“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere!”

Greek Independence. I hope you enjoyed the Greek program as much as we did. The students were great listeners before, during, and after their performance. They were ready to go on stage and did their best in the rehearsal and on the day of the program. They were also respectful audience members. (Ask your child what makes a respectful audience.) I could not be prouder!

Rocks. We continue testing rocks in a variety of ways. We have noticed many differences in our rocks, weight, color, porosity, and sizes. And we wanted to test the hardness. We first chose five rocks from our collections, then took our specimens and laid them down in a tray. With a coin, we tried scratching the surface of each of the rocks, careful not to hurt ourselves. We noticed some were more difficult to scratch, “This is very hard! This one is gritty!” and placed them in a line from softest to hardest. We finally documented our findings in our journal.

St Patrick’s. On Monday morning, we had a surprise visitor. We found a little note hidden in a basket: “I am a little man that comes from a faraway land. I brought you a tasty treat buried in the ground that we like to eat. Can you guess where I like to roam, the place I call home?” Seamus McRiddle. We looked around for the tasty treat, and behind the note camouflaged among the rocks from the basket was a potato! A real potato! We laughed so hard at that silly joke. After recovering from all the laughter, we listened to the story How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace.

Students remembered that Leprechauns look like little men; they’re 2 feet tall and live under large trees. Their most outstanding feature is that they’re magical! They work hard with their hands, and some are shoemakers. They collect gold coins for their work but don’t like spending their money. They hide their pot of gold in a very special place and hard to find, at the end of a rainbow. We also learned they could grant three wishes if we were lucky enough to catch one. Students that were in my class last year remembered that we had built traps but were unsuccessful, but they were determined that this year was our year. They immediately drew their trap designs on whiteboards. Time was not on our side, so we had to think fast; we only had three days to design, gather the material, and build. We found out that they love four leaf-clovers and dandelion tea; however, finding those under the snow was going to be tricky. So the best next thing they could do was draw dozens of clovers and scatter them around the room. They explained that they wanted to attract the Leprechaun into our room so we could see him running around. We then designed a trap on paper, and we ensured that we included material in our classroom. On Tuesday, we came to our classroom to find a big mess. And I mean a big giant mess! The tables were upside down, toys were scattered on the floor, books were off the shelf, and green footprints were everywhere! Even on the carpet! We even found a message on the sand table: “Hello!” What a sneaky little prankster! 

That day the snow had melted, and students were eager to go outside to search for clovers and dandelions. They were sad we could not see any flowers, but I reminded them that dandelions are also leaves. We found the tiniest leaves, which are still growing, but they were enough for a good dandelion tea. Once inside, we washed the leaves and heated water in our electric teapot. We added the leaves and waited. Our tea was ready to set up in our traps. 

Some students chose to work together, and some work by themselves. They were busy, like a bunch of little Leprechauns. We set up our traps and waited, inspecting them now and then. Some students left little messages and gifts for Seamur overnight, and Mr. McRiddles was so happy to see all the love that he left them a special note too. At the end of Thursday, he left a goodbye note for the class and a special gift for those who finished their trap: Fool’s gold! The little guy must have been spying on us and learned that we were learning about rocks. We were curious about what type of rock this was but didn’t have time to investigate (hint, hint, it is not a rock!). That is a task for next week. Stay tuned.

Soraya Castro

“Rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them.” John McPhee

St. Baldrick’s.  What a week full of emotions. This year, our annual St. Baldrick’s event for Pediatric Cancer Awareness had a deeper meaning for us here at Plato Academy. Our Friday started by welcoming our warrior Leo Bolos.  It was an emotional moment, and I was proud of how students were respectful at the symbolic ringing of the bell ceremony. During our family meeting, I first explained the purpose of this event, among other questions that arose. “Why do other students shave or donate their hair? What is a disease? What is cancer? Why do kids get sick? What is an organization?” So many questions! One of our own, Leo N., participated as a shavee, and we cheered him up as he shaved his head for the 3rd year in a row! Go Leo! Multiple students were inspired and said they’d do it next year, so don’t be surprised if your child asks to be a shavee/hair donor. 

Mr. Chris and his class prepared a day full of fun for the little ones. Middle schoolers directed various activities that involved crafts, dance, games, and basketball shoot-outs. Students had so much fun they didn’t want to leave! 

Rocks.  The week’s question was: Which rock is the thirstiest?  To find out, we measured and poured ten tablespoons of water into three plastic cups and marked the water level. We put one rock inside each cup, Scoria, Shale, and Quartz. We first ensured that each rock was about the same size and that the water covered each rock completely. Students noticed that one of the rocks (Scoria) released bubbles when it touched the water. We documented our observations in our journals. We left them overnight, and on the next day, we checked on them to see if anything had happened to the water level. We carefully removed the rocks from the cups, making sure that we drained all the excess water into the container. To calculate how much water was soaked up by each rock, we poured the water back into the measuring container and subtracted this volume from the original amount, ten tablespoons. The difference was minimal, but students noticed it because we had marked it with a sharpie.

We then tried with three different rocks. This time we observed Limestone, Sandstone, and Granite. None of these rocks had holes, so it was hard for students to predict which rock would be the thirstiest this time. They immediately noticed that the sandstone had a line of bubbles appearing to go to the surface. “It looks like fireworks!” someone said. We also noticed that the other two rocks had no bubbles. We couldn’t wait to see the results. We learned the word Porosity, which comes from the word Poros, which means passage; so something with Porosity lets things through, like liquids. So what happened? The sandstone and the Scoria rocks were the most porous rocks from their group, therefore, the “thirstiest” of all.

Challenge.  I asked the students how to move a box of heavy rocks from point A to point B. Their answers: “With a bulldozer. I would go to the gym and get very strong. I would just pick it up. I would push it. I would pull it.” After trying to move the box, they soon realized that the task would not be as easy as they thought. Then we talked about how we would move it without a bulldozer. The thinking began. After I asked them to draw a plan in their journals, they dictated their ideas. Some other ideas: “I would call everybody to help. I would put something under and pull it. I would use a ramp to push it.” We put a couple of these ideas to the test and can’t wait to test the rest of the ideas next week. 

This week we learned a new song to remind us about the three types of rocks. It is a bit fast, but it is very catchy https://youtu.be/r68iEwYdbh4, and we loved it. You may find it familiar (lol.) We also learned that rocks have a cycle. This cycle is the process by which rocks of one kind change into rocks of another kind; this creates the rock cycle. Simply put, any rock can transform into any other rock by passing through one or more of these processes. So far, it is still confusing for many, so we will keep talking about this cycle next week to make it clearer for everyone. Stay tuned!

Soraya Castro

“No matter how old you get, may you always stop to fill your pockets with some smooth stones, empty snail shells & other little treasures”. Nicolette Sowder

Rocks. The experiment we had left last Friday with the chalk gave us a surprise Monday morning, as we came to find the vinegar in the container had evaporated. The yellow chalk pieces that had not completely dissolved were significantly smaller; they looked gritty and cracked in some cases. But perhaps the most surprising thing is that the container had a ring of white sediment. Some students found this white sediment at the bottom and on the piece of chalk as well. Where did this white sediment come from? What is it? We touched and smelled it. It still smelled like vinegar. We touched the chalk, which felt rough compared to the last time, and the white sediment felt grainy. The porous sedimentary rock was now white and yellow. We were curious and wondered if the chalk would still work on a board, so we tried it. To our surprise, the chalk worked and wrote in both yellow and now white. 

As we continue learning more about rocks, we are excited to find what type of rocks we see in our backyard. Students keep bringing rocks from home or our playground, eager to learn what they have just found. We went into the task of choosing one rock from our collection; we then recorded in our journals the characteristics of the rock and what type of rock we thought it was, and why. Some chose igneous rocks, like pumice, basalt, and obsidian. Others chose sedimentary rocks, like shale, geodes, conglomerate, and even fossils. We still need clarification about identifying metamorphic rocks and are learning ways to identify them more easily.  

This week we learned some uses of Sedimentary Rocks:

• Limestone is used to make cement.
• Limestone and sandstone are used for building stones
• Quartz is a type of sedimentary rock which is used to make glass.
• Rock gypsum is used to make plaster.
• Natural gas, oil, coal, uranium, and other energy resources are formed in and come from sedimentary rocks. 

We watched a short video with a very catchy song: https://youtu.be/jl1rQV8em9Q. We learned that Metamorphic comes from the Greek word Morphe which means Change. We also learned that any rock could become metamorphic when heat and pressure are applied. How cool is that!?

We keep finding amazing facts about our surroundings, and the more we learn, our curiosity grows. Did you know that Chicago was underwater millions of years ago? Ask your child how we know this. 

Osmo. A few weeks ago, I asked students to describe how they’d build a snowman step by step. I explained that computers work just the same way. Coders, or programmers, write the programs behind everything we see and do on a computer. When kids learn to code, they are taught to break complex problems down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Similar to working with Number Bonds, this process is called decomposition. It is a valuable skill that children will find incredibly useful whenever confronted with real-life complications. And it doesn’t end at decomposition. Because coding follows a similar approach to problem-solving, students who code have an advantage in developing this skill.

To help students visually understand this, we started coding with the help of Osmo. This game helps students with various skills, including visual problem-solving, spatial reasoning, and other math skills like counting and number recognition. Students can play for 10 minutes a day or not at all. Ask your child if they chose to play with Osmo and how it works.

Reading. We began a new journey of reading chapter books. I asked students if they knew what chapter books were, and some had the right idea: “They are books with many letters. They are big books. They have numbers on the pages.” After showing them the book, I added that chapter books had some or no illustrations. Chapter books help students appreciate the written word and utilize their listening and memory retention skills, strengthening our attention span, vocabulary, and comprehension. 

We first started with a random chapter of a Greek Mythology book. I was surprised and excited that students sat through the whole chapter of the story of Hercules and King Augeas. We then got a book from Ms. Demetra’s class, who initiated a community-building project by reading Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. We began reading it, and the book has been so interesting that it has captured our attention for two chapters at a time. We can’t wait to finish reading Red’s journey and tell you about it. (Ask your child who the main character of this story is, Red.) Stay tuned!