What do you know about water, ice, or snow?

“I know that snow melts to water and it freezes to ice.” –Dylan

“Water can turn into ice. And then it cracks and goes back to water.” –Emmett

“Ice goes into the air and it washes out.” –Gray

“Water is real and cold and you can swim in it if it’s a little warm. You can’t swim in it if it is cold, that’s not okay.” –Smith

“Snow can turn into water and water can turn into ice.” –Owen

“Water can go in to the pipes. If you attach the pipes together, the water will take longer to get to the river.” –Carly

“Water turns into ice. Ice turns back into water. Only when it gets really hot it turns back into water. Ice can be really slippery.” –Marleigh

“They used water to put out the fire that happened at my house.” –Willa

“Water turns into ice when it’s cold. Ice can melt.” –Laila

“Water can turn into ice if you put it outside in the winter time and you put it in the freezer in the summer time.” –Owen

“Snow melts into water. If the sun wasn’t made it would just be ice and snow forever.” –Dylan

“When it’s summer it melts the ice. Because it’s really hot, the sun makes it so hot.” –Henry

“I once had a flood in my house. Aidan left the sink on when he was trying to fill the water bottle. We had to use all of the towels, they all got really wet. We had to make a hole in the floor. We busted the walls and we had to put in a new shower.” –Bennett

“Ice and snow melt when you put warm water with them.” –Brooks L.

“Pipes drain the water.” –Lily

“All of the rain came down and melted all of the snow. And then it’s summer and the sun melted the rest of the snow.” –Connor

“I know that snow and rain come from the sky a lot but ice is made on the ground.” –Brooks H.

“Some water is ice for a long time. And some water is ice for only a winter.” –Elli

“Ice and snow melt to make water. And water freezes to make snow and ice.” –Ava

“Hey everybody! Try to make a big lake in the other table! Use the pipes!” –Rowan

Something very exciting happened in class on Friday! We now have two sensory tables in class! A second sensory table was brought into class part way through project time today, and suddenly there was a flurry of students surrounding the tables, working together to come up with a plan to get water from one table to another. The resulting project included lots of funnels, drains, tubes, pipes, buckets, eye droppers, and cooperation. It was an incredibly cool process to watch as the Mountain Lions use a trial and error process in finding what the best way was to move the water from one place to the next. This also got us thinking a little about where our water in the toilet, sink, and faucets come and go to and from.

Observations from the two table project:

“Owen, put your finger on the spout while we hook it up so the water doesn’t come out.”  -Carly

“Carly there’s a leak! It’s not coming out of the right tube.” –Bennett

“That is amazing. You have to check it out!” –Murphy

“Can somebody attach the tube? There is a leak! Quick!” –Cash

“If we add more water, it moves through the pipes faster, the pipes are attached the bucket.” –Carly

“August! We need more water.” –Rowan

“A flood in the classroom! Oh my gosh!” –Brooks L.

What we’re wondering and commenting on after playing with the tubes and drains…

“I was wondering if water goes down under the horses. There are blades in the sink tube that chops up the food that goes down there. And it goes to the same place as our poop and our pee.” –Murphy

“The water comes down the tube so you can drink it. One tube for the water to drink and one for the toilet. And the water goes through different stuff and into different pipes in the ground so people can drink it all over the world.” –Dylan

“Water comes from rivers, lakes, oceans. I went underground to see the pipes one time.” –Bennett

“Pipes connect to the underground to rivers, and trees so they can grow, so the rivers have more water. Some lakes and oceans have drains. We should find some of them.” -Owen

On Thursday and Friday we did another experiment with Chrissy that really got us thinking about how salt water and fresh water are very different. Not only do salt water and fresh water smell and taste differently, but things act strange depending on whether they are in fresh water or salt water! We started with two tall jars of water, each holding about three cups each. Then we added a half of a cup of salt to one of the jars and mixed the solution well until all of the salt had dissolved. The two jars of water still looked mostly the same, except now the jar with salt in it was a bit cloudy. We put one egg in each jar. The egg in the fresh water sank and the egg in the salt water floated! How could that be??? To make sure Chrissy didn’t supply us with trick eggs, we took the eggs out of their jars, rinsed them off, and switched them. The egg in the salt water still floated and the egg in the fresh water still sank. We tossed the water and salt and tried it again. We had the same outcome. We did the experiment three times, looking carefully at the water and the eggs. Our hypotheses and conclusions were quite funny:

What will happen to the egg in the salt water?

“Maybe the egg will melt.” –Ava & Brooks H.

“The egg will dissolve.” –Emmett

 “The egg will float in fresh water.” –Henry

Observations…

“The salt water is strong; it is holding the egg up.” –Woods

“Salt is special.” –Dylan

“The salt water is heavier than the fresh water, so the egg can’t sink down.” –Laila

“Salt water is beautiful. It makes everything float, except people.” –Carly

“The eggs float in salt water. The eggs don’t float in fresh water. I think it’s because the salt water is heavier.” –Owen

“Fresh water is lighter.” –Abigail

“I’m worried a little about why that egg is floating.” –Brooks H.

“Salt water makes you sick.” –Bennett

“Fresh water weighs less than the salt water. The salt water is heavier.” –Lily

“My mom drinks salt water to make her throat better, but it’s bad to drink.” –Rowan

“The salt makes it float, the salt makes the water have more weight so the egg won’t sink.” –Leo

“Salt is not good for your health. The egg will float because it’s salty water.” –Smith

“That one is floating! Wait that other one is sinking! Why is that happening? Do it again.” –Gray

“Nobody should drink the salt water.” –Willa

“It’s salty, tastes yucky. I’m not sure what will happen to the egg. Will it crack when we drop it in?” –Marleigh

On Wednesday and Thursday, we made slushies! This stemmed from some talk about slushies last week over colorful water and ice mixtures in the sensory table. August brought in her new ice cream maker, and all we had to do was add juice to our frozen mixing vessel and turn it on! It was a welcome loud noise, as we knew with each rotation we were closer and closer to eating our very own slushies. Wednesday’s class tried apple slushies and Thursday’s class voted for orange slushies. It was the tastiest part of this project to date!

We’ve seen slushies made by a machine, how could we make our own?

By Emmett, Owen, Murphy, and Dylan

-First we need to find fresh snow. It can’t be snow that has been stepped on. No dirt, no glitter, no plants, no foot prints.

-We will take that snow inside and put it in a bowl. Then we will have to mix it for a long time to get it to be softer.

-We will use a knife to mix it first. If we use a spoon it will get stuck, we have to use a knife, a sharp one.

-Or we could mix the snow and make it softer in the magic mixer. Because the snow outside right now gets so heavy and our arms will get tired. The magic mixer is a blender with a top on it. It has to have a top so there isn’t a snow explosion.

-Once the snow is softer, we will add blueberry juice. Blueberry juice is the best because everything will turn blue! That is neat.

-Then you put real blueberries on top and in the mix. Then you mix again. They have to be real blueberries otherwise it will just taste like snow.

What could we add to slushies to make them even better?

“Coconut juice!” –Laila

“Apple cider.” –Marleigh

“Blueberry juice! That way it is blue and tasty.” –Murphy

“Apple juice. More apple juice.” –Smith

On Monday, something wild happened in our classroom! After reading The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, we found what may be remnants of a snail, or a conch, right here in our very own classroom! The Snail and The Whale is about a snail that wishes to see the ice bergs, beaches, and volcanoes of the world but realizes that they cannot do it on their own. The snail befriends a whale, and they travel the world together. At one point in the story, the whale is beached and the snail rallies a community of humans to save the whale. After successfully doing so, the whale then takes many of the snails for trips around the world. We wondered where this snail, that somehow ended up shriveled and smelly in our classroom, had traveled. How did it make it this far inland? We don’t live at a beach! Oh, the mysteries of the world! Here are some of our hypotheses as to what it may be:

“It could be a tiny little octopus that died.” –Dylan

“I don’t know what it is, but I know that it is slimy and disgusting.” –Lily, Finder of creature

“Gross, it felt squishy. I can’t believe I touched it. Maybe it’s a baby humpback heart.” –Cash

“Some kind of food for a humpback whale.” –Owen

“A sea snail. A really big and kind of gross one. And a dead one.” –Henry

We’ve also started a neat watercolor progression in the studio. As we’re only in the beginning stages of this, we’ll have more to report as the weeks continue. However, as many of you may know, we’re all very enthusiastic about the “dip, dab, paint!” song, which is a way to help us remember the steps for water colors, and how to keep our colors so vibrant. At the end of the week, we added more sponges so the Mountain Lions could mix and blend colors on their paper. In the coming weeks, we’ll be experimenting with a variety of tools, mediums, strokes, and places where we paint. We’re also excited to get our reading buddies involved to see what they know about watercolors and if they can share some of their techniques, skills, and ideas with us!

On Wednesday and Thursday, we did some building, but not your average everyday block building. We challenged the students to make some of their own ice cubes of varying shapes and sizes at home and to bring them into school. When they arrived at school with their ice cubes, we collected them all and put them in the sensory table to build with! In the sensory table, they found jars of salt, and containers with watercolors and pipettes. Some of the students quickly realized that if they sprinkled salt on a piece of ice, they could put other chunks of ice on top of it and they would stick together!

On Thursday, the students took it a step further. They built towers just with ice and salt, and didn’t add any watercolor to begin with. They built their towers and buildings as tall as they could, and then they poured some of the watercolor over the top and watched it not only run down the sides of the ice, but seep into where the salt had melted the ice, as well. This was so neat! Also on Thursday, we got to experiment and work with an ice volcano! We put baking soda and vinegar in it and watched it erupt! Then we put more baking soda and vinegar in it, along with all sorts of colors, and watched it erupt many times a rainbow of colors! It was a very exciting project that led to volcanos being depicted in the art studio, block area, and light table.

The beginnings of our water/snow/ice based project have recently morphed into a curiosity about color. In the art studio, teachers introduced watercolors, and the “dip, dab, paint” technique, to the Mountain Lions about two weeks ago. Since then, there have been many questions about color, ranging from “why do things have a color” (Brooks L.) to “I think this is green, but he thinks it’s blue. What do you think? Why don’t we think it’s the same color?” (Murphy) These are all very neat and interesting questions. Color is an interesting concept because it can be studied from various angles. We could use physics, chemistry, art, or even basic psychology to determine what makes color. With the Mountain Lions, there has been a lot of experimenting, trying to determine which color combinations combine to make new colors. However, this is even a point of contention among students, “if you combine any colors, it will make a new color. Some are just prettier than others!” (Marleigh)

So we continue experimenting! On Monday and Tuesday this week, we made our own play dough. This was a fun and exciting task for the Mountain Lions because it combined elements of our previous project, baking, with our new experiments in color. We began by making the play dough, and here is the recipe if you would like to try it at home:

Homemade Play Dough

In a pot combine 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (add color and smell, essential oils for example, if desired)

Mix in a bowl: 2 cups flour, ½ cup salt, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar.

Boil the wet ingredients and mix in the dry ingredients.

Take off heat and let cool.

Knead.

Play!

Store in an airtight container.

We made this play dough project our own by skipping the step of adding smells and colors initially. We followed all of the other steps, and when we got to “knead”, we paused. We were excited because we were able to knead the play dough, just as we had done so many times while baking bread. After we felt as though we had kneaded enough, we got really messy! We added watercolors to our play dough! On Monday, we mixed blue and purple to create an array of dark blues, lavenders, sky blues, and periwinkles. There are so many shades of blues and purples, we decided it must be because of how much blue and purple put into their play dough. But could we ever replicate any of these colors again? Some Mountain Lions asked this question because they were curious as to if they would be able to make that exact color, only at home. On Tuesday we used yellow and red, and there were some very deep reds and very vibrant yellows.

The neatest part about having so many different colors of play dough is that not the color mixing and experimenting continues! On Wednesday and Thursday during project time, students mixed yellows with blues and purples with reds to create swirls and rainbows in their play dough, similar to how our milk/soap/food coloring experiment turned out!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we experimented with some new mediums: milk and soap! If you want to try this experiment at home this is what you’ll need…

Milk & Soap Color Combos

Whole milk

A plate

Q-Tips

Dish soap

Food coloring or watercolors

You add enough milk to cover the bottom of the plate and then add your colors of choice. We started with red, green, blue, and yellow, and then tried other combinations from there. Not only does the soap interaction with the milk push the milk around the plate, but when you add color, the interaction between the milk and soap forces the colors to swirl about the plate. This is where things got messy, once again! We wanted to see what color would begin to swirl around if we mixed only yellow and blue. What happens if we let them mix and then add other colors? Some Mountain Lions were even curious about what would happen if we used different kinds of milk and soap! Could we use something other than Q-Tips? It seems as though we may have some more experimenting to do!

On Thursday we were fortunate enough to have 35 Journeys School students come to visit and spend time with us and our kindergarten class, the Black Bats! We started our time with reading buddies. Because there were so many Journeys students, we each had two, or even three, reading buddies! How lucky we are!

After some time reading books about rain, snow, water, and colors, our new friends helped us all get ready to play outside. They helped us choose the right boot for the right foot, and we showed them how good we are at the flip trick! Outside, we got some free time to play with our buddies before a big group activity.

Our last mission with our buddies was to design and create a snow sculpture, and then color the snow with watercolors! It was such a fun project, and even though the snow is hard, almost like ice, we had some amazing sculptures and designs! Nearly getting blown away, we all headed inside to share some lunch.

Once lunch was finished, the Mountain Lions assembled themselves on the bench in the mud room and gave each one of our new friends a high five and a hug as they headed back over the pass to Jackson.