A mini inquiry

We notice that students often like to throw their hats and mitts onto the brick of the exterior of the school and have them stick to the rough brick (sigh!!!). 

With a bunch of senior kinders from the blue group,we watchedthis happen, and then decided to pose a question, why does this happen? We then discussed and experimented with different materials.

We discovered that hats do not stick to the cement blocks...

Nor the doors...

Not even the interior bricks.

Our hats wouldn't stick to this tree trunk.

It wouldn't stick to the fence.

This turned into a discussion of the attributes of different materials. Did it matter if the surface was rough or smooth? We agreed that the surface must be quite rough and "sticky" and not all hats would stick, especially not those that were a bit heavier. This explained why our outside brick was most suited to have the knitted clothes adhere to it. Someone said, "that is just like Velcro!"

So true!

We also had to do some problem solving when some of the toques got stuck on the bricks beyond our grasp. Someone suggested a stick!

You just never know where learning will occur or take you when you listen to student's natural curiosity!