Dear Parents,

We started our unit on magnets this week.  The children listened to several stories about magnets. They then walked around the room with a magnet wand and tested various items in the classroom to see if they repel or attract to the magnet.  This is what they discovered:  Jack found that the magnet attracted to the spring on the clothespin, Lajos and Julia found that their magnets attracted to the leg of the chair, Eli's magnet repelled the bulletin board, Benjamin's magnet attracted to the easel and  Jack's magnet repelled the wooden table. William discovered that his magnet repelled the alphabet rug. Some  new vocabulary words we learned this week were:  Repel, attract, north and south pole. 
The children also learned that items need to be made of iron or steel to be attracted to a magnets.

 

The children made sailboats by drilling a hole into a wooden block, then hammering a dowel into it and finally adding a colorful sails to their  boat. The children had so much fun racing their boats in the water table by using a magnetic wand to pull the boat across the water.  We discovered that magnets work under water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also raced magnetic cars on an elevated cardboard race track using magnet wands.  The children were so surprised when their cars moved along the track. The children now know that magnets work through cardboard.

Thanks to Kathryn (Rachel's mother) for teaching a yoga class.

Thank you to Lajos's father (Lajos) for doing such a great job sanding and cutting the boats.

 

 

 

Love,

Ms. Bonne