And Then There Were Crystals

The students of Upper Elementary used a Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit to grow some really pretty crystals, and they learned some very interesting science along the way.  Here, in their own words, is what they did and what they learned.

Amethyst Geode - Anya 
The amethyst geode that I grew is part of the rhombohedral system even though the guide book said it would be hexagonal. During the process of growing somebody dropped a microscope slide in my solution. The crystals that grew on the slide were hexagonal but the ones that grew on the geode were rhombohedric. One theory is that they grew differently because the slide was smooth and the mold for the geode was rough. There were also orange particles in my solution. I think that is because before I put my solution in, the container had sourdough in it.
I used a chemical called aluminum potassium sulfate. After I mixed it, the solution was too dark to see into so I didn’t know what the crystal looked like until I took it out. When I did take it out, it was a much lighter color than I expected. Crystals also grew on the supporting rocks.

Emerald – Owen
     When we made my crystal (Emerald) it had turned out kind of light green which was strange because the chemical we used (monoammonium phosphate) was so dark green that we couldn’t even observe the growing crystal. It looked cool when we took it out because it looked kind of like a castle. It also was also shaped kind of circular like the plastic cup we put it in.

Golden Citrine – Stephanie
     The golden citrine crystal is a yellow color.  It is a tetragonal shape. When I look at it in the microscope it has large bumps of yellow and it looks tetragonal. Right now, my crystal is growing in the water. My crystal is growing on the edge. I have one crystal done and it is on display. The chemical I used was monoammonium phosphate. 

Frosty Diamond – Callie
            The frosty diamond is part of the cubic system.  When I look in the microscope at my crystal, it looks like an abstract cube. My crystal was growing in water at the time of my observations and I think I saw water molecules. My frosty diamond has a very rough edge. I think that when my crystal is finished, it will be even rougher.

Rama Quartz – Amanda
       Everyone says that my crystal looks like a palace. When I was making my crystal one girl in my class said, “I wannna be a little person living in there, but too bad it’s poisonous.” Now she says that she still wants to live in there as a little person and climb up my crystals like mountains. Well, I think that my crystal looks like an ice town with huge ice skyscrapers.
I used a chemical called monoammonium phosphate. My crystal making experience was an experiment. The crystal is has really grown tall.  It is about an inch now and it is still growing on the piece of paper it is on.

Topaz and Pink Quartz – Alice 
I chose Topaz because I love how it comes in so many different colors. The most common Topaz is the yellow Topaz. The rarest is the pink Topaz. The yellow one is a yellowish gold color. A fact that I found on All About Colored Gems.com is the Topaz gem has been known for at least 2000 years. You usually find topazes in Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, and Africa. In the USA, you can find them in Utah, Texas, Maine, and Colorado.

Pink Quartz is an orangish-pink color. It seems that every day it gets lighter and lighter. Right now, (15 of March) it is more of an orangish tan color. I like it a lot because of its color, shape, and I love all the crystals that come out of it. The crystals all go in different directions. It was very interesting to watch it grow.

Red Ruby Geode – Jessica
My crystal is called a red ruby geode. It didn’t really turn out to be a geode, but it did make cool hexagonal shapes-and was very red. The chemical I used for my geode was called, “aluminum potassium sulfate.”
I would describe my crystal as a very large crystal mass within the concave side of a rock– not very geode-like but it is pretty interesting. I like my crystal because it looks a lot like real ruby. The reason I chose this crystal is because I wanted to grow a geode.

The crystals are currently on display in the Upper El classroom, and it sounds as if there might be some on-going projects around them – we heard theorizing this morning about how to make them grow taller, to be continued, perhaps.

Political Parties

Upper El had a discussion about the Iowa Caucuses earlier this week and realized that there were some things they needed to know as they watched this political season unfold.  Starting with our political parties, they divided into teams, and each team took a party to research and report back to the class on.  This afternoon that reporting took place.

Callie and Amanda researched the Green Party and reported on its history and the platform and beliefs of the party.  It turns out that many of those beliefs are shared by some of our students, and they suggested some ways to make those beliefs known to more people.

 Aidan and Owen reported on the Republican Party, briefly detailing its history and platform.  Aiden showed a map of the United States that he had colored in to show which states voted largely Republican and which voted largely Democratic.  He looked at the data and extrapolated that if everyone voted according to this split, the Republican party would never put a President in office.  Miss Liz said the Electoral College would be a topic for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice and Stephanie shared their research on the Democratic Party, the history of the party and the platform and beliefs.  They also had a map colored in of the states that voted primarily for democratic candidates.

Jessica and Anya reported on the Independent Party.  As they shared the party’s platform, Miss Liz inquired if any of the beliefs or planks were shared by other parties, and as the students looked, they realized that there were several common planks, making them realize that more research was in order to determine how the parties’ beliefs differed.

Finally Maia reported on the Libertarian Party.  This initial research has given the students an awareness of the political process and they will learn more about it as the year and the political season continue.

The Dinosaurs Were Here

The children who attend Summit’s After*Care program do a great deal more than just “play”.  They cook, do science experiments, learn new crafts, write and act in plays, do homework, and recently they have been learning about dinosaurs. 

They learned what the different kinds of dinosaurs were.

They learned what shapes they were.
 

 They learned what the dinosaurs ate.

Then they started to create their own dinosaurs using paper mache.

When they were finished…

Practical Life

In Children’s House, Practical Life, an integral part of the Montessori education, is made up of Care of the Environment, Care of Self, Grace and Courtesy, and activities to develop the muscles necessary for writing. 

The materials in the Practical Life area of the classroom are colorful and interesting and the teachers change them regularly to keep interest high and to continue to develop different skills and muscles.  The children enjoy doing them without realizing that they are developing skills and muscles.such as grasping, twisting, and pincer grip.  These fine motor skills help them develop the grasp necessary for writing.  

Additionally, the children learn to care for themselves and build independence, by hanging their own coats and bags up, taking off their own shoes and putting on slippers.   They zipper coats and help friends when asked, and all through the day they practice taking care of themselves and helping their classmates.  There are a series of dressing frames that allow the children to learn how to snap, zipper, buckle and tie.

They open lunch boxes, put out cloth placemats and napkins and set up their lunches and clean up when finished.  Each week one child brings fresh flowers to enhance the classroom environment and they take turns arranging the flowers.  They learn to ask for and give help and to treat each other with respect and courtesy.  The teachers help them to learn to state their needs and to work through disagreements with classmates.

Children  learn to care for their environment by putting works away so that they are ready for the next person to use.  They learn to respect the work areas of others and to care for the materials they use.   They clean up after the snack they have prepared and eaten leaving the area ready for the next person.  Each child brings a plant to the classroom and they care for their own plants through the year.  If the classroom is lucky enough to have a pet, they also assist in caring for that animal.

The many Practical Life activities in the Children’s House classrooms build not only fine motor skills, but independence, time management and interpersonal skills, all hallmarks of a Montessori education.

As the Pilgrims celebrated…

So did the children of Summit Montessori – with true joy and thanksgiving.  In the Children’s Houses they gathered together to share foods they had made with their parent volunteers yesterday.  Fresh fruit kabobs, turkey roll-ups, corn, mini pumpkin muffins – all served on festive paper plates shared with the very best company. 

Lower Elementary had a more traditional feast thanks to the moms hard at work behind the scenes.  They invited guests (Miss Nancy and Mia Price were there with Mr. E, Miss Sherri, Miss Louise, Miss Siobhan and Miss Lois), decorated the tables, made favors and a thankful tree and escorted their guests to the table.  They were wonderful hosts and guests and it was a joyful meal.

 

Elijah brought a friend that he had made at home.

Upper El celebrated in a manner very much like the original pilgrims may have.  They built a fire pit, put logs around it to sit on, gathered the fire material and started the fire where they roasted potatoes.  They enjoyed some of their homebaked sourdough bread made from the starter they grew, and ate the bread with butter and jelly they made.  There were cookies baked at home and brought in to share.  They read by the fire, built a shelter and enjoyed the crisp fall weather and each other’s company.

If happiness has a smell, it smells like Summit did today filled with the aromas of turkey roasting and bread baking.  Happiness has a face, and it was on all our children, their teachers and the administration today.  We truly were thankful for each other and the many good things we shared.  We wish you all a joyful and delicious Thanksgiving surrounded with family and friends.

And All That Jazz

The teachers in the Children’s Houses use morning circle time to introduce new concepts and new materials.  Today Miss Shannon talked to the students of Children’s House I about jazz.  She explained that it was America’s own music, created in the 1900’s by African Americans in the southern part of the United States.  The children looked for the area on their map of the world on the rug where circle time takes place.  Miss Shannon talked to the children about jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald, and showed them the US postage stamp that bears her picture.  The children are learning the song Winter Wonderland in music with Mr. Jesse and Miss Shannon told the children that Ella Fitzgerald also sang that song and played a recording of her singing it for them.  She also read them a story about Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist and composer.  The children thought the words in the book were “silly” and Miss Shannon explained that the words in the story were trying to imitate the sounds of the music.

Identifying and labeling musical instruments was the activity and the children watched as Miss Shannon did a quick demonstration of coloring the instruments, cutting out the words that were the instrument names and then gluing them on the page under the correct picture.  The children knew that work was available to them on the project table, and Isabel immediately shared an idea for making the work into a booklet of instruments instead of just a flat page.

Each day finds the children learning something new at circle time, hearing new ideas and concepts, sharing their understanding and growing in knowledge at their own pace.

Microorganisms and more…

Upper El is studying microorganisms.  Today they held a debate on the following statement: monerans (one-celled organisms that have no nucleus or organelles) are essential to earth’s healthy ecosystems.

This debate was an opportunity not only to learn about microorganisms, but also about debate skills including gestures, confident strong stances and an awareness of how those things affect public speaking.  They debated whether monerans are good or bad, what can be done about them and why we need them.

In a more hands-on study, today the students also created what will become sourdough starter .  Working from the recipe on the white board for lactobacillus reuteri, they measured

50% flour and 100% water, they added some personal germs (as they picked up the spoons they stirred the flour and water with) and some air, as they (neatly) whipped the mixture to combine it.  As the mixture sits in the room, it will pick up a little warmth.  Very soon the bacteria will begin to eat the flour and colonize and within 22 hours the students should see colonies of bacteria forming. 

After measuring and mixing the students made some preliminary observations.   They looked, some noticed bubbles from the air they had beaten into the mixture.  They listened, and at this stage of the process, heard nothing.  The smelled, and Miss Liz demonstrated the proper way for a scientific sniff of an unknown substance (wafting the fumes with the hand and sniffing those instead of sticking your nose right in). 

The students then made the same observations about a batch of starter Miss Liz passed around that she had mixed up three years ago.  It had a different look and a sour smell.  Miss Liz explained that the sour smell was fermentation or the decay or decomposition of the original substances.

The students will continue to grow and observe their batches, and we’ll wait impatiently for what comes next – sourdough bread anyone?