 The sky was clear on student photo day. |
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 While waiting for their portraits, students noticed the moon.
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 What was the moon doing out during the day?
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 Did you know you could see Venus during the day? |
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 Venus is hotter than earth, because it is closer to the sun.
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 Jupiter is hot on top and cold on the bottom.
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Did you know that the earth goes around the sun?
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 Did you know that we live on a plate?
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 Then they noticed the round green fruit hanging above them, just far enough away to be mysterious. |
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 Pears? Apples?
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 Unripe oranges? Walnuts? Tennis balls?
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 What will this inquisitiveness look like when gets back into the classroom?
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 Campus flora and fauna will be formally sketched and labelled beginning in third grade. |
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 Moon observations will be documented in journals in fourth grade.
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 Until then, scientific curiosity, and knowledge, will grow under the hot sun. |
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 At recess, third graders made potions. |
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 The pipettes were for draining ink out of the markers, into the mixtures. |
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 The same technique might draw venom from a snake. |
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 Earlier this month, these students produced a striking orange crud by leaving saltines, apple juice and grass cuttings to stew for a week. |
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 Perhaps they can share this recipe with Mrs. Harada, the visiting artist, when she comes in April. |
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 Her indigo has been fermenting for months in pursuit of the perfect hue. |
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 Back at photo day, a fourth grader explained how pokeweed can be used for ink.
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 Her classmate had found a few of the fruit that the Preschoolers had been asking about. |
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 Apparently these are well known among older students as "stinkbombs".
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 The smell was hard to pin down - rotten lemons? cloves? mint chocolate chip ice cream.
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 (While this conversation was happening, other fourth graders were describing their mystery powders)
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 (They were starting with three adjectives describing the texture)
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 (Eventually, they will use their observations on five different powders to identify the components of mixed batches of powders)
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 Did you know that there is yellow crud inside a stinkbomb?
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 I'll show you how to break them open.
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 None of her classmates showed any surprise.
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 There is consensus, it seems.
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 The best way to open a stinkbomb is to fire it at the big tree with all of your might.
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