Come on Down!!

MORE MORE: Yesterday we hit a brick wall when CJ was trying to figure out how many more 6 is than 4 (even though he totally knows 6-4 = 2). Not one to shy away from a struggle, we were back at it this a.m. first thing.

I wanted the kids to be involved in breaking down every step of this concept, so I got out some Play-Doh and asked them to slice a log into 5 pieces and make balls out of those pieces. We lined 'em up by color (5 pink and 5 green) and noted that they were equal in number. I had the kids close their eyes and I took one pink away. Then, the grilling began. :) Are there more pink or green balls? Are there fewer green or pink? Easy stuff, they both nailed immediately. And now, for the tricky part - how many more green are there than pink? Aaaaaaaaaarghcrashbang (sound of CJ's brain seizing). No, it's not 5. Or 4. Or 9. Sigh. So we worked through it and he did come to realize that there was one more green than pink. And we did it over. And over. And over, with different combinations of colors and numbers. The good news is, he caught on about 100x quicker today, no tears were spilt, and I'm guessing he'll catch on even quicker tomorrow. Stay tuned. ...

STICKY SOLAR SYSTEM: Fresh off watching Space Shuttle Atlantis launch yesterday, I thought it would be cool to keep exploring space, so to speak. Fortunately, last week at Goodwill, we scored a great "Magic School Bus The Secrets of Space" activity kit (for 99 cents - and every piece was there - wOOt!).

Today's activity from the kit was affixing planet stickers to a poster of our solar system. The kids took turns affixing the stickers to their proper orbit and reading some quick facts about each planet. During the exercise we talked about which planets astronauts would be more or less likely to visit. For instance while Venus is relatively close, its yellow clouds of poisonous sulfuric acid don't sound too inviting. (Of course, CJ proposed a workaround: "I'll make a poison gas get-rid-er-of-er machine!") We agreed that the surface of Mars sounds somewhat hospitable because, as Annabelle pointed out, astronauts could melt the ice to use for water while there.

I also asked them, "Why doesn't the sun have a sticker?" for the planet poster and they both responded because the sun isn't a planet - "it's a mass of incandescent gas" - a lyric straight from "Why Does the Sun Shine?" on a favorite CD, "Here Comes Science."

When they were done reading and stickering, we did a quick creative writing assignment. I asked, "If you could visit any planet, which planet would it be and why?" Annabelle, who loves an underdog, wrote, "I would like to visit Pluto to not hurt his feelings." Translation: She feels sorry for Pluto, as some/many scientists are now saying it's not a planet at all.

CJ immediately said he wanted to go to Mars because it's red. Putting that on paper became a bit of a struggle, because, well, he doesn't know how to spell "because." I assured him (around 38 times) that it is totally OK if he doesn't know how to spell "because," because this assignment is about the idea of planetary travel, not a spelling test. But he sat there and sat there and sat there, as if he could wait long enough and the sky would open up and a giant BECAUSE would fall on the table. Finally, to put him out of his misery, I put a kitchen timer on (timers ALWAYS get his attention - it's like a Pavlov's dog-type response from his video gaming). Miraculously, within 60 seconds he had written, "I want to visit Mars becuz it is red." Yay CJ!

Next, we slid on over to the computer workstation and got ready for liftoff. Thanks to Spacewander, we were able to take a ride through our solar system and beyond. The scenery (shots from NASA) was downright stunning and our spaceship's display panel gave us lots of information about the great "out there" along the way.

OUTTA THIS WORLD GAME SHOW: For weeks now, I've been thinking about a game show that was a childhood staple for me: The Price is Right. I used to LOVE that show. (In fact, it was the only good part of a sick day home from school.) The reason I've been thinking about it so much is that as I'm working with CeeJ and Bee on concepts like estimating, more and less, addition, subtraction, rounding and so on, I realize that TPIR is largely responsible for teaching me these skills - though I had no idea at the time it was math, I thought it was just fun Fun FUN!

For whatever reason, I decided that TODAY was the day. We were going to watch TPIR, gosh darn it. The kids were hooked from the get go. The show's fast and flashy and people are ridiculously excited - what's not to like?

As we watched, I explained some of the game's nuances to them. For instance, when bidding on a prize to get on stage, you want to be close to the price of the prize, but if you go over, you're out (concepts of less, equal, more). Those same concepts were used in various ways during the individual games. When it was time for the contestants to spin the big wheel to see who goes to the finals, I explained that they were each shooting for $1 or 100 (cents), and they had two spins to try to achieve that. The tricky part was after their first spin, they had to decide if they wanted to take their second spin, knowing they will add that # to the first spin's # and risk going over 100. (An aside: After the show was over, I was able to find a TPIR wheel online, and we played a few rounds. The kids dug it.)

Finally, it was time for the Showcase Showdown. The first one was the usual stuff - bedroom furniture, a hot tub - pretty bo-ring to a 5-year-old. Then the second one came along and wait, what's this? There's a special guest to describe the prizes? And out walks astronaut/moonwalker Buzz Aldrin! Are you frickin kidding me? I think. Here we've been studying space stuff the last couple of days and we finally watch The Price is Right today, and there's an astronaut on? How often does THAT happen? Once in a lifetime.

Anyway, the showcase included an authentic lunar landing spacesuit from Spacetoys.com (which has, I have since learned, many, many toys 2 die 4), an autographed copy of Buzz's book, "Magnificent Desolation - Long Journey Home from the Moon," a trip to Space Camp, another trip - this one to meet an astronaut and see a launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and a Saturn Sky (automobile).

Happily, the woman bidding on the space showcase won (around $42k price tag, by the way).

Needless to say, The Price is Right was a huge hit with the kids. We certainly won't watch every day, but we'll check in from time to time. Oh, and FYI, CJ now wants a custom Price is Right shirt. He noticed right away that the people with wacky get ups are called down to be contestants.

OUR READERS ROCK!: Today the beauty of this here blog became very apparent. First thing this a.m. I check my Facebook wall and a reader in Montreal (hi Undine!) had posted a link to a great story on Telegrapha.co.uk. It was a list of their editor(s) picks as the best education Web sites. Each one listed is a fantastic new resource for us, and each of those resources points me to other resources. And heck, just reading readers' comments on the story pointed me to yet more fantastic resources.

Then when I checked the good old fashioned mailbox this afternoon, there awaited a bright red envelope addressed to the Science Department of Magnolia Prep. It was a care package (from Ruthie and Bob - thank you!!!) containing some cute Thanksgiving stickers (which Annabelle has already put to very good use) and creatures that will grow when placed in water. We can't wait to experiment with those and practice our measuring skills!

How cool is it that Annabelle are CJ have all these people helping out with their education?