Today we had some cool stuff come up, so I thought I'd share them for the weekend. Here are some great "homework" ideas and ways you can extend the discussions at home!
Today we watched these two videos about where yarn comes from and how it is made. This topic has come up a few times recently when the students have been trying to decide how to categorize this material. In the first video (which we watched without sound so we could watch and investigate), the students were intrigued by the transformation of the alpacas. They look so different after sheering!
The kids were also wondering how the fur becomes yarn. Aryav brought up this great word: processed. The fleece needed to be processed. So we watched the second video and our hunches proved correct. Cecelia had mentioned that she thought that twisting the fibers would make them stronger. The kids were intrigued by the Peruvian woman's technique and all the subtle things this included like stretching, twisting and spinning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InV4uRir8Qo
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/woman-making-yarn-from-alpaca-wool/4f6871e175047d74c1b94f6871e175047d74c1b9-838396150941?q=making+alpaca+yarn&FROM=LKVR5>1=LKVR5&FORM=LKVR
Also, this morning Thyra shared her work about water darkness in relation to it's depth. This was inspired by the conversation we had when Tayler showed her model of the place she stayed in Florida. Thyra has noticed that the deeper end of the pool often looks darker than the lighter end. She created a first draft of a representation of this phenomenon. In our revisiting meeting we discussed possible reasons and decided to create some research questions. If you have a pool at home, or visit a pool in your life, can you do some research for the class? Here are the kids' research questions:
Does your deep water look darker?
How deep is your pool?
Is there a shade structure near or over your pool?
How does the water look when you are under water?
Are there any parts of your deep end water that seem lighter?
And finally, an update. The class has been trying to build their Kappla structure as high as the ceiling and many friends this week worked on it. Friday, the structure fell again. The class let out a collective laugh and "awe!". Then Madelynn and Henry immediately began rebuilding the structure. The students are trying to be VERY precise about the way they lay down the blocks. Will we reach the ceiling before the school year ends?
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weekend! Love, Jennifer
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