august 26
We really enjoyed holding hands today! We walked through the park holding hands and invented a new game where we hold hands and run — taking turns being the one to lead the way.
In the cypress grove, we practiced crossing the bridge made of branches, chased giant bubbles, played a game called “Mommy” and came up with new lyrics to the song, Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. We like to sing it like this: Red Bird sits in the sweet gum tree, drinking drinking lots of gum ball tea, laugh Red Bird laugh, Red Bird laughs in the sweet gum tree. Then, we switched out Red Bird for a different bird we’ve seen in the park. Together, we remembered the: woodpecker, mourning dove, blue bird, chickadee, starling, black crow, and wild goose. We also replaced “sweet gum tree” with “old oak tree” and sang about acorn tea :) We took turns imagining and then acting out the various laughs of each bird. It was very fun and silly!
When we got back to school, we took off our clothes and plunged into the pool. The water helped our bodies cool down and washed away all of our sweat. We swam and played our new “catch the rainbow ball” game before drying off and heading inside for rest.
After rest, we made chocolate chip cookies. We measured and mixed all of the ingredients together in a bowl, rolled the dough into small balls and then transferred the cookie sheet into our sun oven. We were amazed that the sun could bake our cookies! Unfortunately, shortly after putting the cookies into the oven, lots of clouds rolled in. We noticed that the temperature in the sun oven got cooler the longer the sun stayed “hiding behind the clouds” (350° to 150°). Even though the cookies didn’t completely cook, we still ate them and thought they were delicious!
We’ve been very curious about the sun, probably because it has been exceptionally hot outside. We want to know why the sun is so hot! Using the sun oven to cook food is our first experiment harnessing the energy of the sun. We’re going to continue learning about and experimenting with different ways humans have used the sun throughout history (fire, sundials, art, etc.). We’re also learning more every day about how plants use sunlight to make food. Stay tuned!