Rings and Things

IN THE ROUND:This afternoon, CJ announced that there was a rainbow on our ceiling. Sure enough!

Sun streaming in through a south facing window was reflecting off an upside down CD that was on our desk. It was really pretty.

A bit later, on our run, I noticed an arching, multi colored ring in the sky. At first I thought it was a rainbow, but the colors weren't really right (they were more reds and oranges), and it seemed like it was a circle around the sun, not an arch or rainbow shape.

Through the magic of the Internet (and thanks to a page on the Universe Today site), we learned that These rings are caused by ice crystals within thin cirrus clouds, and there several different kinds of sun rings you can see depending on the weather conditions.

One of the most common rings (and the one I believe we saw today) is called a 22° halo, so named because the ring is located 22 degrees away from the Sun itself. The ring is formed at exactly 22° because of the hexagonal shape of the ice crystals in the cirrus clouds which act as prisms for the Sun's light. According to Universe Today, "As light passes through the two sides of the prism, it's deviated by exactly 22°. Since the ice crystals are jumbled up randomly in the sky, most of the light is deflected away. But from every position you're always able to see the deflected light from some of the crystals in the sky. And this is why you see the bright ring around the Sun."

There's also a really great story about the phenomenon in NASA's Science News Web site - which was a wonderful discovery in and of itself. I've spent countless hours on their Web site and never seen the Science News portion before. It's awesome!

BIG FAT ZERO: I went through our workbooks today in search of some math problems that would make the kids think a bit. I decided to give them worksheets that reinforced the concept that different number combinations could be used to get the same answer. (For instance, 2+4 and 5+1 both equal 6.)

CJ had no trouble with the concept, until he was faced with this: 8+1 = 9+?

He pondered it for a minute or two and then declared, "This is impossible! Eight plus one is nine. If it's nine already, how can I add anything to it?"

Thankfully, he realized the answer when he asked his question aloud. Sometimes "nothing," or zero, is the answer.

On his next exercise, CJ had to solve some number wheels. Picture a dart board. There's a number in the center, and in the ring around the center, there are several other numbers. He had to add the center number to the numbers surrounding it and write the answer in an outer ring. After doing one, he realized there was a pattern and he breezed right through it. "Addition wheels are so easy," he said smugly.

Annabelle had a meltdown doing her second worksheet. She was supposed to solve addition equations and then color a picture using a color code provided (5 = yellow, 6 = red, that sort of thing). Unfortunately, what she did was bust out the crayons and immediately start coloring the picture to her liking, completely ignoring the math. When I called her on it, she told me she knew the answers, so she didn't see the need to actually do the math.

I told her that even though she knows the answers, one of the reasons I even bother with worksheets is I want to make sure they are reading something carefully and following the directions they're given. That's a really important life skill.

EXPRESS YOURSELF: CJ has been in a bit of a fog the past couple of days. By that, I mean not cueing in to the people and activity around him in favor of living in his own head.

Given that, I thought we'd work on some social skills today. So, I returned to the Birmingham Grid for Learning that we discovered last week. There, I found an activity called "Busy Pages."

According to the instructions along with it, "This activity helps children to develop their expressive language skills. They will have the opportunity to put their thoughts into words and gain confidence expressing themselves verbally with other children and adults."

It was suggested teachers have "children observe, identify, predict and discuss a picture of a familiar activity." We did that. I also asked the kids to think about the people in the pictures. Who were they? What was their "story"? What could you tell or suppose about them just by looking at them?

PURPLE PLAY PARK: When Christian came home from work, we went for a run/ride. We decided to head to the "Purple Play Park" as the kids call it, so named for its bright purple posts on the play equipment. It's actually the playground at Lawton Elementary School.

Along the way we saw the Farmers zeppelin "Eureka" that we've been seeing around town for the past few days. In fact, we even saw it on the ground, at the Boeing plant/Paine Field up in Everett last Sunday, when we went to the circus. For just $375 (yikes!) you can even take a ride in it.

When we reached Lawton CJ played for awhile, while Annabelle had to walk the perimeter of the park with me. (She'd been really nasty on the way over and as she learned, when you're rude and or mean, there are repercussions.)

For all the times I've mentioned the playground here, I don't think I've ever posted a photo of it in its entirety - until now.

As you can see, it has a nice view over to Ballard/Crown Hill and Phinney Ridge.

IT'S EVOLUTIONARY!: To be honest, I'm not even sure how I found this gem today (I must have been searching for something else, saw a link or two and followed them), but what a score. "It" is "Evolution Readiness."

As they describe on their "about" page, "Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Evolution Readiness project is working with school districts in Massachusetts, Missouri, and Texas to introduce fourth graders to the concept of evolution by natural selection. We provide students with a virtual environment they can populate with plants ... . When the plants drop seeds, the new plants sometimes differ slightly from the "parent" plant, and are adapted to a slightly different environment. Students conduct virtual experiments to determine which variety of plant lives best in which environment. Later, they can alter the environment and observe the effect."

I had to download a couple of really big files to gain access to their learning units, but it was well worth the time and effort. I haven't shared it with the kids yet - I wanted to check it out for myself first.

If you're wondering "Why teach evolution to elementary aged kids," check out this Newsweek article, "Nature’s Little Scientists: On the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, an argument for teaching evolution to younger children."

TEMPLE TALK: If you watched the Emmy awards last weekend, you heard the name "Temple Grandin" over and over and over. The HBO biopic about her life won FIVE Emmy awards.
Thanks to a Facebook link by the folks at Social Thinking, I found a nearly one hour interview with her, "Conversations from Penn State." I didn't get to listen to it all today, but what I did hear was compelling. She is doing so much to forward the notion that different thinking, looking and acting people have much to contribute to our society if society would just be more understanding, accepting and encouraging.