Thursday, April 8

What beautiful weather! But is it spring? In the true nature of spring, Rainey Room B is blossoming!

​We are working on respectfully listening to others by taking turns talking so that only one person is speaking at a time while we each share our ideas, opinions, and knowledge, with each other. Whether we agree or not is also part of our conversations lately. However, we are also learning that we can all have different ideas, opinions, and knowledge and that we can also agree to disagree in support of a democracy of voices.

A conversation about the spring, the seasons, and flowers:
​
Sylvie: It's spring time!
Maxon: Yeah, it's winter now and then it's going to be summer, then spring.
Sylvie: I think it's spring because there are flowers.
Jane: No it's not. It's not spring yet.
Maxon: Yes, it is. It is. 
Lucia: In my yard there's lots of flowers!
Maxon: And all my flowers at my house have bloomed!
Melanie: Jane, how will you know when it's spring?
Jane: When there's flowers.
Melanie: But are there flowers now? Have you seen any flowers?
Audrey: I did!
Lucia: I saw...
Cedar: I did. I have lots of flowers in my gardens and there's different colors.
Audrey: My garden has some flowers. Just a little bit of flowers.
Jane: My garden has a little bit, a slide.

​"I can hear everyone if they’re talking one at a time." -Audrey

Integrating aspects of science and math:

Jordan: What do we need to grow the flowers?
Jane: Seeds to grow the flowers.
Audrey: Water.
Sylvie: Sunshine. 
Maxon: We can put them outside for the sunshine. And then they'll grow.
Melanie: Are we going to watch them grow, are we going to watch the flowers grow? 
Everyone: Some "yes"; some "no."
Jane: They need rain to make, to grow.
Lucia: Put the water in the watering can and they will grow, grow, grow, grow, growwww!
Melanie: How will we know if they are getting bigger?
Cedar: If you put too much water in there them will die. 
Maxon: But the water will make them grow.
Janie: No it won't.
Jane: Yes it will.
Maxon: If you put a lot of water in it will grow.

Of course soil is needed too!

"The rain grows big flowers." -Sylvie

Audrey: The bees like that one (Echinacea).
Maxon: I'm going to do this one.
Janie: I want to do the sunflower (actually Black-eyed Susan).
Jane: No, I'm going to do the sunflower.
Lucia: I want to do the sunflower.
Sylvie: I want to do the sunflower.
Jordan shakes the packet of seeds:
Jordan: Let's listen.
Maxon: That makes a sound!
Jordan: How many seeds do you think are in there? 
Jane: Twenty!
Sylvie: Twenty-five.
​Jane: No fourteen.
Sylvie: Twenty hundred. 
Audrey: If there are more for other people to do it.
Lucia: If you shake all of them out then no one can do it. 
. . .
​Janie: Which one is this one?
Jane: But what are these called?
​Melanie: Those are called Echinacea.
Jane: Are they all called that word?
Melanie: Just this one. It's also called purple coneflower.

It's a treehouse!

Melanie: Sylvie, what if we made a real treehouse, what would it look like?
​Sylvie: It would have to be as big as our whole school because that's how big it would have to be.
Melanie: And if it's that big, where is it going to go?
Sylvie: It's going to gooo, if you like, in  the ocean!

And Maxon made a "No Monsters Allowed" sign (below):