How To / Rocks and Crystals

Morning Group:

Time to get our imaginations in gear again this morning. Before reading today's book, 'How To' by Julie Morstad, we played a game. It started when I asked everyone to clap - and we all clapped in the same way. The challenge was to find a way to clap that was still clapping but totally different to everyone else's way. Wow - some creative clappers in this group! 

We then drew cards from a hat and each used our imaginations to complete each 'how to' action in a unique way - making sandwiches, being mermaids, going fast or slow, washing socks and so on.

The book deals with all these things too and we talked afterwards about how special our imaginations are and how sometimes it's good to pause and think of different ways to approach things instead of doing what we always have done.

We then went down to the beach to enjoy the stunning weather and incoming tide. Remembering last week's story about building walls to stop the sea in Kiribati, some of us had a go at building one. In the end, the tide won, even though we put a lot of work into it.



The water was cool but warm enough for some to stay in for a long time!


'How to' make a luxury spa resort - complete with hot pools for feet!


For home:

- Play the 'how to' game with your family and see what people come up with.
- Is there are learning project you are working on at the moment? Think about a new way to tackle it. Try the 'how to' game with your work!


NEXT WEEK: we plan to go back to the Garden of Memories and help Whaea Taini with some weeding there.

THE WEEK AFTER THAT: Beach Day to celebrate end of term! Families welcome.


Afternoon Group:

It was great that so many of you brought rocks and crystals to show us all today. We discussed what we knew, shared ideas and spent a long time looking closely at the specimens through a portable microscope, magnifying glasses and loupes.





Then it was time to watch crystals growing.
We mixed a third of a cup of Epsom Salts with half a cup of hot water and a small squirt of dishwashing liquid, (to help me with clean up later!)



With cotton buds, we then painted some of the solution on a panel of glass, then watched carefully. Our writing and drawings crystallised before our eyes!







I had intended for us to go for a beach walk to discover different rocks, but the crystal painting was obviously too much fun, so for most of our session, that's what we did.

It was also good to see people asking questions of each other about their rocks and looking in the reference books for answers.

I will upload another experiment in the next few hours - the one that E asked for from the geode book.


Ideas for home:
- I know some of you want to make more Epsom Salts crystals! Try incorporating them with Christmas decorating.


Raft testing next week, so bring along what you have. The week after that is Beach Day!