Chemical Reactions, aka The Making of Flubber

 The Turtles have been fascinated by chemical reactions in recent weeks, from flour and water to baking soda and vinegar. Today we returned to a chemical reaction we had experimented with earlier in the year: glue and borax! It was like magic to see the diluted glue and borax solution reaction, forming the magical goopy flubber!

 Once it was mixed, flubber hijinx ensued!

Other activities:

Sketching Our Characters

The Turtles and the Beanstalk, Draft #4

I realized that I had not yet shared our story! Here is the current draft, although the Turtles are avid editors, engaging in 20 minutes or more of Morning Meeting consensus story telling, so I expect the story will continue to evolve!

preliminary sketch of Wills' Cat Lion

Once upon a time, there was a village right on the playground of Abington Friends School. And in the village there was only room for three princess wizards: Ella, and Madigan, and Gabby. There was MEANNESS in the village. Madison couldn’t come in!
Then the princess wizards all had an idea. They decided to make a beanstalk because they wanted to see a giant because giants like to be mean. They would send the meanness to the giants.
They put a bean in the ground. It grew. They needed to take care of it. They watered it again and again and again. Then it became ginourmous.
The princess wizards climbed up the beanstalk. They ended up at a cloud that castle in it, but there was already people in it! There was a ninja and a Super Paddy, and in the cave below the castle, there was a cat lion, the King of the Cat Lion and the Queen of the Cat Lions.
The princess wizards walked in there. The princess wizards rang the doorbell, and then they opened the door, and the other people who were already in the castle said, “Who are you?”
“We are princess wizards,” they said. “Who are you?”
They introduced themselves. The ninja Matt and Super Pat said, “Do you want to come in?”
The princesses said, “Yes,” and they came in.
“Do you want look around?” asked Super Pat.
The princesses said, “Yes.” They saw all of the stuff, and the swords, and the ninja masks, ninja lasers and ninja traps, and water guns, and some cool glasses.
They did not see the giants.
Just then the cat lions started to peek their heads out of the cave. They made a mean face, and the princess wizards knew they had to get to the giant.
They got a big giant ladder and climbed all the way up to the real clouds to escape the cat lions. They got to the real cloud.
They all gathered up, and they had a party. They were having a party in the giant’s castle. Then they heard a loud noise, pow! bam!
The giant came out of the giant’s bedroom, and he saw the party, and he was angry because he didn’t want a party. He was so angry that he yelled, “Fee Fi Fo Fum!” and he punched his fist, and he scared them out the castle, and they ran back to the first castle.
to be continued...

The Story of the Story of The Turtles and the Beanstalk

I would invite you to come into the classroom and read the documentation that Fran and Tamara have put up tracing in words, photographs, and children's work, the unfolding of our Beanstalk Project. If you can't make it into the classroom (because, for instance, you live in Ireland) I thought I would post some of the text so you can learn about the context for this amazing and comprehensive curriculum project!

The Winding Path of Emergent Curriculum
With the warming weather, the Turtles were so excited about spring, and they were noticing the budding green everywhere. Tamara is an avid gardener, and decided to bring experiences planting and growing to the Turtles. They planted seeds in the garden, including peas, petunias, radishes, zinnias, and lettuce. The Turtles kept referring to their plants as beanstalks, so we decided to plant beans too.


Why a Beanstalk?
During our Meanness Project, we were trying to get the meanness out of our room. One child suggested that giants like meanness, and so we should make a beanstalk and take the meanness to the giants.

Making a Story
With the planting of beans, and the creation of a giant paper beanstalk wrapping around the climber, the beanstalk idea was well established in the room. The Turtles are very familiar with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and wanted to act out the play. A teacher suggested that we could write our own story, the story of The Turtles and The Beanstalk, and the Turtles were instantly galvanized.

During Morning Meeting, each child decided who they wanted to be. Then we started dictating the story, round-robin style, each child adding a piece of the action. We will continue to work on the story, re-drafting it until it is just right, and all the Turtles have a role to play.

Characters
(open to editing)
a ninja: Matt
a super Pat
the King of the Cat lion: Wills: it kinda looks like a black widow
a princess, Cinderella: Madison
a princess wizard: Madigan
a princess wizard: Gabby
a princess wizard: Ella
the real giant: Jacob
a princess: Zara
Super Cat Lion: David
the King of All the People: Caimin
the Queen of the Mermaid Tower: Fran
a fairy: Tamara
Queen of the Cat Lions: Maria
a fairy: Maliya
a fairy: Sadie

Magic on the Hillside

The Turtles were itching for a walk today, and suggested we go over the the BIG hill at the Abington Art Center. And so we did! It was a beautiful, windy day!

The most magical moment came when Jacob discovered a wounded dragon fly. It was still beating its wings but it couldn't fly. This allowed for some amazing up-close examination of the insect!

The body of the dragon fly was so beautiful with shiny black, gray, turquoise, and blue, and delicate gossamer wings. Several children wanted to hold it before we returned it to the woods.

Jumping was another popular choice, and Gabby, Madigan, and Zara taught some younger friends how to do really long jumps!

Other goings on at the Art Center:

impromptu lesson on poison ivy

And other happenings of our morning: