Discovering Things About Stringed Instruments

We have been learning a lot about pitch by studying our homemade stringed instruments or harps.  We experimented with different lengths of string, different tensions and different thicknesses of strings.  The children discovered that the tighter the string, the higher the pitch, the longer the string, the higher the pitch and thicker strings have lower pitch than thinner strings.

Checking Out the Chicks!

We have been weighing the chicks periodically.  They are growing very fast!  We are weighing them in grams and this has been helpful to us in our study of metrics in math.  We gently handled the chicks and observed them on the floor!

The Peepers Have Arrived

Our baby chicks were born last week.  They arrived right on time on the 21st day.  We had a great hatch this year.  Ten out of our 12 eggs hatched!  Above are some pictures of the hatching and soon after.

Mother's Day Tea

Mother's Day Tea - slideshows
Our Mother's Day Tea was a great success!  The children celebrated Mother's Day with their moms and aunts with tea, cookies, poetry and flowers!!  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Mother Robin GIves Us a "Bird's Eye View"

Mama Robin has been building her nest right outside our classroom window.  We watched her bring pieces of grass and add them to the nest for several days.  On Friday, she settled in!  Mama Robin sat in her nest most of the day.  Maybe we will have baby robins, soon.  We can entertain them with our music in science and they can entertain us with their songs!!

Shake, Shake, Shake!

We had some fun with the Shakers!  The children found many different items to put inside their shakers.  We tried to guess what was inside each shaker after it was shaken but very few were guessed correctly.  After everyone shared their shakers the children worked together in small groups to put them in order from highest pitch to lowest pitch.  Then they presented them by group and we numbered them 1-4 (highest to lowest).  After that, we grouped all the ones together, then the two's and so on.  Finally we figured out the highest pitched shaker to the lowest pitched shaker for the whole class!

Making Sounds With Nails

We continued exploring pitch by tapping various sized nails.  The children discovered that longer nails had a lower pitch than shorter nails.