November 24, 2011

November Birthdays

Two elementary school children had birthdays in November. Happy birthday!



November 21, 2011

Group Storywriting

One way that we practice writing is by taking turns adding sentences to a story. Here is one that the elementary students wrote recently.



In case you can't read it, here's what it says:

Once upon a time, there lived a big dragon. The dragon captured a princess. The dragon took the princess to a mountain. The mountain was so high. The princess looked down from the mountain. In the mountain, there was a jail. The princess put the dragon in jail. But the dragon ate the princess. An ogre killed the dragon and took the princess out. The ogre made the princess a slave. The ogre died. The princess went back to the jail. In the jail was a boy. The princess helped the boy get out of jail because the princess wanted to marry the boy. The boy saind, "Yes!" and they lived happily ever after. The end.
I like the struggle between the students who were cheering for the dragon and ogre, and the students who wanted a more typical fairy tale.

Making Paper Bowls

Last we we learned about ancient China. One of China's many inventions was paper. We decided to make paper bowls to get an idea of how paper is made. We didn't make paper from raw pulp, but as you can see from the pictures below, we had a lot of fun!


First, we ripped up construction paper and catalogs into 1 by 1 inch pieces.


Then we blended them with water to make slurry ( a new word even for the teacher).


 We let the slurry sit in a colander for a few minutes to drain out the excess water.


We put the slurry into a sieve and flattened it into the shape of a bowl.


Here are the finished projects. If you try this at home, remember to put a little oil on the inside of the sieve so the paper bowl comes out easily when it gets dry.