This week in 2B, we discovered an exciting new thing in our classroom: magnets! Beginning on Monday, we set out magnet wands and little circular magnets for the students to explore. The children were very excited to try out the process. They realized that as they held the wands near the circles, the magnets would jump up right away and stack one on top of the other. The next day, the magnetic wands were brought out again, this time with the addition of magnetic letters and plastic pouch caps. The children were delighted to see the return of the magnetic wands with the new pieces. They found the letters in their names or other familiar letters and collected them on their wands. While the letters and circles could stick to the wands, the children realized through trial and error that the plastic pouch caps would not attach. We look forward to continuing to investigate magnets and figuring out what will stick together and what will not. If you have any metal caps or other small items for us to use, we would appreciate having them to try out!
This week, we also used different kinds of paint in support of our school wide curricular intent. Early in the week, the children explored watercolor in a few different ways. The first method was using eye droppers with liquid watercolor. The children figured out how to carefully pinch the ends of the droppers to collect the paint and then released it on their paper making different designs. In addition to contributing to the school wide intent, using eye droppers to paint helps the students utilize and hone their fine motor skills as they have to work hard to control storing the liquid and letting it go.
A few times during the week, we engaged in a more traditional manner of watercolor painting with palettes and paintbrushes. Though at the beginning of the year some of the children found the activity daunting, they have all mastered the process of wetting the brush and dipping in the paint to make marks on their paper.
Before completing the week with a finger-paint exploration, we also tried out a new kind of paint, sand-paint. The children had the chance to experiment with a new kind of paint that was a combination of paint mixed with sand that they painted onto cardboard. When dry, the sand paint leaves an interesting texture behind. While a couple of students attempted the paint, most were not interested in engaging with it. As educators, we appreciate the moments that don’t work as well. Not every idea or activity is going to be a success and through these failures we are able to reflect back and think and plan differently for the future. Next week we plan to try sand painting once more but at a different time of day and through a different process. The hope being that if the children are involved in the set up from the start, they may be more interested in engaging later on. Throughout the rest of the year, we will continue to try new and exciting projects and while hopefully many will work, we are prepared for any outcome.
