Kindergarten 2

Sometimes the best learning happens in the midst of what looks like chaos.  Don't be afraid to get messy.  -Leah Ross Henry   A big part of experimentation is allowing room for the mess to happen. In fact, mess plays a big role in the progress and success of scientists, as it allows room for exploration and for mistakes to happen.  In the Early Years, messy play is an essential experience for children as it helps them to develop their brain's capacity to connect with their environment through their senses -- and of course, it's adds in an element of fun. According to learningismessy.com, "Learning is often a messy business. Messy learning is part trial and error, part waiting and waiting for something to happen, part excitement in discovery, part trying things in a very controlled, very step by step fashion, part trying anything you can think of no matter how preposterous it might seem, part excruciating frustration and part the most fun you’ll ever have. Time can seem

Make the Ordinary Come Alive By William Martin  Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is a way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself. From experimenting on everyday materials to finding treasures buried in the soil, this is a week of making ordinary things come alive for our kindergarteners.  We collected some of the materials that we ordinarily use in the classroom, and discovered some of their properties through experimentation. We anchored our experiments on questions that make us wonder and urge us to investigate and see what the results could possibly be. Question 1:  What will happen to our classroom materials if we place the