Thursday, March 24, 2011

You Spin Me Right Round...[No Longer Such] Babies, Right Round...


...Like A Record, Babies, Right Round, Round, Round...

Or maybe you spin me right round like the way the earth rotates on it's axis.

This week and next are dedicated to the theme of "Constellations, Space & Our Solar System" at Mauren and Zoe's preschool. And I love it! I am simply bursting, brimming, my cup is runnething all over the floor and I don't care... I am impressed! Mauren and Zoe came home from school yesterday just filled with so much knowledge. With a couple of geeks for parents, it'll likely be difficult for all our 'apples' to fall far from our nerd trees. We spend a lot of time talking about science concepts at home, but we've not gone into a lot of depth when it comes to the solar system.

Some reportings on the day's learning:
-The girls know the creation myths about the constellations of Hydra, Ursa Minor and Leo. They also 'mapped' these constellations.
-Each girl was able to design and create a myth story about their own constellation. Mauren's is called 'The Magic Carpet' and Zoe's is called 'Ariel, The Mermaid' (they probably owe royalty rights to Disney for creating these constellations!).
-The girls now know that the Moon is a trickster. It seems like she makes her own light, but really she just reflects the sun's light back to us.
-The girls can act out the elliptical path the earth takes around the sun. They know the sun is our 'star' and that it is very hot. They know we are the 'third planet from the sun' and can recognize the names of the planets when I list them, but not recite them...yet. They also can act out the path the moon takes on it's path around the Earth. And they know that this path is called an 'orvit'...I tried to convince them it was called an orbit, but doubt remains...their teachers are pretty smart, I don't know mom, you might not be right about that.

I've long enjoyed how filled with wonder, enchantment, imagination and ideas my kids are upon spending a day surrounded by other kids and nurturing teachers at their school--and today I am filled with wonder at the capacity to learn my kids each have.

Our weekend homework project is to create a model solar system. This should be interesting and I think it will be best to divide and conquer so each girl doesn't overly influence one another's interpretation. I'll update our progress on our attempts at [mildly] intelligent designers next week. Is this project the gateway to dioramas and science fair projects? Already? Bring it on!


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