SIMON CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL

The below is from the school blog post. The videos don't transfer over, but I thought you'd enjoy anyway!

SIMON CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL 2/2/2016   DIFFERENT BALL MATERIALS We added another piece to our web this week. After taking a look at the different balls that the kids have made, we realized that they were not all the same. I asked the class: If everyone was making balls at the same time, how come the ball are not the same? Max said he used foil but someone else only used tape. Lucy chimed in that one of her balls had a "sponge thing" inside of it. Marty mentioned that she used bubble wrap. So what exactly is different? The materials! Once we figured out that different materials were used, we decided to look at some of the balls in our classroom collection and determine what materials were used to make the ball. Here is our list so far. stuffing/batting - This kind of material was found inside of Eliana's basketball, Marty's Minnie Mouse, and Pearl's Skellie. We did not open them up to find out what they looked like but we discussed an old classroom stuffed animal who met its demise earlier this year. We realized that the stuffing makes the balls feel soft and mushy.  fabric - The outside of the balls with stuffing were all made of fabric. We looked at the different fabrics and discovered that like our clothes, fabrics come in various textures and colors. We were able to see that fabric is soft and a bit stretchy. The balls that are made of fabric can be pressed and smashed.  foam - The ball made out of foam was very light, We remembered the foam material from our rollercoaster project. The foam is firm, but can break apart if enough pressure is applied to it. You can push things into the foam, which may leave holes in it or break it.  rubber - Desi's bouncy ball and various other balls were made out of rubber. Some were solid rubber, and others were hollow inside. One thing that all of the balls made of rubber had in common is that they bounced. We passed around rubber bands to feel the stretch and bounciness of rubber materials.  plastic - Austin's ping pong ball, along with others were made out of plastic. Sometimes the plastic is thin, and the ball is really light. Other times, the plastic is thicker, making the ball feel heavier. We are curious to see what is inside some of these balls! Do you have another ball made with a different material that you'd like to share with the class? We'd love to see it! A CHANGE IN PLANS Let me tell you all that I had some pretty big plans today. We were going to learn all about bouncing balls. We were going to look at the characteristics of balls that bounce. Then, we would do different experiments to determine how each variable (material, height, force, etc.) affected the way that a ball bounced. Big plans everyone. **** Spoiler Alert - We did NONE of them**** It turns out that while my plans were oh-so-amazing, Simon's plans were way better. After seeing what Simon brought to the table, I had to humbly fold and recognize that one of us had a better idea. If you're wondering what Simon had in his plans for today, take a look at the picture on the left. This morning during choice time, Simon made a wrecking ball! He used foil and tape to complete his sphere and then he decided to add a few more components to it. Using electrical tape, he added a rubber band loop to his ball. Initially, he used the loop to make the ball spin. Then, he told Ms. Remie, "Hey guess what? I'm going to make a  wrecking ball!" He added a short piece of yarn to the rubber band and looped it through. At the end of the yarn, he used more electrical tape to add one more rubber band. With his wrecking ball all complete, Simon went on a search for things to wreck.  SIMON WRECKS AN ERASER TOWER As seemed to be the habit for the kids this week, Simon asked me to take a video of him at work. You can see that Simon's first attempt to hit the eraser tower is not successful. The wrecking ball aims too low and hits the blue chair instead. On the second try, Simon aims higher and hits the tower. All three erasers come crashing down. Eliana cheers for her friend and his success! Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% 00:00 Fullscreen 00:00 Mute Simon makes an adjustment to his wrecking ball. He adds a tough string to the top where he will be swinging the ball. He makes a tower of cardboard rolls. Then, he adds mini towers next to it, forming a line of buildings ready to be wrecked.  Knocking these down takes a bit longer as Simon adjusts his force and the height of his swing. After several swings, Simon is successful once again.  Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% 00:00 Fullscreen 00:00 Mute A WRECKING BALL KIND OF MORNING After Eliana cheered for Simon, she decided that she wanted to make her own wrecking ball. She made her ball using mostly foil with random rubber bands holding the foil together. Then, she took some green string and taped it to the ball. She picked up the ball and placed it on the green rug in the classroom library. She walked away from the ball, unwinding the green string as she moved all the way across the room. When her feet hit the bench, she decided that this was a good lenght for her wrecking ball. Eliana was so pumped to start wrecking things that she walked over to Simon's towers, lifted up the end of the string and swung as hard as she could! Nothing happened. The ball stayed on the ground, attached to about 15 feet of string. Eliana and Simon discussed what they could do to make her ball work better. Simon mentioned that his string was not so long because he is not a giant. Eliana, realizing that she is no giant either, began the long process of cutting her string. This took a while because Eliana only seemed to be interested in cutting as much string as was necessary. Patiently, she cut off about six inches at a time. After each trimming, she would once again try to knock down the cardboard towers. Eventually, Eliana cut the string to be about two feet long. This proved to be a great length and she joined Simon in Room 101's wrecking crew.   Once Simon and Eliana started to work together, a lot of friends saw them having fun. Everett and Leo were the first ones to hop on board. Then, it seemed like most of the class was experimenting with how to make a successful wrecking ball.  WHEN YOUR WRECKING BALL GETS WRECKED Leo finished his wrecking ball and decided to knock down one of the erasers. Things seem to be going well until... ...his wrecking ball flew right off the string and smacked right into the loft! Marty who had been watching from upstairs laughed and shouted down. "Oh dear!" she said, "You have to fix that." Leo went over to the table with random materials and decided to secure his string by using a lot more tape. He then went to show Simon his new and improved ball.  Lucy experienced a similar situation. You can see it unfold in the video below. Her wrecking ball comes apart. Unlike Leo's, Lucy's ball come apart because her yarn rips. It send a piece of the yarn attached to the ball flying through the air. You can see Lucy's majorly disappointed face when this happens.   After a moment to gather herself together, Lucy heads to the table with Ms. Remie and decides to tape the two pieces of yarn back together. Her wrecking ball is back to one piece.  Nevin made a "rocking ball" like his friends :) He used many of the same materials, but he was very certain that he did not want his to be colorful. He only wanted to use the special silver tape on his ball. Once it was finished, he stepped over to an empty table. Even though Nevin was very interested in knocking down the cardboard rolls, he seemed to be the one person who was the most interested in setting them up as well.  Nevin triumphantly wrecks the towers. You can once again hear Eliana, amazed by her friend's work. You can always count on her for kind words.  A WRECKING ZONE When our gross motor play time came around, we were not quite done experimenting with our wrecking balls. We decided it would be a good idea to bring them downstairs. We separated ourselves to avoid whacking one another and set up different stations for our wrecking balls.  In this next video you can see what happened to Lucy's wrecking ball after she first fixed it.  That's right, it came apart a second time. Lucy decided that the real problem was that the yarn was not strong enough. When we went upstairs, she replaced the yarn for a tougher string and did not encounter another problem the rest of the day!

Breakfast Date with Maddie and the Wagners

Maddie is 1, Lillian is 2 and Simon is 4.5 years old.

Connect 4 in the morning

Simon and Lillian played Connect 4 this morning. Simon won every game - he had a bit of an advantage though because he can count to 4. 

Morning hair routine

Swimming Class

Valentine's Day dinner

Simon and Alan made Lillian and I dinner on Valentine's Day. Pan fried pork tenderloin cutlets! They were amazing.  He was so tired afterward he somehow fell asleep with his hand high above his head. 

Valentines Day Prep

Valentines ramping up. Simon's writing his names on all his valentines while Lillian was reading. We tried to take a selfie and she is having some trouble smiling on command.