February 23rd, 2021

Wow! It feels like the last blog was a lifetime ago. To try and catch you up, here’s a quick recap of the last week!

Oceans in a Jar 

On Wednesday, we took time to create our own oceans in a bottle. Our intention with this exploration was to explore the colors and textures of the sea. In order to do so, we dissolved tissue paper in water and discussed what (if anything) happened to the water. ​

Lochie: Um, there’s some green and blue mixed up
Jack: and I think a little bit of purple 
Elle: It’s not dissolving Elena 
Marley: I got so many purple
Lochie: I’ve got some white and some light blue
Violet: Oooh what’s happening, it’s sinking!
Lochie: When we put it in it floats but when we curve it into the water it sinks
Elle: and push it in!

At the end of the exploration we had seven, unique oceans each featuring a variety of coral, seaweed and water colors.  When we returned from the weekend, we took time to observe our ocean jars after the time away.

George: Look at mine, it’s all green!
Marley: Ok, now I’m doing green. I’m doing the same as Violet
Lochie: I added red because of the seaweed
Elle: I can’t wait for mine to be a pretty, pretty sea!
George: Mine is going to be all green sea
Lochie: Green sea? It’s gonna be green with a little bit mixed up
Jack: I think I’m going to mix mine a little bit with my hand

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Ice Exploration

While outside yesterday, we stumbled on two pieces of ice. Thrilled to have found “icebergs”, the children asked if they could bring them inside. When inside, we discussed the properties of ice and how we might change it to be more like an ocean. 

​Elena: What does it feel like?
Lochie: Wet Ice paper.
Elle: No. no water, water, water!
Jack: Like a kind of ice cubey water.
Lochie: A real ice cube has water in it, when the ice cube melts it turns to water!
Violet: It’s just water inside.
Lochie: Hey, look some water is rushing out right now!

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Elena: Is there a way we could turn this ice water into sea water
George: Let it melt?
CC: We could add blue water to it when it melts
Lochie: Hey, I have a great idea! We could melt this and then put our other waters that have colors in them into it. 

Taking CC’s advice we sprayed blue and green watercolor paint on our iceberg and we’ve enjoyed watching it melt over these last two days. (Brigitte puts it in the freezer when the children go home for the day to make the exploration last!)

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Watercolor Paintings 

​We’ve also continued with our watercolor paintings from last week. Last week we mixed watercolors and observed the motion and colors  of the paint when applied to watercolor paper. Today, we used paint markers to add dimension to the paintings and to indicate the waves and motions of the ocean.

Mystery Reader

Big thanks to Elle’s grandparents for joining us as the mystery readers today!