the ‘bridge’, landing on the grass (sometimes quite hard) and then calling for help to get out of the water.

It’s day 3, and the children are still throwing themselves off the ‘bridge’.  I don’t get it.  But maybe I don’t have to – they are giggling and having a lot of fun – and they now have a pretty strong understanding of levers, weights and measures, and the usefulness of ramps.  Where to extend it from here….

I don’t often do a post just directing people to other sites, but this one is important:

One of our parents runs a recipe blog full of healthy recipes for picky eaters.  

Now, I’m sure your child isn’t a picky eater.  But on the off chance that they are…..click here.

Before we go outside I ask the 3’s to do some projective drawing as to what they think a teeter totter looks like and I ask them what a teeter totter does? They draw out their plans, and try to explain to me what it is that we will be making outside today.

Dr:” You go bounce bounce”

Ow T: “I go up and my mommy and daddy go down”

Sam:”you go up and down, up and down”

We got ready to go outside and walk over to the backyard where there lay a big piece of wood and log. I ask the children if we can make a teeter totter with these materials and they immediately begin to try. They start by trying to lift of the piece of wood. Then they stand up.

Sa:” It’s still not done”

Sam: “Everyone is standing on top, we need to get wood on top of that one” (pointing to the log)

Miss Z: “How can we get it on top?”

Dr: “We need dump truck do it”

Sam: “No we can do it together”  She tries on her own. “It’s too heavy”

Sam turns to Ni “Are you ready, two hands”

They couldn’t move the wood together.  Granted, the coordination isn’t that great…

Sam:” We need the four year olds, there not here, we have to wait for them to come out”

We waited.

I have noticed this more and more often – that the 3’s, rather than deferring to the teachers for advice, are looking to the four year olds. And as the four year olds become more capable in explaining why and how, they are positioning themselves as quite the authorities in the school.