Theories of light

This week we have been exploring more with light and we brought a dinosaur out of 'extinction'. We've been creating some fantastic designs on the wall through the magic of and overheard projector.

It's been funny hearing each parent walk in the room and state, "Wow, I haven't seen one of those in years!" To the children it's new and exciting and worthy of a little bit of curiosity.

In addition to making some fantastic pictures on the wall.....

 

 

..... the children have been coming up with theories. For example: One child noticed the light went up onto the ceiling. Thus initiating him to hypothesize that it must be because there is lots of things on the projector. Part of his hypothesis was that if he added more, then it would light up the whole ceiling.

To test out his hypothesis he and his friends started loading up the projector with more and more. 

This lead to a new hypothesis, that the more they loaded on the projector the less light there was. So squeals of delight ensued when the children worked hard to cover EVERY inch of light.

Magnifying Glasses and Light Discoveries

It never ceases to amaze me when something so simple turns into a process of discovery and expansion. It all started with a lady bug, that I casually placed on the table. No words, no instructions, just an opportunity to stand back and observe. The children instantly jumped at the opportunity for a closer look. Initially they poked and prodded at the little guy. They all took turns holding it up close to their faces, counting the dots, feeling it tickle their skin, and just watch. After a while the lady bug stopped, folded up it's legs and just lay there. The curiosity increased, magnifying glasses were retrieved and exploration continued.

Then the magnifying glasses moved about the room. What else could they get a closer look at? Pencil shavings... interesting!

Pencil Tops... hmm.

This then lead to looking at each other through the eyes of the magnifying glasses. The children were amazed when they discovered that at a certain point what ever one looked at, it presented itself upside down (this is something I would love to go back to at a later date... that interested me too!)

The children discovered that when the magnifying glasses were held up in the sunlight, little flashes of lights danced around on the wall. One child even remembered back to the day I read Teacher Tom's post about the day the children discovered how mighty the sun was... the connection was made... also something i'd like to go back to on a later date.

Along side of the magnifying glasses are coloured plastic pieces. Some children grabbed hold of the plastic and held them to the window as well (have I ever expressed how much I LOVE our windows... they promote so many unique discoveries). One child squealed with delight when the colour was spotted in the carpet.

This then lead to holding up a variety of shapes in the window to see the shadow it makes

This is what made the neat shadow in the above photo. Our newest acquisition... a large cardboard tube (watch for an exciting post about this tube). 

Another view of the tube.

Then came our mirrored paper.

It's one thing when something is intentionally placed to make the designs on our walls (we have lots of prisms, CD, shapes, and stained 'glass' on our windows to take advantage of the afternoon sun), but it's so much more fun when we can make the light and shadows dance ourselves!

Looking back over this post is appears that a lot happened all very quickly, but rest assured that this took place of quite a good length of time, and the children were given the time to make their hypothesis', observations and discoveries. 

I love these windows and the natural learning that takes place around these windows!!!!

Achieving Great Things

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.
Orison Swett Marden

Last week we put old CD's on the background of our light table, and this is what we discovered it does!

In response to Teacher Tom's post last week about tree climbing, I did think it was rather fitting to share this photo. This used to be a fig tree. I was rather disappointed that it came to this, but this tree attracted WAY too many wasps and hornets to our yard, (I try not to let this affect how I work with the children, but I am highly allergic to wasp stings) and it was decided to cut it down. I'm only trying to justify this decision to myself, so bear with me... you see, one could not even get within ten feet of this tree without having wasps fly at your face, plus they were literally drunk off the fig nectar. It became just too much. Ahhh, that's better. Anyhow, Teacher Tom was expressing his disdain over the city park trees having their lower branches cut off, leaving tree climbing out of the question. So isn't it fitting that the children here have discovered the 'low branches' of our fig tree and have chosen to climb them, now to move on to a tree that has the higher branches as well!

'Look we can see the wind'

This little Christmas tree sparked a extended enactment of the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas'. It looks very 'who-like' doesn't it? The search was on for more items needed to tell the story. 

This was when the Grinch took Christmas away. The little tree is in there, along with all the 'presents' all pulled on a sleigh (crazy carpet), all this was done by some Grinches with Santa hats. 

This play led to the need to climb on the roof of our playhouse to go down the chimney. It took a few tries and failures learning opportunities before a major breakthrough. Now it's the favourite hangout. I have yet to get up there myself, but I have been informed that the children can see Africa!

Sensory experience in process. All this was on 'mackTack' and is now happily displayed on our window!