Ongoing Investigation - Volume

In order to gain a more clear understanding of volume I brought tall, thin containers and wide shallow containers that hold about the same amount of water for the children to explore. I wanted to give the children a chance to compare the containers and see how roughly the same amount of volume can vary depending on the container.

 

Zane observes the two tall containers.

Before moving the water from one container into another, I wanted to make sure that the children understood that the two containers held roughly the same amount of water.

 

“I think both of them are the same” – Zane

 

Then water from one of the tall containers was poured into the wide, shallow container.

Once the water from one of the tall containers was poured into the wide, shallow container I wanted to see what the children were thinking in terms of what container held more water.

  

“Maybe this one [tall container].” –Zane, in regards to which container has more

All of the students seemed to be in agreement that the tall container held more water. Zane explained it held more because “It was to the top” and Lea echoed Zane’s thoughts when she said the tall container had more water because “…it goes all the way to the top.” When I asked Rami and Talia, they both lifted their arms above their heads to explain why the tall container held more.

To develop these thoughts on volume I plan on having the children explore two containers with the same dimension and having them drop clay into them. I will be looking to see what the children think will happen if they change the shape of the clay.

-Miss Rudd

The next two primary colors the students explored with were red and yellow. The students saw red and yellow paint mixed together makes orange. They used the same mixing technique they used when they mixed blue and yellow together to make different shades. They made different shades of orange adding more red to make a darker orange, or more yellow to make a lighter orange.

“You see, you have to mix red and yellow to make orange. Little red and more yellow make this lighter color of orange. Theo continued to make different shades of orange manipulating the two colors adding more red than yellow, then more yellow than red. 

 Chawki explored making different shades of orange. “I made orange with red and yellow. He added more red on one side of the paper and less yellow to make a darker shade of orange. “Here is the darker orange as he pointed to the left side of his paper.”

The following week, the students explored mixing the primary colors red and blue together. Students explored and saw blue and red paint mixed together made purple. The students used their previous knowledge and techniques for color mixing to make different shades of purple.

Trent mixed red and blue paint and saw it makes purple. Then he began to add a little blue paint and more red paint mixing the two colors together making thin strokes of different shades of purplewith his paint brush. He made different shades of purple depending on the amount of red or blue paint he used. 

The students will continue to explore color mixing. They will explore with black and white paint to see and identify the different shades that can be made when adding black or white paint to another color.

                                                                   ~Mariam Albachachy

Ongoing Exploration: Volume

As our exploration of volume has progressed this semester, I wanted to develop the idea of estimation with the children. I planned an activity where the children estimated how many bear counters they would need to fill an object.

 

“I think 10” –Seena’s estimation for how many bears it would take to fill the cup.

 

“Almost [full]…maybe 15 more bears.” –Zane

 

However, in this activity as well as previous activities had varying ideas of what it means to be full.

 

Children would either leave space in the object that they were filling and say that it was full, or they would over fill their objects to the point of being overflowing. This led me to focus the exploration on developing a clear idea of what it means for something to be full.

“It’s full!” – Danny

“I’m filling it.” – Adelyn

 

In this activity the children filled zip lock bags with cotton balls. With this I wanted to give the children a clear boundary for what was full (zipping the bag closed). While I’m not entirely sure that the children have developed a clear sense of what it means to be full, I know they are heading in the right direction. In the future I plan to extend these ideas by comparing tall, thin containers and shallow, wide containers that hold similar amounts.