Candid Photos !

All those frogs jumping around Egypt prompted us to do a little frog inspired learning.  We first read a nonfiction book which gave us some knowledge of the life cycle and eating habits of frogs.  

We are starting to make a frog.  Each child got a bit of green paint and then could choose another color to mix in.    Lots of conversation about how the additional colors changed that basic green paint.

We put the circles on the floor....

and challenged the children to arrange them from lightest to darkest.

Sometimes we take another look and change our minds.  When this happens we try to talk through the experience.  

When a classmate suggests that it might be better to flip flop 2 circles----and does it in a friendly voice!--- we are usually more apt to listen and reconsider.  Now we have the correct lineup!
This is unscripted learning at its best....and we want to take advantage of moments like this whenever we can!

Now we are preparing the paper from which we will cut the frog's arms and legs.  Again, we provided different tools for the children to use.  Each tool made a different kind of pattern on the paper.  When we return from spring break, we'll assemble the frogs and hang them around the room.  You'll have to search to find all 13!

The children love our variety box of frogs!  Zoey is using them to tell a story.   You can find your child's story outside on the bulletin board

Making a long unifix train has been an ongoing project for most of the boys.  They have been trying to find different ways to support the train once it gets off of the table.  This week they discovered that if you put the train through the chair, rather than on top of it, the train is less likely to break.

Amelia and Briana discovered the calculator.  They loved randomly pressing buttons to see which numbers came up!

Have you heard about our newest question mark helper?  We place 2 different items in 2 identical boxes, shake them one at a time, put the boxes behind our back and then bring one box to the front to shake.  Careful listening lets the helper decide if it was box one or box two.   We "caught" Emma and Govind duplicating that experience with magna tile boxes!  Very clever!

Charlotte said, "I am just like a frog!"

Suri and Noor worked together when it was their turn for our opposite show and share.

Here is a new way to make a tall castle.  Just put the magna tile basket as your base!