Another science experiment

Ryan told me about another experiment that they did in class with air and his explanation was so complicated that I had a really hard time following what they actually did.  Out of curiosity I sent his teacher a note.  That sweet lady let Ryan bring home for the long weekend 2 huge plastic syringes-about 3/4 inch in diameter that you can connect with a length of plastic tubing.  He and a friend had connected their syringes.  Ryan kept telling me about pushing the plungers (not the bathroom kind said Ryan).  I have never seen syringes this big and could not imagine what you use them for or where his teacher got them.  Anyway when they are connected by this tubing when you push the plunger of one the plunger of the other one moves back.  Ryan thought this was really cool and spent quite a long time Friday afternoon demonstrating it for me.

In Social Studies they are learning about the Philippines.  Did you know that it is an archipelago?  That is a big fancy word for group of islands.  He had homework last week that asked if he knew something about the history of the Philippines and he told me that he did.  I was curious what he would say since I don't know anything (much) about the history of the Philippines.  He said that his teacher had told them that a long time ago people lived here who hunted with bows and arrows and that some different people wore things with stripes on the sleeves that were yellow and green and all the rest of the outfit was pink.  Again I wrote to the teacher.  She said that it was some kind of costume but didn't give me any more details than that.  She probably says "these American mommys ask too many questions!"

Ryan also got to do this "way cool" according to him thing with legos in his classroom.  It was a kit with a motor that you hook up to the legos to make part of your creation move.  The teacher allowed them to choose to build an alligator as the kit was designed for or something else that they chose.  Ryan, of course, chose something else.  He made a boat and loved that he could make part of his boat move when he plugged in the motor.

Mrs. Avecilla is just amazing in how she gets the children so actively engaged in their learning.