Yesterday morning, enjoying the morning quiet of my mile walk from the hotel along the Riverwalk to the Convention Center, I found this guy in my path--a yellow-crowned night heron. I am sometimes amazed by how nature can endure and even thrive in our increasingly urban environments.
Every year, in honor of Election Day, we hold a mock election so that the children can experience the voting process.
Updated 11-9-16 by C.N., 2nd grade; O.S., 2nd grade; S.A., 3rd grade; B.D., 3rd grade Yesterday, we did a mock election. An election is when people vote for something. To vote you need a voter registration certificate and you need to sign it. A voter registration card is how people know it's you. You have to be quiet in the line and patient.
We showed our voter registration card, signed in at the polls, got a ballot, found a voting booth, and voted for our favorite singers and more. When we were done with the ballot we would fold it and put it in the ballot box. Taylor Swift won.
"It felt good to vote because it was exciting to have an election with our parents voting for president." S.A., 3rd grade "It felt good to vote because we got to have our own vote." C.N., 2nd grade "I did not like to vote because I was at the very end of the line and I had to wait 20 minutes." B.D., 3rd grade
Election Results: Favorite Musical Artist: Taylor Swift Favorite Fad: Emojis Favorite Toy: Nerf gun Favorite Movie: "Trolls" Favorite TV Show: "Teen Titans Go!" Favorite Book Series: Harry Potter tied with Babymouse Favorite Author: Shel Silverstein Favorite Museum: Houston Museum of Natural Science
It's not too late for all you eligible adult voters to get out there and vote! If you live in our area, research the candidates with the League of Women Voters Guide. Enter your address here to find your polling location and print a sample ballot.
Update 11/9/16: For help on how to talk to children about the election, visit http://www.tolerance.org/blog/day-after Update 11/29/16: Harry Potter won 17 to 4 in a run-off election. Unlike Election Day, we did not have 100% voter turn-out for the run-off election.
This post comes to you from guest authors L.O., 2nd grade and S.A., 3rd grade
Yesterday we finished a painting in the style of Piet Mondrian for our finished work pocket. You need a folder, black, white, and primary colors paint, and some masking tape.
The first step is that you need to paint the envelope black.
After the envelope dries, you need to put the masking tape on it to make designs.
You now need to paint the squares primary colors and white.
Then take off the tape and there will be straight black lines.
"This was fun because I never thought of artwork like this and it was fun to try something new." S.A., 3rd grade
"It felt like a new adventure because I was learning something new." L.O., 2nd grade
Every year around this time, something comes up that calls me away from school, leaving Ms. Frizzle to substitute in my place.
This post comes to you from Guest Author J.M., 1st grade, who was at school today to witness Ms. Frizzle's fabulous fashion choices. Today is Halloween, and our substitute is Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. It is so exciting! Ms. Frizzle's hair is light orange and curly. Her dress is black with dancing skeletons on it. There's a lizard named Liz on her shoulder.
Her earrings are white skeletons made out of clay. She has black shoes with bobblehead skeletons on them, and they jiggle their big fat heads when she walks.
It is very weird. Maybe she came out of the T.V.
Editor's note:
I understand Ms. Frizzle even taught the children a skeleton song in Spanish today!
Overheard at school today:
"Boy, Ms. Frizzle looks a lot like Ms. S."
"She sure sounds a lot like Ms. S."
"But Ms. Frizzle doesn't wear glasses."
Overjoyed upon spying the skeleton shoes, "Oh! Those are perfect!"
"Ms. Frizzle, one day when we go to the Arboretum, can you wear a plant or animal dress and bring your Magic School Bus?"
One child whispered to another teacher, "I don't mean to be rude, but is that Ms. S's real hair? . . . Oh! Ms. Frizzle!"
Around the start of October, a new activity appears on our art shelf: a cardboard skull template to trace, black construction paper, oil pastels, a pair of scissors, and a few laminated examples of calaveras created for Día de Muertos.
This week, we had something sad happen. For reasons unknown to us, some children from another class jumped on our child-size outdoor chair until a leg broke. The two children involved in the incident came with their classroom assistant to apologize to our class, bringing along the chair pieces to show us what had happened. Room 15 children crowded around, looking shocked and saddened, while we listened to the tearful apology . . . but then we noticed something exciting: a pink chrysalis! Not only pink, but with a fin-back!
Sometimes, something wonderful can emerge from something sad. While we were deeply saddened and puzzled by the intentional damage of our chair, we would never have spotted this pink chrysalis had the chair not been broken into pieces.
I did a little Googling and discovered this is the chrysalis of the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly. Their pupa can be either green or pink! We've seen lots of these cheerful yellow butterflies in our garden, but I had never spotted the chrysalis.
Today, we experimented with the forces that explain why the planets revolve around the sun in an elliptical orbit. We filled cups about half-full of water. An object in motion tends to keep moving in the same direction. Anywhere the cup is as we swing it around, its tendency (along with the water inside) is to fly out and away from us. So we never get wet (unless, of course, the cup sustains damage, resulting in a hole in the bottom!). Opposing this inertia is the child pulling the strings to the center. In this model, each child acts as the sun, with the strings demonstrating the sun's gravitational pull on the planets.
"10-4-16 Yesterday, we did science. We filled a paper cup halfway with water and then swung it around our heads to find out if it'll spill. This is similar to the planets revolving around the sun because I'm the sun, the cup is a planet, and there's a string on the cup. That string is gravity. I enjoyed this because I wanted to know if the water would spill." by L.A., 1st grade
