Friday, March 27, 2020

Finishing Up Sound in Science Club

This was our third and final week on Sound.


In Waldorf, Physics is a sixth / seventh / eighth grade main lesson block topic. There are lots of good resources for these blocks; my favorite by far is Physics is Fun! A Sourcebook for Teachers by Roberto Trostli.


Friday, March 27

Prior to Meeting


During the Meeting

  • review the results of student at-home activities
  • encourage the children to make sketches and take notes; review that when designing an experiment you only change one variable at a time
  • #9 - "The Pitch of Blown Sounds," page 45
    from Physics is Fun! A Sourcebook for Teachers

      a series of empty glass bottles of various sizes
  • #10 - "The Pitch of Blown Sounds #2," page 46

      a series of glass bottles of the same size, water, food coloring
      experiment with shortening the air column
      the taller the air column the deeper the sound
  • #11 - "The Pitch of Plucked Sounds," page 46

      dulcimer
      the longer the string the deeper the sound
  • #12 - "The Pitch of Percussive Sounds," page 47

      xylophone, three bar chime
      the longer the bar the deeper the sound

  • #13 - "The Pitch of Percussive Sounds #2," page 48

      drum, singing drum
      the looser the drumhead the deeper the sound
      (the amount of air inside a drum also influences its pitch)
  • revisit the 256 Hz and 1024 Hz tuning forks from last week's lesson, explain Hz (one Hertz equals one vibration per second), explain that a higher frequency means more vibrations which means a higher pitch (the faster the eardrum vibrates, the higher the pitch you hear; the slower it vibrates, the lower the pitch you hear), look at the length of the tuning forks and compare with the length of the xylophone bars
  • revisit "The Pitch of Percussive Sounds"

      use bottles from demonstration #10 WITHOUT MOVING THEM

      Trostli writes,

      "A set of bottles or wine glasses with water can also be used. When students lightly strike the side of the bottle, they will note that the more water there is in the bottle, the lower the struck pitch. This is in sharp contrast to the principle of pitch production in blown sounds. In that demonstration, increasing the water in the bottle crated a shorter column of air and a correspondingly higher pitch.

      "An interesting variation can be done by filling a series of equal-sized bottles with varying amounts of water to play a major scale. If one blows into the bottles, a scale can be heard. If the bottles are tapped, those that made the highest blown sounds (i.e., most water, least air) will have the lowest tapped sounds, and the scale will be heard in reverse."


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SWI Notes for March


Friday, March 20

  • read Tiger page from Why is a Tiger a Tiger? A Beastiary of Etymology by Dave Buchen

  • review the 4 Steps of SWI (Meaning, Structure, Relatives, Pronounciation)
  • review word sums and matrices
  • analyze < radiant > and look at its connection to other words

      < radiate >
      < radiation >
      < radius >
  • analyze < pandemic > which means all + people

      pan - Greek - "all"

      demos - Greek - "people"

  • discuss how < pandemic > IS related to < democracy > (morphologically, which means it shares a base) but IS NOT automatically connected to other words which contain pan including

      [frying] pan

      pandenus fruit

      panda bear

  • choose words for next week's session

      < pan >
      < fork >
      < spoon >
      < knife >


Friday, March 27

  • review the prefix pan- and analyze < pandemonium > (a term coined by John Milton for "Paradise Lost") which means all + demons
  • analyze < pan > (as in frying pan)
  • look at the entry for < pan > in etymonline to see how entries are structured, beginning with the present and going deeper into the past (Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic, Latin, Greek, PIE)
  • follow the live link in etymonline for the Proto-Indo-European root *pete- "to spread" and look at other words related to < pan > (etymologically, which means that they share an ancient root... these are distant relatives of pan and not close cousins)
  • analyze < fork >, < spoon >, and < knife > and discover that these are also Old English words (panne, forca, spon, cnif)!
  • choose words for next week's session

      < epidemiologist >
      < dandelion >


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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Shopping List for Capital Letters Block

I just finished speaking with a consulting client about the Capital Letters block -- one I love to fill with a bunch of artistic and hands-on projects -- and I realized that there isn't a place on my Capital Letters page that summarizes the projects or gives an inkling of the supplies that may be needed.

Of course, I keep this stuff in my head and never think to write it down!

So, if you are prepping for the Capital Letters block and are planning on using my ideas, here is a quick look at what I do and what you might need to buy if you don't already have it on hand.

It is worth saying that none of this is obligatory; it is just my list of projects. If you have drawing paper and beeswax crayons, you'll still be perfectly fine to do this block!


L - Ledge, D - Dragon
city mural project
large piece of drawing paper, colored pencils


R - River, N - Net
textured aluminum foil fish project
net from a bag of onions, aluminum foil, sharpie markers, cellophane tape


K - King, Q - Queen
gingerbread play dough project (recipe)
cornstarch, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, ground ginger, ground cloves, water, vegetable oil, molasses, flour


E - Elephant, M - Mountain
watercolor resist project
watercolor paper, blue watercolor paint, brush, white crayon or oil pastel


S - Stars, O - Otter
potato printing project
brown paint, brush, potatoes, cutting board, knife, black sharpie, glitter glue


X - Xylophone, P - Parrot
feather collage bird project
craft feathers in various colors, scissors, bowl for each color, glue stick


F - Feather, G - Goose
papermaking project
blender, construction paper in various colors (black, white, green, yellow), large bowl and spoon for each color of pulp, ladle, 3 or 4 old towels, super-inexpensive plastic papermaking kit (NOT a fancy Arnold Grummer kit)


V - Valley, C - Cave
sprinkle dyeing wool felt project
white wool felt, Kool-Aid powder in various colors (not grape flavor), a small bowl and a spoon for each color, spray bottle of water, rimmed baking sheet


I - Icicle, J - Jump
Sun Bread baking project
eggs, sugar, all-purpose flour, butter, active dry yeast, milk

snow sensory bin project
baking soda, shaving cream


H - House, Y - Yak
mini brick stamping project
Teifoc mini bricks, brown paint

wet felting project
large deep basin, hot water, baby shampoo or grated mild soap, rimmed baking sheet or old tray, large piece of bubble wrap, white wool roving


W - Worm, U - Underground
chocolate play dough project (recipe)
water, all-purpose flour, salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, cream of tartar, vegetable oil

watercolor pencil drawing project
watercolor paper, watercolor pencils, brush, jar of water


T - Tower, B - Bubbles
popped bubble art project
bubble stuff, food coloring, a small dish for each color, watercolor paper

yeast experiments project
three identical glasses, active dry yeast, water, sugar, measuring spoons

pantry chocolate cake baking project (recipe)
all-purpose flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, water

old-fashioned bubble bath project (recipe)
mild liquid hand or body soap, sugar or honey, egg


A - Asparagus, Z - Zucchini
paper collage project
construction paper in various colors (green, brown), scissors, glue stick


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Book Share Mar 25

In our exploration of new ways to keep our kids connected while they have to stay apart, we tried our very first Book Share on Zoom!

Last November and December we had experimented with a Kids Book Club where there was no compulsory book to read. Everyone (ages 2 - 18) just came together and talked about what they were reading and if they would recommend it to others. Today, in our first virtual session, we heard from 6 children who had books to share. These were their recommendations:



The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (book #1)

by Jeanne Birdsall



The Big Book of Wild Cats: Fun Animal Facts for Kids

by Rachael Smith



Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy (book #1)

by Tui Sutherland



Dragon Masters: Rise of the Earth Dragon (book #1)

by Tracey West



Charlotte's Web

by E.B. White



Little House in the Big Woods (book #1)

by Laura Ingalls Wilder



Bone: Out from Boneville (book #1)

by Jeff Smith



Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (book #7)

by Dav Pilkey



Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers

by Celia C. PĂ©rez



Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

by Robert O'Brien


One child told me she's looking forward to reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. We had a lovely discussion! Looking forward to doing this again!


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