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Otter Class: Aircraft Project Mid-Project Summary

  By joremland • December 13, 2017 ,

Hi again!  As promised, here’s a quick and dirty description of what the children have been doing, what they plan to do, and what I’ve observed them learning.  There’s also a useful link at the bottom.

In the previous posts, I didn’t describe these additional activities in which the children engaged:

  • Measured their feet to figure out how big to make the pedals
  • Measured a piece of wood to match (picture below)
  • The door cracked — they fixed it.
  • Pretended to go on a flight
  • Felt the sensation of wearing a real pilot’s headset
  • Continued learning how to read maps
  • Began learning about scale and its relationship to the phenomenon that things look smaller when they are farther away

Every pilot needs a flight bag containing vital equipment and information.

With two weeks to go before break, the students plan to:

  • Install port side wing strut
  • Make and install instrument panel
  • Paint the Piper logo (link is not an endorsement, just a reference!) on the first control yoke and install
  • Build, paint, and install second yoke
  • Possibly add the pedals and rudder

The kneeboard…

…holds the flight map securely to the pilot’s leg.

The pilot can’t drop it and never needs to hold it in their hands.

From an educator’s perspective, the students have been using and building a variety of skills and abilities:

  • book research
  • guided internet research
  • working with a subject matter expert (Mrs. Linstromberg)
  • using uniform, non-standard tools to take linear measurements for authentic purposes
  • solving problems using math
  • using divergent and convergent thinking to solve problems
  • writing (students made labels for various parts of their plane)
  • conducting physics experiments (cars on the wing)
  • iterative design:
    • evaluating the effectiveness of a strategy or technique
    • imagining and/or learning of new techniques to try
    • trying them
    • re-evaluating, re-imagining, re-trying…
  • reading diagrams of airplane parts
  • expanding fine motor skills through cutting and pasting a collage of aircraft
  • expanding gross motor skills through finding new ways to get in and out of the climber with the new door and with no slide attached

A white light in the cockpit would dangerously affect the pilot’s vision. A red light is used to illuminate anything the pilot needs to see inside.

Perhaps most important, I believe the students have been building the following dispositions:

  • the belief that they are autonomous beings whose contributions are valuable to themselves and to others
  • curiosity
  • as they see me learning from Mrs. Linstromberg, I believe they are seeing that learning is a lifelong, enjoyable endeavor
  • cooperation
  • creativity and inventiveness
  • problems are for solving and they have the capacity to solve them
  • persistence

measuring the wood we’ll use to make the pedals

Later, I found this.  A student had measured it all the way around…just for fun.

There are several sets of new photos to be enjoyed on the Otter Class Protected Images Page.  Click, enter your password, and enjoy!!

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Otter Class: Aircraft Project Update

  By joremland • December 11, 2017 ,

building the car wash (the gauzy fabric hanging down was the simulated water, the rope became the washing tentacles)

The airplane project started a few days after the students had built a car wash in the classroom.  The car wash had been a good springboard for pretend play, emergent writing (signs are needed to tell people where the entrance and exit are), useful conflict, and a great deal of laughter.  Students had installed the long washing tentacles that are so impressive when we first experience a car wash (I still think they’re pretty coo!) and blue fabric that simulated water.

making exit and enter signs

    

lets get clean!

When they decided to build an airplane, they first used blocks to build pilot seats.  It was an elaborate set up but a precarious one.   

It needed constant repair.

colored masking tape: our first favorite connecting strategy

They didn’t very much mind fixing it every few minutes. 

I guess that’s how it is sometimes with things we build from the heart.

 

“Don’t knock it down.”

“Please leave that alone. CHECK MARK!”

But with the car wash in the same space, the new airplane completely blocked the aisle.  The students were comfortable dismantling the car wash; it had lived its useful life.  Still, several people tripped on the pilot-seat blocks while trying to enter and exit the room, so we all agreed we needed to move the plane to a new location.

I suggested using the climber.  Everyone agreed, but some students were reluctant.  I felt conflicted.  On one hand, several children fell on the blocks and my adult eyes saw more danger in the future (like exiting in an emergency).  I also know from experience, which the children do not yet have, that the climber has been a rather inspiring canvas on which to create.  On the other hand, the children had created something and they deserved the right to decide its fate.  In the end, I don’t think I really badgered them into it, but I certainly pressed my opinion more than usual.  Fortunately, it has gone very well.

Students first identified the parts we needed to make, based on the knowledge they gained from Mrs. Linstromberg: wings, door, instrument panel, spinner, control yokes, and more.

The wings went up first, but they kept flopping down, so students installed struts using tubes and duct tape. After a few days, the adhesive lost its hold.

At this point in the year, students haven’t built a full toolbox of techniques for connecting things.  I’ll sometimes suggest new ideas for them to try and then add to their repertoire.  As we progress through the year, teachers encourage students to solve problems with the knowledge they possess.  They remember the techniques they’ve learned and choose the one they think is most applicable.  So far, the students have been primarily using tape and glue, along with the occasional use of staples.

For the wing strut, I suggested twine.  I showed students how to make holes in the wing and they threaded the twine through the holes, then we tied it down together.

A few days later it was time to install the door.  A student had suggested plastic for the door, and I pulled some from storage.

“Is this good?” I asked
“No, it needs to be white,” the student replied.
“Do you mean white like a cloud, or white like a translucent window…like this, it’s translucent,” I said, pointing to the glass.
“It needs to be translucent.”

Making the door took a few days. A student used unifix cubes to measure the width and height of the door opening,

transferred those measurements to the plastic, 

and then the cutting began.  Everyone took a turn cutting out the door panel (one picture is missing, it was in the previous post).

   

Finally, the door was ready to install. Students first tried out their current go-to strategy: duct-tape.

removing the protective film

When that failed, I didn’t tell them what to try next, but guided them to think of other connecting things they’d used recently.  Looking around the plane, one student noticed the twine and the light seemed to turn on.  ”That string!! Let’s go get some!”

The door is so translucent, you can’t really see that it’s there…

…but it is. See the duct tape apparently hanging in mid-air?

Did I mention I live for this stuff?!

Some students have been less deeply inspired by the plane but have still found ways to match their interests with the project.  Each day, these students have conducted intense research into the variables that cause toy cars to travel in different directions and speeds when placed on the wing.

“there it goes!” “where?” “that way!”

Meanwhile, other students worked on the yoke.  We’d collected some cylinders that would work well for the handles, but the central connecting part posed a challenge.  Students traveled the room looking for materials.  Mrs. Linstromberg gave little clues, “well, it should be square…”

In what seemed like a burst of excitement, a student said, “that!”
“What?” Mrs. Linstromberg asked.
“That block, the number one, it’s a square!”

With their trusty duct tape in hand, students connected all the parts and painted them black, just like the real thing.

Unfortunately, the next day, we arrived to see the black paint did not take to the plastic surface of the duct tape and flaked off.  Another problem to solve!

They did indeed solve that problem too but this post can’t go on forever (“too late!”).  Thanks for reading this far!!

OK, I know you have other things to do, so I’ll wrap it up here.  Tomorrow, just bullet points!

 

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Otter Class: The Passion is in the Air

  By joremland • December 9, 2017 ,

In the last two weeks, the Otter class has expressed an amazing, reignited passion for learning.  It’s the kind of excitement that an early childhood teacher like myself lives for.  Every day at school is a joy for me (ok, maybe not every single minute, that might be not-human, but definitely every day) and recently we’ve had some days on which I have said out loud, “this is why I do this!”

clamping a wing to the fuselage

So, thank you.  Thank you all for the privilege of working with these unique, curious, joyful and compassionate young people — your children.

hoisting the first captain’s seat into the cabin

That reignited passion came just at time when I’d been sensing a lull.  We’d been engaged in the auto racing project for a few weeks and the fire of interest we saw at the beginning seemed to be cooling.  This is not uncommon in classrooms that engage in emergent curriculum or the project approach as we do in the Quest preschool.

So, teachers ask questions.  Do students seem to be struggling to understand the content or are they uninspired by it?  Does their apparent lack of passion seem to relate more to the activities or to the topic itself?  We answer these, and more, and then make the best decision we can.

race car wheel in progress

The racing car project seemed to have a little bit of both. Racing cars, street vehicle makes and models, and racing superstars were a part of our daily conversations and jokes but they didn’t seem to like the books.  Students enjoyed watching Formula 1 races but they didn’t pretend to be race car drivers on the playground.  They built some race tracks but building a model race car in the classroom became something led more by the teachers than by the students.

making another wheel for the race car

When it happens, teachers face a challenge: do we push on or tack in a new direction. Pushing on could demonstrate the perseverance that we guide children to develop but it could also lead to days of boredom, uninspired activity, and, in turn, limited learning. Changing directions could spark new discoveries and extended learning but could also lead kids to surmise that one should give up in the face of a challenge.

Then, Mrs. Linstromberg had her special day and she taught us about small aircraft and piloting.  A new flame seemed to flash to life.  It was as if the students had become stagecoach drivers and Mrs. Linstromberg and I were clearing a road just ahead of them so they could continue the journey.

preparing a clamp for the other wing

The students are now leading several simultaneous aeronautic sub-projects, while Mrs. Linstromberg and I coach, help gather tools and materials, set up work areas, and facilitate problem solving.

 

donning safety goggles before working with tools

Some students have stuck with the race car, so that topic is still relevant.  We’re still working on at least one extraordinary car-related experience and a fun project.  Still, for the kids right now, the passion is clearly in the air.

Details to come!!

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Otter Class: I Could Write All Night

  By joremland • April 10, 2017 ,

Wow!  So much to tell you!  Thanks for your patience!

Gratitude

I hope you all had a terrific spring break.  While we were away from school, I was given the gift of attending the National Science Teachers Association 2017 conference.  During the three days, I enjoyed 22 sessions, focusing on diversity, pedagogy, curriculum development, how to deepen student-to-student conversation and argumentation (not arguing!), agriculture, collaboration, physics, space science, and more.  

Your support of Quest Academy helped me acquire this important professional development, and I’m excited about the things I’m already using to enhance your children’s education.  Thank you!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

It was a real pleasure to meet with most of you during conferences.  Hearing that your children are enjoying school was gratifying.  Even better, I enjoyed the chance to converse about your amazing children, their ways of seeing the world, their methods for exploring it and trying to make sense of it.  Furthermore, I learned a great deal from you during our conversations — thank you.  Being on this journey with you is a true gift and I invite you again to contact me if you have any questions that we didn’t cover.  I might or might not have an answer but certainly, through our connection, we will find a promising path forward.

During conferences, a number of families mentioned that they had been having difficulty accessing the Protected Image Page.  I’ve just uploaded some fresh images and will email you shortly with the access information you need.  Enjoy!

I also enjoyed delving more deeply with you into items from your children’s progress reports — thank you for bringing in your questions.  If you haven’t yet, you might want to check out the rating scale descriptors, to ensure that you’re clear on what the numbers really mean.

Special Days

Thanks again for the excellent snacks!  Thanks to everyone for your care in reading labels and helping ensure the health and safety of every student.  Thanks also to families who brought foods that we returned to you, for your patience.  We recognize that following the nut-free policy is not part of your normal shopping routine, so please continue to not take it personally if we have to send something back!

To get the most recent Snack Safely peanut-free foods list, please click here.  It’s updated every two weeks.  If you need a refresher on the nut free zone policy, it’s here.

We’ve had some amazing Special Day presentations.  Here’s a sampling of the great things we’ve enjoyed and learned from each other:

  • a science experiment/art exploration using milk and food coloring — fat is amazing!
  • how to use a calendar to track time and special events
  • sea creatures from Florida and the protective “homes” they create and leave behind when they die
  • the human body – bones, muscles, and digestive system
  • a couple of students have presented their pages in the Otter Class Family Book
  • how to play the trumpet
  • a virtual trip to the Shedd Aquarium
  • the powers of the Greek glass eye
  • an amazing antique mechanical coin bank and how it works
  • a visit with princesses

The growth we’ve seen in the children’s ability to speak clearly and purposefully about a topic is wonderful.  Thanks for your support of My Special Day – it continues to be an important part of our learning.

Holi

Do you recall that week in mid-March when we enjoyed that sudden snowstorm?  Well, it just so happened that it was the same week as the Holi celebrations in India.  Holi celebrates the coming of spring as well as the triumph of good over evil.  One of the most famous aspects is the brightly colored powder revelers throw on each other.  Following a recipe found on the internet (!), the students whipped up a few colors of gulal in the classroom.  Then we went outside and celebrated spring by throwing the powder on…the snow!  More pictures are on the images page.

Invitation

If you haven’t yet enjoyed coming into class to share your vocation, avocation, culture, or anything else you might like to share with your child’s class, please get in touch with me ASAP.  We have fewer than 40 days left of school and I want to get everyone in who’s interested and able to do so.  We have such wonderful diversity in our families and there is so much to share — family history, culture, hobbies, professional pursuits, and more.  Each and every parent has something to teach these children so if you can ever spare 20 minutes in the morning, we would like you to have a Special Day too!

Candy Project

We are making our way through the recipes.  We’re having a lot of failures and they are so delicious.  We’ve enjoyed reading, math, science, and much more through this work.  I’ve been most impressed with the focus groups.  Students have begun to comment separately on texture, flavor and appearance.  They have thoughtfully and gently critiqued their work, and many have declared it important to try again.

In the coming week, students will develop their packaging.  We’ll start by observing packages we have on hand as well as logos and product art in books.  If you have any candy packages around the house, please send them in for our study.  

I expect we’ll all learn a bit about color theory, solid geometry, writing, language, and how images and words can lead us to have certain ideas and feelings.

Art Class

I know Mrs. Sala has her own blog, but I was so excited by our internal field trip, I just had to tell you about it.  Recently the students began working in clay, specifically learning the “pinch pot” build technique.  This week, Mrs. Sala led us on a sort of treasure hunt to find the kiln.

Students were fascinated by the machine and had numerous questions about how it is used and how it works.  Check out more pictures here.

Other Goings-On

We could give it lots of other names, but there’s always some math happening around here…

…and emergent writing…

…this one needed to be mailed.  Thanks for the stamp, Mrs. Perry!

Some students helped build a new apparatus for the sensory table.

Outdoors, we tested new physics ideas: gravity, balance…

…and acoustics…yes, we’re singin’ in the rain! (well, laughing, actually).

 

 

Well, I could write all night, but I think I’d better call it a day!  See you soon!

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Otter Class: Sweet! Candy Science Update

  By joremland • March 24, 2017 ,

A few posts ago, I described the way the Candy Project came about and I outlined how I thought it would probably go.  So far, it is going that way!  All of the students did engage in book research and have notes in their journals showing their discoveries.

In that post, I also mentioned we’d have a virtual interview with a candy scientist.  Well, I’m ecstatic to tell you that Jason Dews and Maria Anderson from the Ferrara Pan Candy Company in Bellwood, Illinois actually came to our classroom!

Mr. Dews is on the engineering side of candy and Mrs. Anderson is on the chemistry side.  Students first learned that “all candy starts with an idea.”  Sometimes the idea comes from the bosses, sometimes from the scientists, and sometimes from consumers.  Mr. Dews and Mrs. Anderson explained how the idea goes through a cycle of development, including design, prototyping, focus group data collection, refinement, and back to design.  Mrs. Anderson taught us about the common ingredients in candy.  She also brought a refractometer and taught our students how to use it to literally see how much sugar is in a given solution.

 

Students learned that designers’ first attempts at making a new candy sometimes don’t work and scientists often have to make many versions of a new idea before they find the one that has the preferred appearance, flavor, texture, and hardness.  Mr. Dews explained how some of the machinery works to make and package the candy.

After the lesson, a few students showed Mr. Dews their candy designs and he offered encouragement and coaching. Meanwhile, we all prepared to engage in a focus group to test a candy innovation that involved dipping gummy worms into three different kinds of dip.

Students learned that food coloring that’s designed to stain your tongue is called a “dye” color, and one that’s designed to leave your tongue its own color is called a “lake” color.  We were very grateful for the time and expertise Mr. Dews and Mrs, Anderson gave us (not to mention the gummy worms!).  After we said thank you and goodbye to our subject matter expert visitors, the students sat down to write thank you notes.

This week, they visited another subject matter expert, Mrs. Perry, to learn how to mail those notes to Mr. Dews and Mrs. Anderson.  Mrs. Perry fielded questions about the postage machine and how the mail would actually get to the people to whom we sent it.

This week, students have began making their candy inventions.  In preparing for this, I was unable to find candy molds for a “house” shape and “Ta’kaa” (from Moana), so we learned that we can make our own molds of any shape we wish by adapting sand casting.  Sand cast molds are made by pressing the desired shape into damp sand, removing that shape, and then pouring the material into the sand mold.  This week, students have been making crayons using this technique — children casted crayons in the shape of toy cars, toy ice cream, and various geomentric shapes from our manipulatives bins.

But, you say, we can’t eat sand or crayons, so what does that have to do with candy?!  Well, this technique is supposed to work by substituting confectioner’s sugar for sand, and candy solution for wax!  As of this writing we’ve tried it twice, with different results. 

     

We’ve been following the process we learned from Mrs. Anderson and Mr. Dews.  Students did research, created their designs, looked at established recipes, modified them for their own innovation, and made a batch of candy.

During the making phase, students are writing or dictating the amounts of ingredients and the procedure — that way, when we taste the candy, we’ll know what we did to make it.

The following day, we’re running focus groups to gather opinion data on the prototype. The first innovation was supposed to come out hard, but it came out “slimy” and “gooey;” still, it tasted “great!” (Who can complain about a failure that tastes good?)  Students used this failure as a learning experience: the second innovation we tried was supposed to be slimy, so we did essentially the same thing.

We still have many innovations to try to create.  In the days ahead, and when we return from break, we’ll continue to create test batches, run focus groups, and create packaging.

Check out the photographs to the Protected Images Page!

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Chapter 4, The Zoo Project

  By joremland • March 12, 2016 ,

We’re approaching the end of the Zoo Project.  In this project, students chose both the content (which animal) and the mode of expression (poster, book, or video) in this project.  Student choice in these aspects of school work is one form of differentiation, and it has been exciting to see the individuality each child has brought to their learning.

Student authors and artists have completed their books and posters, and those creations are now on display in our foyer.  Meanwhile, student film-makers worked in pairs (a videographer and a presenter) using a green screen background.  This past week, each filmmaker chose a background image that would help them tell their story.  By early next week every student will have used the iPad to combine their photo and background to create their complete video, and those will be on display in the foyer too.

IMG_20160229_103437823Meanwhile, the water table was a busy experimentation zone.  First, students enjoyed a video of beavers building a dam, a lodge, and an underwater “refrigerator,” using their teeth the way people use a chain saw.  Then, students tried their own hand at it in the water tables (without chewing any trees down — and no chain saws).  For two weeks, that center featured an upper and lower reservoir, and a long stream bed.  Sometimes the stream bed was unadorned, other times it was covered in a layer of sand.  Using rocks, sticks, and other materials, students worked to create a dam and to experiment with other features to change the course of the river.  My favorite part of this was the initial puzzle – students solving the problem of the empty upper reservoir.

“Mr. O! It’s empty!”

“Hmmm, let’s see what we can do…”

A few students made suggestions and tried them out, discovering failure (like trying to lift the 8 gallon lower reservoir to pour it into the upper one).  They didn’t let that stop them.  After a number of ideas were tested, a couple of students discovered some useful tools in the room, they shared their idea with others, and soon the riverbed explorations were off and running.

This past week, we virtually explored the Arctic habitat.  The water table featured cold water and icebergs, along with a variety of hand-coverings to test out: cloth gloves, winter mittens, rubber gloves, and vegetable shortening that served as the blubber Arctic animals have to insulate them in frigid water.  Many students explored these insulators to see which ones worked best for them, and we co-created a chart of their discoveries.IMG_20160224_102709130

Students also engaged in “monster classification,” creating categories of “monsters” that have a variety of discrete characteristics. In pairs, students organized the monsters by rules of their own discovery. Next week, we’ll present vocabulary for this, and begin applying it to the trickier task of applying it to animals found on earth.

Please be sure to check the specials’ teachers blogs (links are in the upper right corner of this page), there are some amazing things happening in those classes!

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Otter Class: Salon Project

  By joremland • May 21, 2015 ,

 

A few weeks ago, a few students spontaneously began to “do” each others’ hair.  We grabbed the iPad and looked at a few internet photos of salons to get a sense of how they look.  Students jumped up and began setting up chairs in our sensory area.  We didn’t have everything we needed, but it was a great start.  Children donned smocks to “catch the hair,” but the aprons really served to keep clients’ clothing dry as stylists enthusiastically misted their hair. 

The children’s energy and curiosity led  us to investigate further, including multiple trips to the Aquarius Salon in our plaza.

Some students wanted to interview people, and they recorded what they learned through interviews with the proprietor, stylists, and clients.  

 

Some students were more interested in the equipment, so they made observational sketches of the stylists’ chairs and tools, the computer, and other aspects of the salon. 

One student has a passion for all things financial, and she put significant effort into learning about the cash register, credit cards, pricing, and the like.

Desi Perna, one of the salon’s managers, gave students a tour of the salon, teaching them some of the hidden aspects of the business:  

  • the careful chemistry and math involved in coloring hair

  • the importance, experience, and details of a good stylist/client relationship
  • computerized scheduling system
  • the importance of cleanliness and careful organization of equipment and materials

  • how credit cards work
  • salon pricing systems
  • vocabulary: consultation, client, damage, credit, chemistry

Back in the classroom, students continued building the salon they’d started, using vocabulary they learned at the salon, while also using and expanding their emergent literacy skills in the process.

We also  enjoyed several “hairy” books:

  • The Girl Who Would Not Brush Her Hair, by Kate Bernheimer and Jake Parker
  • Crazy Hair, by Neil Gaiman
  • Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom, by John Rocco.

And now, a huge THANK YOU!

Thank you, Aquarius Salon,

A big thank you goes out to Desi Perna, Sue, Michelle, and everyone at Aquarius Salon.  You welcomed our students with kindness and opened your place of business to our investigation.  Your clients were also patient and gracious, answering questions and generally allowing us to use some of their valuable time.  Our students learned a great deal about the salon business, its practice, and its focus on client satisfaction.  Perhaps more importantly, students learned that when they act on their curiosity, there are adults in unexpected places who are ready to help us reach our goals.  

Thanks again!