Dec 3, 20232 min read

Fall into Exploration with the Hawks

by Kristin Finch

The Hawks started out this year excited for new experiences to begin the school year, learning together how to interact and help each other in our classroom, how to work together to build structures in Hawgolwood, but especially how to figure out the world through Math and Science!

When asked what they wanted to do at school this year, there were various answers including getting a pet python (we obliged with a visiting corn snake), but among the top answers were learning more math and doing science experiments!

In math, we play lots of games to solidify our basic facts, and we learn new things using manipulatives and by doing! We use pattern blocks to learn and create shapes and unifix cubes or base ten blocks for counting and operations, but we don’t stop there. We used playdough and sticks to create shapes, 2-D and 3-D. We used magnatiles to build amazing 3-D shapes including a huge rectangular prism, and triangular pyramid, octahedron and octagonal pyramid. We also used unit blocks for our intro to fractions.

So far this year, we’ve focused our science on our school-wide water theme and the class's general interest in animals. We have explored the theory raised by the kids, if freezing water and smashing it will create snow. Heads up: it doesn’t, but it gave us an opportunity to research and discover how a snowflake is created. We conducted an experiment on how various conditions affect the evaporation of water and we created clouds (or fog) in a bottle with boiling water and ice. We are using small experiments to help us understand how the world around us works and take it with us each day as we spend time outside exploring our environment. The Hawks are ready to experiment with so much more!