Volcano Week!

Welcome back to school!  We hope you all had a wonderful Pesach and school break.  This week in the Green Room we are learning all about volcanoes.  We began by looking at pictures of different types of volcanoes throughout the world.  We learned that all volcanoes are mountains but not all mountains are volcanoes.  Before eruption a volcano screams, then steam comes out and finally the lava spits!
Everest asked, "why is it considered spitting?"  Nosson made a connection between steam and real-life; he said, "when I'm sick I get a steam shower".  Shimmy pointed out, "when a volcano goes it spits out hot lava".  We learned that the lava is red except for one very unique volcano in Tanzania that has black lava.  Your child can tell you that even though the lava is black, it's still very hot!
In order to better understand the lava of a volcano we used vinegar and baking soda on cookie sheets.  We used spoons and droppers to put colored vinegar on the baking soda and watch it bubble.  This is a great activity to do at home too!
Our friends made amazing observations.  Shira said, "it smells like vinegar and smelly snow".  Shimmy noted, "ah, it's so slippery".  Tamar said, "Oh, it's turning blue, look it"!  Everest started using his hands and said "I'm smashing mine and making a goo volcano".  This encouraged everyone to use their hands as well.  Some of our friends said the vinegar was burning their hands because they had small cuts.  We turned this into an amazing learning opportunity by pointing out that hot lava burns too!  After a while of working, Nosson noticed that his was no longer mushy.  He said, "mine is turning hard".  Ben said, "it's not play-dough it's pretend, it's a volcano".  We talked about the sizzling and bubbling noise that it was making.  Nechama listened closely and said, "it sounds like nothing, I can't even hear anything".
We made volcanoes outside out of Mentos candies and cola.  First we built with rocks all around the cola bottle to make it look like a volcano and then Morah Shoshana added the Mentos and we watched it erupt!  Everyone cheered.

We have also begun discussing the solar system.  Each day we discuss the planets and sun and one child gets chosen to take home the solar system book, discuss what they learned with their family and then bring the book back the next day.  Morah D asked Shira if she lives on Earth.  Shira said, "no, I live in Chandler".  Then Nosson asked, "is New York on the Earth?"  We then discussed how cities, states, and countries make up the Earth.  Nechama asked, "can we live on Neptune?"  Morah D said that no one can live on Neptune because it is very cold there.  Nosson said, "New York is not very cold so I could live there."  Creating these real-life connections in their learning is amazing and creative.  It shows that the children are really absorbing the information they learn in school!

You can ask your child the following questions about the solar system:
1. How many stars are in our solar system? (1)
2. What is it's name? (Sun)
3. How many planets do we have in our solar system? (8)
4. What's the name of the planet that we live on? (Earth)
5. What was the original name they wanted to use for Uranus? (George)
6. How many of the planets have rings? (4)

Next week on Wednesday May 3 we will be going to the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix. Everyone is so excited!  Please arrive on time at 9:00 am so that you can install your child's car seat into D or Shoshana's car.  We will be leaving promptly at 10:00 am.  Please read Masha's regarding instructions for the field trip.
Shabbat Shalom,
Morah D and Morah Shoshana