What we Learned today - January 4, 2011

Today we worked through a book on sorting, seasons, bigger than, less than, the same, and rhyming. The lad had fun "x-ing" out any pigs he came across. "why don't you like pigs J? "they are too noisy mommy".

It was an easy book, but at times the lad had to think. It's good to see that he knows some of this stuff, and good to see him think.

We also did our "forms of beauty" lesson from a kindergarten curriculum that I have. This consisted of taking four pieces of coloured paper and arranging them in a balanced pattern. He also experimented with taking two pieces of paper and making them balance out. he thought a pause sign was a very nice form of beauty, as was a plus and an "x". :) I made a somewhat bigger one myself simply because it's fun to do.

Afterwards the lad made solar panels from our paper cutouts to make solar panels on Rabbit and Tagu's house (a large cardboard box). Yellow and black construction paper made the best looking solar panels.

Later on it was time for some boat play. We used that time to just have fun and to make some observations about our boats. The boats we were using were styrofoam meat trays, individual salad bowls from McD's, and pudding cups. After doing some experiments we learned that stryrofoam meat trays make the best boats, but the Salad bowls seal nicely so when the bunnies from Mars get their machine working and they lift the boats up, when it starts to rain, the boats that are sealed fall nicely into the water without spilling out all the bunny town rabbits out.

boats in the water

the bunnies from MARS have come

Did you know boats WON"T float if a bad egg sticks a needle in them?

the judge of the boats

We did some experiments with the pudding cups as well, using water and friction and the breathe power of a five year old.

I found this experiment interesting, and unexpected. I did not expect the two cups to hold the water in. I was sure it would leak out. BUT it did not. It only leaked out if the lad blew hard right at where the two cups joined up. The power of what... friction?? He played around with this for quite a while. And then he of course made a "bunnytown game" where he had to pour water from one cup into the other while not spilling any of it. He won apparently, while I somehow managed to lose.