Tuesday, October 3rd

On a nature walk to Volta Park, Max glanced up at the changing colors of the leaves in a tree and asked, "How do they know when to let go?" We revisited that question at lunch today:
Vivienne: When we were going to school, we saw different color trees.
Cassius: Because it's Fall. 
Kate: So does nature know when it's Fall?
Cassius: Yes.
Ellee: Nature decides when it's Fall.
Jay: God decides when it's Fall. 
Cassius: Yea, God decides.
Ellee: Fall is nature, so nature is Fall, so nature decides when it's going to be Fall. 
Mac: I think it's because leaves are scared of the ground. 
Jay: And then people can pick them up. 
...So maybe it's God who decides, maybe it's mother nature...we'll keep investigating this one.
After lunch, children explored leaves a little further in two different contexts. In one, scanned images of leaves were printed onto white paper with the idea that children could transform the shapes of the leaves into a new drawing.
Jay: How do I transform this?
Ellee to Max: Is that a tree house? Because it looks like a tree house. 
Jill: I was surprised that some of these leaves from the ground were still green.
Ellee; That usually doesn't happen. Well, maybe in Summer.

A second provocation was available on the light table. An arrangement of leaves paired with tracing paper and various drawing tools were set out for exploration. Ellee traced her leaf and its veins with a black pen. (While tracing) "You know how I know how many veins there are? I can feel them." We also did leaf rubbings using crayons onto the tracing paper and were excited to see the vein outlines come through when we were finished. 

We enjoyed some play at the magnetic chalkboard and building with magnatiles before heading to the outdoor classroom!

Magnetic Board: Seeing which balls can make it all the way across the magnetic board and into the bucket.
Carl: I think the white one will (white one goes flying). Carl makes an adjustment by starting the white ball in the middle instead of at the opposite end - that ball makes it into the bucket!
Carl: The yellow ones are so hard to get into the bucket. 
On a new run, Jay angles the bucket toward the tube to catch more balls. 
Cassius is about to straighten out the bucket.
​Jay: Cassius, Can you please not flatten that? It's catching balls that way.