school with elle: day13.

calendar, chalkboard, snack, journal.

potato project: we visually recorded the growth of our potato plant, and elle dictated her observations to me.

magnets: elle gathered small items from around the house, and we tested them to see which items stuck to a magnet. we separated the items into three groups: sticks, doesn't stick, part of it sticks. (without getting into the more complex realms of ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, and diamagnetism,) we learned that simply speaking, not all metal is magnetic. copper, lead, aluminum, magnesium, platinum, silver, and tungsten don't seem to stick to a magnet.

next, we magnetized a needle by rubbing it with our magnet in the same direction twenty times. we then placed the needle on a piece of paper in a glass of water, and it reoriented itself to point north. this allowed us the chance to briefly talk about the earth's magnetic field.

we ended our morning with eric carle's THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR and russell hoban's A BABY SISTER FOR FRANCES. i adore all of the frances books; that girl (or, er, badger) has such spunk.