Oak Galls and Catapults, oh my!

Today my class completed our month-long science experiment creating medieval ink from oak galls.  We started out with a couple of buckets of oak galls collected by one of our younger friends' parents.  This was a pretty involved project, and our science will lead into a really beautiful art project quite soon. 

First we squashed the oak galls with enough water that the powder released would stay wet and not airborne.  After that, we mixed the galls thoroughly into 5 identical batches. 

They were really lovely before we squashed them.

They still look pretty lovely in these jars...

Oooh, don't get too close!

We kept track of each step of the way.

Day 8 we separated the batches and introduced different variables to 4 batches.  We kept 1 control batch.

Just before separating the batches.

We separated the batches in this manner:  Batch A we kept just the way it was.  Batch B had iron added to it.  Batch C had iron and vinegar added.  Batch D had iron and heat added.  Batch E had iron, heat and vinegar added.  We created hypotheses about what we thought would happen to the batches, which batch we thought would would turn out the best, and why. 

We let them sit, stirring occasionally, for another week and 1/2.  We tested the color of each batch often.

Once our batches had had a chance to react to the different variables (21 days), we began to strain them and tested them one more time.  We decided that the batches with heat and chemical change worked the best, but that the batch with heat, chemical AND acid change was the best by far. 

drip, drip, drip...

Jen says, "ouch!  Don't accidentally dunk your fingers in the hot ink!  Oh hey, look, it works really well!"

Watch this space for images of our Book of Hours, later on.  In the meantime...

While we were conducting our science experiment in Theme, we were learning about angles in Math.  We used our knowledge of angles to construct and test tetrahedral catapults.  What a fun project (educational, too)!

Okay, so we'll need 25 sticks, and a lot of tape...

We'll need a long flinging arm and a source of tension (rubber bands).

It's important to measure each stick so the tetrahedron is equilateral.

They turned out great!

Nisqually Reach Estuary

On the 2nd of November, we went on a field trip to the Nisqually Reach Estuary.

When we arrived, we explored the Nature Center.

So many interesting things in the tanks!

Pondering crabs and sea stars.

So many shells!

There was SO MUCH to see at the Nature Center!

All of the cases held something amazing.

 



































































Our guide happened to be the director of the Nature Center.  He gave a great, interactive talk about Nisqually Reach and what is special about it.  We learned a lot about the life that lives in an estuary, and how important it is to keep organisms and pieces of the environment within the same estuary zone.

The speech was riveting!

Splash zone, high tide, mid tide, low tide, sub zone.  All of these small regions hold different kinds of organisms that are specialized to that region.  We also learned about how estuaries are created where fresh water flows into a larger body of salt water.

Our guide brings a critter from one of the tanks...what is it?

It's a Dungeness crab!

Touch with one finger on the carapace and you won't be pinched!

Same with our friend the sea star.  You can't see it in the picture, but it is snacking on an oyster.

After the talk, we headed to the beach to do a short organism survey.  

We found quite a few small crabs.

Some were very tiny.

We found seaweed, barnacles, tiny snails, and some small mussels.

We regrouped to see what had been found.

Our guide told us all about the different organisms we found.

So much seaweed!  (Jen got hungry!)

The largest crab we found was no longer alive, but still had working mouth parts.  Neat!

We had a great time, and I hope to go back some time in the Spring to see how the estuary changes with the seasons!  

Playing and Learning Together

One of the many things I love about OCS is that we are a school commited to engaging our children in many different ways of learning. One of the ways we learn is playing partner or independent games as well as from our peers and older friends.  I am devoting this entry to sharing a few examples of activities that may not get captured on paper or can be seen in your child's Thursday packet.

Math
We play a lot of games during our math time.  New games are introduced each week and we build a menu of choices that the children can choose from during math.  There are different menus for different groups of kids and the menus are constantly changing as the children outgrow games.  Some games have a written component that requires the recording of equations or the coloring of an answer.  Some are card games that are played with a partner or individually.  All the games help reinforce the learning of math facts, learning new strategies for solving math equations, or using manipulatives for learning and practicing new concepts.  Games may be a memory game that asks children to find the equation and answer that match, a dice game that may require adding numbers or doubling, a spinner game that asks children to spin a number and spin an action (double, double +1, double +2), or adding number using our base ten blocks.

Doubles Go Fish with the help of our handy Doubles Book.

Pull a stick with tricky doubles, build it if you need to, and tell your friend the answer.

Number Race! Roll the die, double it and record.

Literacy
On Mondays, the children are introduced to new spelling patterns.  Each group of partners sorts their words and records the words.  On Wednesdays we play a little more with these words by chosing a set of words and writing  a silly sentence in our Silly Sentence books. They get pretty silly!  We also play different word games using our set of words for the week. 

Get a word family match and add a part to the jack-o-lantern.

Play a word card that matches the vowel pattern -crazy 8 style.

Theme
We continue exploring the world of the Middle Ages.  This last week we recreated some of the technology used to get through those thick castle walls.  Our class really loved learning how to build a catapult from a friend in the older class.

Learning how to make a catapult from our older friends.

Ready, aim, catapult!

Field Trips
We had a wonderful afternoon at the Nisqually leaning about estuaries and tidal zones.

All sorts of cool things to investigate!

Crabs!