MLK

Happy Martin Luther king Day!!!!!!!!!

Reading about the life and achievements of Martin Luther King,  as well as listening to his speeches was very interesting. I learned about him when I was in school, so it was great to read it again and learn more in depth the struggles and accomplishments of that generation. Thanks to them we all are able to have a better life, and hope to share the same civil rights. Although, there are things that need improvement, we definitely came very far.

I also felt a bit sad to talk about discrimination and racism with my son. It is a shame that even nowadays the skin color, religion, race, or country you are born are still obstacles for people to obtain equal education, health care, housing and jobs.

We started our day reading books about MLK that we borrowed from our local library. We also watched videos about his "I have a dream speech", "The March on Washington", and "MLK Bio".

 I downloaded a few materials from TPT that were very useful and other great activities to do on MLK day. My son did a lot of writing today, and one of the exercises was to write about his dream of what a better world would be. He wrote: " I want my dad to be a pastor. He would talk about Jesus and love." I was completely touched by his actions, he said that love would make people feel and act in a better way.

He also wrote about the dream of his life. He said that his dream was for his mom and dad to be happy :)))). I was extremely proud to have such a thoughtful and wonderful son that thinks about his parents happiness. 

Furthermore, I found a great idea on one of my favorite blogs, First Grade Parade, to help the students to understand the similarities and differences of people using eggs. http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2011/01/place-value-mlk-and-snowmen.html

I put two eggs on a plate, one brown and one white. I asked him to tell me about the similarities and differences between the two eggs.  Furthermore, I asked him to close his eyes so I could break the eggs. I inquired whether or not he could tell me which yolk was from the brown and which was from the white.  He could not see the difference. I explained to him that this was the point of MLK that there is no need to discriminate when we are all the same inside and mostly outside, the only thing that differ is the skin color.

Afterwards, we mixed paintings and my son put it on his hands and printed it on the paper. He then wrote three things that he could do with his hand, in other words, what he could do to help people and make the world better.

 

It was indeed a very productive and educative day. Hope you enjoy our post. Thanks :))).

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fabiana

Spaguetti Bridge

Today we had another great day trying the experiments suggested on the "Time for Kids - Big Book of What, How and Why?". My son wanted to build a spaghetti bridge, he was quite excited to make the bridge but it was difficult to make him not eat the spaghetti and marshmallows :)))).

The materials you need to build the bridge are:
*8 marshmallows;
*2-3 uncooked linguini;
*13-14 strand of uncooked spaghetti (try to use spaghetti that's about the same diameter as the linguini);
*1 paper clip;
*1 envelope;
*scissors;
*40 coins (we used only pennies as we would obtain the same weight in all the experiments).

 

Instrucitons:

1st step: Use the scissors to snip off one corner of the envelope. This will be a coin basket. Afterwards, unbend one end of the paper clip. Poke it through the top of the envelope and bend it into a hook shape so it holds the coin basket.

2nd step: Make two pyramids of equal size by sticking the spaghetti through the marshmallows. Each pyramid will need four marshmallows  and six strands of spaghetti.

3rd step: Stand up the two pyramids near each other so they are less than the length of a spaghetti strand apart. Then, connect one end of a strand of spaghetti to the marshmallow at the top of one pyramid. Connect the other end to the marshmallow atop the other pyramid.

4th step: Hang the coin basket in the middle of the strand of spaghetti that connects the two pyramids. This is the bridge.

5th step:  Add coins one by one to the basket until the spaghetti breaks. Note how many coins it takes to break the bridge. My son put 18 pennies on the envelope.

6th step: Connect the two pyramids with a strand of linguini. Repeat the experiment. Note the difference in the number of coins it took to make each bridge collapse. My son put 38 pennies this time.

Afterwards I asked a few questions to my son to make him understand the difference between the two materials:
*What is the shape of the linguini?
*What is the shape of the spaghetti?
*Do they have the same texture?
*Which one is thicker or thinner?
*Why do you think the linguini held more coins than the spaghetti?

 Based on the book the spaghetti is supposed to hold more coins than the linguini because "the spaghetti pyramids are made of triangles. Triangles are strong  because they are rigid and won't bend. Spaghetti is shaped like a cylinder, and round objects have great strength. Stress is distributed equally throughout them, and they will bend in any direction. The linguini is shaped like a rectangle and so it bends and breaks."

Taking everything above into account, we figured that the problem we had was our linguini was thicker than the spaghetti hence not measuring like for like. The linguini held 38 pennies and the spaghetti 18 pennies. Next time we create this bridge we will make sure to have the same diameter for the linguini and spaghetti.

 My son had the idea to have two strands of spaghetti to hold the basket of coins. It held 28 pennies until it collapsed.

It was a fun, very interesting and delicious project. My son enjoyed it very much, he ate almost everything :))).
Have a great weekend. Thanks :)))!!!!!

Fabiana

Gelatin

Hello :)))), hope you are all doing well.
We purchased these books for our son called the "Time for Kids - Big Box Set of Why, How and What?". These books are very educational, complete with interesting facts that kids want to know, coupled with attractive pictures that captures the little one's attention. I highly recommend you to purchase this box set. My son is often reading them, asking me to explain the context of the topics, and super interested in doing the experiments.

We were reading about gelatin such as what it is made from and the uses. The book also offered a recipe  to make a smoothie pop, which my son wanted to do.

To make the pops you need: 1 box of flavored gelatin such as strawberry or orange; 2 cups of hot water; 2 cups of vanilla yogurt (we used strawberry yogurt) at room temperature; ice-pops molds or small paper cups and pop sticks.

1st step: Put the gelatin in the hot water and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved. Mix in the yogurt.

 

2nd step: Pour the mixture into ice pop molds. If you are using paper cups, cover them with aluminum foil and put the a pop stick into the center of each one. We used yogurt cups.

3rd step: Freeze for two hours or until firm. When it is ready just remove the cup and savor the pop. It was very delicious :))).

Have a wonderful day. Thank you!!!!!

Fabiana