Lingering in Joy

"It's snowing!" Those gleeful words had the whole school cheering this past week. With our windows cracked open, snowflakes sometimes even drift into the classroom. But the true fun happens when they are out in it. We have lots of sleds, but many of our kids are as happy just rolling or belly sliding down the hill. There are snowball fights, snow angels, and tiny snowmen. They help to shovel it and sweep it. We may have only gotten a few inches, but it was enough for plenty of joy.

It's a talent of our kids - finding the joy in the moment. As we sing, experiment, write, and solve math problems, they are in the moment. We're lucky that we often don't need to force a transition but can let them linger in that moment. One day this week recess was a little longer to let them continue all their cool snow play. I let my writers keep going that extra ten minutes to finish their "How To" book. We had some reading buddies that came a bit late to all school clean-up because they wanted to finish a book.

Please note the many pairs of gloves that have found their way into our lost and found, and let us know if you're missing any!

Our Theme: Science Symposium

Every January it's time for our Science Symposium. We review the parts of the scientific method and do a few experiments together. We talk about variables and the importance of careful observation. Then each child works on their own experiment that we present to our school community at the end of the month. We do the work at school so that it doesn't become a family responsibility and so we can all learn together.

Our PK and K students are working with the idea of buoyancy. They spent one afternoon testing different materials to find out what floats and what sinks. It wasn't always an obvious answer because sometimes it depended on how an object was placed in the water. They also experimented with building different boats out of tinfoil to see if they could make something that floated. Not only did their boats float, but they could also take on domino "passengers."

Our first - fifth grade students have come up with a topic that interests them, a testable question, a hypothesis, and a materials list. Next week we'll be working on procedures.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with all of their experiments over the next few weeks.