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We started a new science unit on ecosystems! We did a quick experiment to learn about the water cycle per request from one of the students… Hot water into a mason jar with ice on top created rain when the hot steam condensed on the cold bowl.
Following up on our tax day lesson from last week, we learned about the importance of a representative government and what prompted the American Revolution. Each student (Colonist) was given a bag of M&Ms (money). We appointed a King and Tax Collector. The King decided the new tax laws and the Tax Collector went to each student to collect. The first law was anyone with brown eyes had to pay a tax of 3 M&Ms. We had one student trying to change his eye color to avoid taxation! Next was anyone wearing a Minecraft shirt, and finally anyone that was a boy. Things got a bit out of control and the Colonists were very angry at the arbitrary taxes that they couldn't avoid. The boys took away a few lessons today, 1. Taxation without representation was a leading cause to the American Revolution, 2. It's important to be an informed voter and know what the candidate you're voting for wants to do with your money.
Happy Tax Day! Today our older kids learned about taxes in an applicable, fun way. They first earned their year's salary by running laps and pushups. After all that hard work and complaints they were paid in a bag of M&Ms. From there they had to complete their tax form to determine how much was owed. We only had 1 student in tears at the site of how many M&Ms he had to fork over to the government! We also learned about tax credits and each student received a "green" credit for owning a bike and red M&Ms for having dependents, pets. We heard a few "that's not fair" statements when the credits didn't make up for what was paid.
Science class this week was building the perfect catapult. We experimented with popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons. The kids tinkered with the placement of the rubber bands, number of popsicle sticks, and location of the lever to determine what design made the best launch. We launched foam balls, pennies, grapes, and Easter eggs! Goal was to make it into the trash can.
Economic class was a continuation of our catapults and learning about business plans. This week we learned how to write a business plan for a service. The boys first determined the cost to build their catapult based upon their materials. Most of the catapults cost between 17-18 cents. From there they had to determine how much to charge someone to launch something and how many launches they would need to do in order to break even. Math seems to come quickly when dollar signs are added! The boys then competed for our money by reducing their prices or offering easter eggs that exploded when launched. The free market principle was alive and well in class!
Today we took a field trip to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in Deerfield, MA. What a wonderful experience for all the senses. The older kids identified plants and flowers. We also enjoyed hearing facts about the animals that live in the biome. We of course watched (and sometimes chased) the butterflies around the conservatory.
After the success of our pasta making and selling week we decided to sit down and learn how to write a formal business plan. First step was to create a product or service to sell. All the boys decided they wanted to sell some type of artwork. Each created a name for their business and why it will be unique. We then made a list of all our materials needed and their corresponding expenses. We came up with a price per unit and then calculated profit. Lastly, we drew a picture of our product. Next week we will work on how we’re going to market and promote our product.
This week for science class we decided to incorporate the kitchen by learning how to make pasta from scratch. We mixed flour, egg, and water to make our dough. We discussed how combining different ingredients makes our food edible. We then used the pasta maker to flatten our noodles and finally ran it though the maker to create spaghetti and fettuccine. The boys loved watching the transformation and we were actually making a product that they could eat and maybe sell?! Sounds like a good lead into our economics class…
In our Econ class we decided it would be a good idea to sell our homemade, gluten free pasta! Each student created a name for their pasta. We then had to determine how much we could sell the pasta for. I asked the boys to tell me how prices are set. These little smarties said, the market determines prices! Great, but now we need to look at expenses. The boys decided our expenses would be our ingredients and the cost of the pasta machine. We then calculated how much it would cost to make 1 batch of pasta.. It was amazing how quickly they could do this math when it’s not on a worksheet. 2 of the boys decided they wanted a salary for working. The other 2 wanted to just make money from the profits. We then calculated how many bags of pasta would need to be sold in order to make their salary and compared it to those that wanted to just make money from the profit.
We were very excited to have the Reptile Nook come visit our co-op this week! Jessica did a wonderful job with the kids. She let them ask questions and pet the creatures. Everyone’s favorite was the turtle!
Science this week was all about the beach! My family took a vacation to southwest FL and returned with many treasures. We took time today to try to identify as many of the shells as possible. We had to look very carefully as some of the shells looked similar but were named differently based on the side they opened or a variation of color. We also compared and contrasted sand dollars, starfish, and sea urchins. After we identified the shells we made terrariums out of sand, our favorite shells, and added airplants.
In honor of President’s Day we did a lesson on our presidents. We looked at the coins and identified which President was on each coin, the buildings that are located on the coins and their significance. We did a quick review of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We also had the kids brainstorm about their ideas if they were President. We had some pretty good responses about how they would spend their day… making all the rules, playing wii, praying. At the very end we decided to do an experiment to see what the best method is for cleaning pennies. We used vinegar, lemon, salt, and ketchup.
Valentine’s Day Party
We celebrated the day of love, Valentine’s Day, with a special party for the kids. We started the day by decorating valentine boxes with stickers, ribbons, scrapbook paper, etc. After that we had obstacle courses and a dance party! At the end of the day the kids gave each other the valentines that they made at home.
Today we picked up from last week in our study on rocks and focused on igneous rock. We separated into 2 teams and a bag of marshmallows to see the ways igneous rock can be formed. A quick cooling with produce a clump and crazy pattern (aka a big handful of marshmallows) while a slow cooling produces smooth, neat pattern (aka marshmallows neatly separated and stacked). We then ventured outside to find rocks in the dirt pile at church to add to our collection. What a great activity for the unusually warm November day!
One of the cornerstones of Tidal Kids is teaching kids complex economic principles at a child’s level of understanding. Today we learned about the CPI and inflation. We made a mini grocery store filled with the staples a family would buy for the week (eggs, milk, meat, pasta, fruit, etc). The kids teamed up in groups of 2 and had to purchase as many groceries as they could for $20 and fill their shopping cart (aka the market basket). For $20 they were able to fill their carts to the brim. We then doubled the prices of every good. The kids were disappointed to have to put some items away as they were unable to purchase everything that had previously for the $20 (somehow everyone was always able to afford the ice cream though!) Lots of lessons were learned here today.. why budgeting is important, how inflation makes it more difficult to purchase our usual goods, we also used lots of math while adding up the price of our groceries!
After our grocery exercise we moved onto money. They kids examined different currencies from around the world and then made their own! We had goog-bas & quarter forts invented! We discussed how their new currency won’t be accepted at a store because it has no backing. Which will lead nicely into our lesson next week where we will read the Tuttle Twins book, The Creature from Jekyll Island.
We are continuing our study on rocks so today we made boxes to hold our collection of rocks for future studies! We took egg cartons and painted/decorated them. These will hold all of our treasures in the next few weeks.
Election Day today! Today we learned all about the voting process. Our first trip was to the registrar of voters where we filled out a voter ID form. Once we filled out the form we were presented with our voter ID card and had to draw a self portrait so the polling station would be able to identify us. Next we watched the debate to educate ourselves on our candidates. Paw Patrol’s Chase, Baby Yoda, and Flounder were running for office this term. We listened to them debate about 4 important topics…
1. What improvements should be made to the playground?
Chase – Zipline
Yoda – Swings
Flounder - Slide
2. What subject should all kids be taught?
Chase – Gym
Yoda – Math
Flounder – Science (specifically Oceanography)
3. What should kids be doing in their free time?
Chase - Watching TV
Yoda – Video Games
Flounder - Swimming
4. What should be the official candy of Halloween?
Chase – Snickers Yoda – M&Ms Flounder – Swedish Fish
The kids then debated what they liked and didn’t like about each candidate with each other. The discussion was very robust and meaningful to them all. Just like adults, the kids had many strong opinions on the topics! It was then time to vote. The kids came to the voter booth, presented their IDs and were given a ballot. They voted, then put the ballot in the box. After everyone voted, we counted and by a landslide Yoda was the winner!
Halloween Party! At TIDALkids we also embrace the holidays and take time to let the kids just be kids! We had a mystery sensory bin full of fall items, paint your own pumpkins, TP mummy races, all kinds of crafts, edible spider webs out of pretzels and melted chocolate, make your own chocolate candy apple slice, and pumpkin racing games. We wore our costumes and had a fun day!
This week was all about crystals. We learned how they grow and had the opportunity to do one of the best experiments yet to date… we made rock candy! We boiled sugar and water together then poured it into our glass with a skewer sticking in. We even got to choose our own color for our rock candy! The candy will be ready to eat just before Halloween.
Today we learned about different types of economic markets, more specifically monopolies. What better way to explain what a monopoly is than to play the game of monopoly! We played Monopoly Junior which was a great exercise in taking turns, counting, patience, and sportsmanship during the ebbs and flows of the game. We had 4 boys playing and when a winner was declared we had 1 very happy winner while the other 3 were in tears. Very important lessons were learned during that game; maybe not so much about economics but about life. Losing is a part of life and it’s important for kids to feel it and learn from it. We will be bringing back the game for these very competitive boys to play again.
Today was full of explosions! Our primary class learned about the different types of volcanoes and watched one erupt. After a brief lesson from The Good and the Beautiful, each kid in the group had the opportunity to make a volcano out of air-dry clay. We will then take them home to dry, paint, and have fun creating our own eruptions!
Economics class for our primary group this week was a brief lesson on money. Kids are always so fascinated by an adult’s purchasing power that we decided to put the burden of budgeting on them today. Each child was told they were a hotel developer. They were provided a bag of coins (their budget) and a task of creating a beach hotel that will withstand a hurricane. They had to purchase their materials (straws, toothpicks, marshmallows, candy pumpkins, and masking tape) all while staying on budget. The materials ranged from 1 cent to 25 cents and the kids used their coins to purchase their supplies in order to build. Wow, were they engaged! They had so much fun strategizing and figuring out the best bang for their buck that we ran out of time and will continue it next week!
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