Solar Eclipse!

 

 

Andie counts fifteen friends in our circle. We are missing Cian and Camille. We wished them well. Andie writes “Science” on our calendar.

 

T:	Troy, please walk to the studio table, get a marker, and come write your name on today’s date! It is Troy’s 5th birthday today! We sang Happy Birthday to Troy. We are going to start a conversation, but we have ANOTHER special mystery reader coming in at 9:00. To start, I am going to draw something on our calendar. What did I draw?
Students:	The sun!
Alex:	The solar eclipse.
T:	We watched a video about this yesterday. Do you know that what is happening on April 8th is so magnificent (magnificent is another word for awesome) that they have cancelled school. Do you remember in the video how they talked about the path of totality? Where we are right now, in Bath, Ohio, is in the path of totality.
Alex:	We learned that our school is in the place of the eclipse.
T:	You are right! Our school is in the path of totality. Who remembers what we saw/ learned in the video yesterday?
Carline:	That the marble is smaller than the big sun. T: What was the marble? Caroline: The moon. T: What was the big balloon that was shaped like a  baseball? Caroline: The sun. T: What happened when he took the marble father away from that big balloon? Caroline: It was the same size.
Andie:	They showed us a lot of circle stuff.
T:	The sun is what shape? Students: A circle. T: And the moon is what shape? Students: A circle. Why is it a solar eclipse? Students: The moon covers up the sun.
T:	So, we are not sure if it’s going to be cloudy. We hope it is going to be a sunny day. We talked about how the moon goes in front of the sun. And what happens? Students: It gets dark! T: Yes… it will get dark. What will that feel like?
Quinn:	The sun will go at the bottom of the Earth. That’s how it will get dark.
T:	Think about the time of day. Can you imagine if it were carline, and it was dark? Would that be strange? Cars would have to turn their headlights on!
Caroline:	It would be dark. Scary. I am a little bit scared of the dark.
Alex:	The ghosts will come and eat us.
Naomi:	It will feel like nighttime.
Ashton:	There will be some headlights.
T:	We know the eclipse is happening in 3 days. We have been talking about it for a while. Here’s my question: What if you were an animal? What might it feel like? They probably don’t know that the eclipse is happening.
Ashton:	Maybe the bats will come out.
Caroline:	They are nocturnal. Some animals might be scared.
Daniel:	Um, they might get scared.
T:	If bats come out in the daylight, will they die? Is sunlight bad for them?
Alex:	Well, they can’t see in the light, they can see in the dark.
T:	So, they might be at risk.
Alexander:	I saw some bats at my grandma’s house in the morning.
Ashton:	In a dinosaur movie, we saw bats.
Andie:	The bats don’t like the light.
Caroline:	There was actually a racoon at my house in morning time.
Forest:	Um, there was a bat in my house and it was nighttime and the guys came over and one guy used a light to look for the bat and he opened the door and then he flew out.
Daniel:	When the solar eclipse is happening, it’s like you are in a movie theater outside.
T:	It’s only going to be dark for a very short time when it happens. Raise your hand if you have ever been outside in the dark.
Quinn:	I was in the dark one time in the middle of the night. It sounded like bats.
Griffin:	I was with Logan and we were playing basketball in the dark. And I heard something weird it was actually like keys.
Caroline:	I have been hearing magical sounds during the night.
Naomi:	One time I have been in the dark when I was going to bed and it was snowing. It was scary.
Troy:	Do you know how big rigs and tractors see in the dark? They have headlights on.
T:	There is also another sound that I think of when it gets dark, especially in the spring. I am going to play it for you. Put your hand on your head if you have ever heard this sound at night. I call these little peepers. I hear this sound when it gets dark because I live close to the woods. Will I hear this sound during the eclipse? You are all going to take home solar eclipse glasses. If you look at the sun with these glasses, your eyes will be safe. While you are watching the eclipse, I want you to listen to the sounds around you. You might hear things that you hear at nighttime. The eclipse affects animals too.