Mystery Lovers

Well, it turns out that the Turtles love a good mystery! This shouldn't be surprising, given how many mysteries we have uncovered this year, but being blinded by my teacher glasses, I missed that fact that the Turtles are not just intrigued by individual mysteries, but also, by the idea of mysteries. And so we have started putting together our own book, Investigating Mystery. With yesterday's Mystery of the Scarecrows, they have started asking questions as they think about the mysteries.

As any good mystery writer could tell you, it turns out that clues show up over time, and sometimes when you think that the mystery has gone cold, that is just exactly when you get your best clues!

And so today, we spied another clue from our playground: more cones! In our boots and raincoats, we set out to search out the cones. We found several around the cemetery, and as we were walking, we saw many Middle Schoolers walking to Meeting for Worship. One child theorized that the cones were lining the path for the big kids.
Then we found something very unusual: a purple cone! The children had theories on why it was purple, including a clear reference to all the color mixing experimentation we have been doing: "It is purple because somebody wanted to mix blue and red!"

We also found another  set of unusual cones: "They have stripes because its telling people that there is something dangerous there." The children already have many theories about the cones, drawing on their previous experiences, and it is fascinating to hear how they are connecting them to this current mystery.

We had lots of other things going on today, including easel painting

with a lesson on being the boss of your brush,

a fancy restaurant

complete with waiters,

a car rescue mission when they got stuck in the tube,

a branch collecting mission to help Carol and the Little Frogs build their stick house.

The Cones Were Back!

We saw the cones again today, which lead to another hunt. One child said that he had seen a guy in a truck put them out, but we didn't know who the guy was, so we are no closer to solving the mystery. Today we found them in the big soccer fields and near the gardens.

We also found a sign! The Turtles are very tuned into environmental print, and wanted to know what it said, so we sounded it out. The first letter was G, just like Gabby, and some children quickly guessed that the word was Garden!

We found another grouping of logs, and guess what? These logs had spiders too! We saw a couple of daddy long legs spiders.

When we were done chasing cones, we realized that the quickest way back was across the creek, and so Tamara helped us swing across!

We are also realizing just how much the Turtles love to feel like special helpers with jobs, and so we have started a new system: Each day at Morning Meeting, we have two helpers: one child who reads the names and one child who reads the choices. We have a list of the children, so they can see when it is their turn. Today Sadie showed the names and Patrick read the choices.

Measuring with the new construction props

Practicing our yoga, Child's Pose

We found deer tracks! (Or at least we know they weren't people tracks!)

It just gets more and more mysterious!

Today we started the day looking at pictures from yesterday's walk. Matthew thought it was a good idea to make a map of the cones. His friend Wills helped him by cutting out a triangle, and later on at Center Time, many children joined in this intriguing activity.

Perhaps I should put in a quick note about our daily schedule: We start out the morning in what we call Free Choice Time. That means that the children can choose from any of the centers or activities in the room. We may have set up something special at some centers to invite the children's exploration (the Italians in Reggio Emilia call these invitaciones) or provoke the children's thoughts and experimentation (provocations). Around 9:15 we clean up for Morning Meeting. At this point in the year, we use this time to gather and greet each other, share a Moment of Silence, sing songs and talk about our day.

Next we have Choice Time. This might be "Inside-Outside Day," with choices inside the classroom and on the playground, or it may just be choices and activities inside the classroom. For instance, today's choices included working on the Cone Project and making playdough. In nice weather, we will go outside, play on the playground, and explore the campus, all before lunch. We fit a lot into our mornings! Although we don't write much about it in the blog (because we blog during Rest Time), the afternoons are also filled with learning. Lunch is a time for conversations about our day, topics from the children's lives, and of course, knock-knock jokes. Before Rest Time, we read stories together. During rest, some children sleep, while other rest quietly. After rest, we do art, puzzles and math games at the table until it is time for snack, more books and outside time!

Now, back to the cones. After working on making cones inside, the children were excited to see if the cones were still there, and if there were any more. We went back to the giant logs and to the mysterious woods, where we were distracted for a while by playing bear chase amongst the bushes. We soon remembered to look for the cones.

But they were NOT THERE!

We soon found another mystery. There were yellow dashed lines painted on the grass, very near where the cones had been! We followed the lines, but did not discover any more cones. We will have to investigate this mystery some more!

 We also found a beetle and found a safer place for him to go!