The Rookery

The snow was perfect, the rivalry was simmering, there really was not choice but to abandon the P.E. lesson plan and head out to the big field for a giant snow ball fight (which I recently learned is Japanese team sport called yukigassen)  It was an epic battle against the Robins, filled with much singing of "We are the Champions" and a fair amount of snow in our faces.  The snow was, in fact, a bit too perfect and the snow balls quickly turned into snow boulders of impressive girth.

Snow ball fights fit beautifully into our social curriculum for fourth and fifth graders.  They need to learn how to particpate in competition without taking it personally and they are ready to tackle the shifting rules of a situaiton like a snow ball fight.  Before we play, we talk about the purpose of a snow ball fight (fun…and trouncing the Robins) and what to do if one feels oneself getting upset or angry.  During the fight, I model being a good sport as well as how to foster friendly competition.  It was so much fun, I almost abandoned our afternoon plan for another round but the afternoon plan was just too good…

So what did we do in the afternoon?  We set up a giant phone party line.  Yesterday, Rachel taught a lesson in which students had to discover a way to light three lights and keep two lit when one of the lights got disconnected (a parallel circuit).  Today, we contrasted that with a circuit in which everything was connected in one giant (and frustrating) loop.  I have a set of old phone handsets that are sawn in half.  We took a look at how the receiver and the transmitter worked first.  Boy did the Herons have a lot of questions that I couldn't answer about how exactly one's voice creates a series of electrical impulses that then can recreate perfectly a human voice.  "How does it get the high and low part of your voice?"  "How does it get loud or soft?"  "If it's just a switch in the transmitter, how does the receiver move the plastic to make your voice again?"

I hated to cut off their questions — but we had work to do.  Each pair got a receiver and a transmitter, a few batteries and a few alligator clips.  I didn't give specific instructions — it's in the trial and error to make something work that kids learn the most.  Soon squeels of success could be heard.  Groups with a working headset were paired together and challenged to make a system where they could talk to each other.  This took a little longer as students had to cope with messy wires, short circuits and multiple battery trains.  They didn't need any encouragement to contine joining groups into bigger and bigger systems.

Finally, it was time for us all to link togehter.  We added a few more handsets that students some had been feverishly fixing with new wires while the rest of the class worked on their phone systems.  Now, many kids had both a transmitter and receiver — but how to connect them all.  The answer was patience.  We had over 70 connections to mannage.  When one student was fixing her alligator clip, another student's would fall off.  It didn't help that I get all of our battery holders from Axman Surplus and it's, well, surplus.  For about 45 precious seconds, our giant party phone worked.  Many pizzas were ordered and the word, "chicken" was inexplicably uttered numerous times.

There's nothing like taking something apart and figuring out how it works by putting it together again.  A circuit board doesn't afford the same transparency and accessibility.  It really was an exciting moment to be a part of.