Students Write About Time - the lake & park times online edition

Primary students created timelines of the history of time
telling devices.

At the Lake and Park School we like to pay attention to the rhythm of the changing seasons of the year. From the fall harvest of our garden to that first warm spring day when we might head down to the beach or just bring bubbles out to the patio, the way we spend our time acknowledges this cycle.  At the same time we are committed to providing the opportunity for everyone to see and think about things in different ways.  The holiday season is a time of rich potential. Some years we study traditions that come from different winter holidays. This year we decided on a focus that would highlight mathematical thinking: the concept of time.  As one calendar year ended and another began we wondered how people throughout history have kept track of the transitions. Classes thought of different ways to measure time, did a lot of work understanding what a circle is, and the various ways to determine a circle’s circumference.  The younger students played with geometry, and counted by fives, as some children learned to tell time with a clock.  We had hoped that the topic would give rise to some philosophical pondering, but the richness and depth of the  conversations that came up again and again surpassed our expectations. This led to some wonderful story writing and poetry, including ideas from some of the older children that delve into logic.  Please enjoy the student writing which follows.

The study began with an investigation of circles using the whole body and many different materials.

Hoops

Pattern blocks

Arcs

Print making with a variety of circles.

Exploring with Spirograph.

Beginning Room students used quiet time to explore the nature of circles.

Metaphors about time by the Intermediate Students

Time is like space, it is infinite.

Time is like a circle, it never ends.

Time is like a never ending line, it keeps going forward, never back.

                                                          -Max B.

Time is like the sea.

From when the first cell in the sea to the animals now,

It took time to evolve and grow,

From sea to land and sometimes land to sea.

How did that cell get here?

Time is like a game of circles

For a circle to turn, time is required,

10-20 years of 24 hours go by while a circle is spinning,

Hours and hours of day, to your year older mark,

It all takes time.

When did time start and when will it end?

                                           ~Rees

Time is Beautiful

Time is like a song, when

You’re older you hear a song and it takes you back

In time to when you were small.

Time is like a light, it never runs out

Because you can keep charging it.

Time is like a cloud, it can change the big picture.

Time can take a different path.

Time is like a garden, it grows into something beautiful,

Just like children blossom into adults.

                                                          ~Ruby

Time is like a fountain.

Gushing out ideas, events and questions.

Being reused and refilled, remade and redone.

Discovered and forgotten.

Understood and questioned.

Time is like a fountain.

                                                          ~Delphine

Time is like a corkboard. People use it for different things.

Some people have great memories.

Time is all memories.

                                                          ~Harriet

Time is like a piece of paper.

It is used over and over,

Recycled and reused.

It is kept alive because of its usefulness to people.

                                                          ~Harriet

Classes explored Deep Time with visiting scientist Mary Fisher through our collaboration with NCSE Teach.

Each single change in the DNA chain represents about 5 million years.

Revisiting what we learned about whales in a new context.

Rich debate and discussion accompanied the challenge of creating
an evolutionary tree of mammals.

Creating a model of the evolutionary tree of mammalia.

Primary students imagine life with time machines...

Time Machine

By Gus S

CHAPTER 1

"THE TIME MACHINE"

Once upon a time there was a boy that didn't have a name. He didn't know where he was, and still, he could barely survive. One day, while traveling on the salty, night-blue water on his raft, he saw something disappear from the corner of his eye. When he saw it, he rapidly paddled over. He soon realized it was actually a raft. He looked around and said, no sign of life. And went on.

CHAPTER 2

"THE RAFT"

When he was on, he walked around the jagged surface of the raft.

Then he saw something appear. He ran over, and soon found out it was a time machine! The time machine was solid gold, and looked like a helicopter. There were hourglasses for rockets and computers hooked up to the hourglasses. He got in and pressed"100,000,000,000,000,000,000."

CHAPTER 3

"TRAPPED"

The machine disappeared and the boy realized where he was. He was in the same place, but in a different time. He noticed that part of the raft broke off! His raft wasn't there.

He looked for the time machine, but couldn't find it. Then he heard voices. Who could be there?

He quickly ducked under some empty boxes. The voices went away! He got out. He rushed over to a building and looked inside. He saw millions of time machines. He got in one and realized he didn't know what time he was from.

He was trapped!

The End.

The Disappearing Time Machine

By Gavin

Once upon a time there was a time machine in a vast oak forest. Then one day a boy got lost in the vast oak forest. The boy had bright blue eyes, muddy jeans and a green and white striped

T-shirt. He stepped closer to the time machine and then he realized that it was a time machine. He had always been interested in time machines. He wanted to make his own very detailed and

confusing time machine. He figured how out how it worked so he flipped the lever down, touched each of the non-glowing lightbulbs, pressed the button on the wall and he stepped on the button in a small room.

The room was six feet tall five feet wide and five feet in length. It was the year two-thousand and one and he wanted to go to the year seven-thousand, one-hundred and forty-two. So the time machine read his mind and it took him there. When he got there it was a forest with four-thousand nine-hundred and eighty-six less trees. He was horrified “Why do people cut down so many trees?” he said. Someone heard him so he ran to the tallest tree he could find and scrambled up the rough bark of the oak tree. “Should we cut the tallest one down?” said one of the men. “Sure!” said the other. The boy saw vines but he had never swung in vines before but it was the only way to escape.

 “Shoosh! Shoosh!” Went the vines as he kept swing on them vine after vine until he came to a tree with no vines on it so he jumped off the vine and onto the rough bark of the oak wood tree.  He was thirty-seven meters away so he jumped off the tree and ran as fast as he could to the time machine. But when he was running one of the men saw him and ran after him and calling “Stop!” but he kept on running. When he got to seventeen meters left he felt like his leg was going to pop off but he kept on running.

 When he got to the time machine he flipped the lever down, pressed the button on the wall, touched each of the lightbulbs and stepped on the button. When the men got to the time machine coughing and panting it disappeared. He was going back to the year two-thousand and one.

He was glad it was just a time machine because he thought he might have got caught. But instead of taking him back to the vast oak forest it took him back to his house on the meadow. His house is neon red with a brick roof and a pavement.

He also had a garden which was a garden full of wheat and the garden was thirty meters by fifteen meters. When he walked inside the house “YOU ARE ONE HOUR LATE FOR DINNER!!!” roared his mom “I know, I know” said the boy. His mom wore a blue sparkly dress, a blue shirt and neon blue earrings. She was so angry at him she made him go to his room without dinner for his punishment.

He woke up the next morning to see if the time machine was there but it was not there. He told his mother why he was an hour late for dinner but of course she did not believe him. But the next day she looked outside and she saw the time machine. She told him that she was sorry for doubting him but he said it was okay and whenever he said the same exact thing his mother always believed him

But today he was playing “Fetch” with his Golden Retriever Goldie. They played “Fetch” and they ran around in the garden. But from then on he never ever went back into the vast oak forest again. He would only go where he could see his house. That day his mother called him when supper was ready and the Golden Retriever Goldie went inside too for his supper. He was glad that had happened because then he would not have had the best day in his life.

The Space Man of the Time Machine

By Leah

There were four little girls. One was named Lise. Lise's friend was name was named Charlotte. Charlotte's friend was name Cry. Cry's friend was named "friend". The girls lived in a tall forest of tall, tall trees. The girls lived with a bear named "Happy". One day the bear was out of the cave. The girls were still in the cave. The time machine blasted off. "Boom, boom, boom". The fire went out of the rocket. The bear realized the button on the rocket ship made the machine take off. The girls ran after the rocket. The girls got on. The girls turned off the rocket. They landed. The bear was safe. They lived happily ever after.

Past, Present and Future

By Keira

Once upon a time there was a person named Isabella and she had a twin sister named Harper. They wanted to build a time machine. One day they went into the woods. In the woods they had a secret hideout. They had a friend named Keira. There was a telescope in their treehouse and it beeped. That meant something was nearby. The beep was caused by a golden machine that was close. It was a time machine. But before they went inside the time machine, the girls' charm necklaces lit up. Then Isabella said, "wait". Then the necklaces made a map. Inside the lockets were pieces of maps that all fit together. The map said, "Go to the time machine, pull the lever and push the button." So the girls did. They decided to go to the animal time when the animals died. When they got there, the animals were dying. The found out that other people were killing the animals. They helped by telling the people to stop hurting the animals. When they got home to their time they did science experiments to figure out when and why the people started to hurt the animals, so that they could prevent the people from starting to hurt the animals.

The Toast Machine

By Liam

Once upon a time there was a boy who was as small as a piece of toast. His name was "Toast". He was on a boat and on the way back to his island when he saw a time machine that was so strange. It was under the sea. He was fishing, so he swam down to it. Then for some reason, he realized he could breathe under water. He entered the time machine and traveled to the year "12". Then he traveled to 100,100. He was amazed. There were flying cars and iPad were really cheap. He went straight into a shop. The shop-keeper said, "Hello". Anyways, I've always wanted to build a time machine. Could you help me? Yes, said Toast. I am from the past. So that means you could help me? Yes, said Toast. They worked night and day through the winter and spring and after 100 years they finally finished their time machine.

Weaving Through Time

By Jordi

In the shady town of Moldon, a small boy named Angus left his little house to go get salt from the black water lake for his poor family.  As he walked he saw something coming from the woods that was very shiny.  Then Angus ran back to his house to tell his parents.  But when Angus told them it was shining like gold they didn’t believe him.  So the next day when Angus went to get salt he saw it shining even brighter than before.  So he went to check it out.  When he got close enough to it he saw that it was a time machine. But he didn’t know how to use it.

After a few tries he got it right.  When he went in it took him to his same time but in Roman times.  Angus looked around.  He saw lots of people gathering salt fr4om the lake. Then he remembered his family.  So he went and got a bucket of salt and a worker caught him stealing it.  So he had to make a run for it.  When Angus knew he’d lost him he stopped.  But he had stopped in a deep lush forest and forgot about the time machine.  After a few minutes he realized that the forest he was in was the forest where the time machine was.  When he found the time machine he set it back to when he lived and brought the salt back with him.  He told his parents all about the trip but they didn’t believe him. 

So, he set off on his journey through time again.  He chase the same time and place.  But this time everything had fallen.  It had turned into ruins.  When he looked around he saw no one but he saw something shiny in the distance.  When he got close enough to get a good look at it he saw it was gold.  He picked up as much as he could carry.  Then he headed straight to the time machine.

When Angus got back he showed his parents the gold and brought them to the time machine and they believed him.  So his whole family could travel through time anytime and anywhere they wanted.

A drawing made to show the working parts inside a mechanical watch.

Students explored the tools and inner workings of clocks under the guidance of a watch maker.  

Investigation during the clock take apart activity.

After spending time taking apart various clocks and watches students had a real interest in meeting a professional watch maker.

Intermediate Students try to imagine life without time...

What would life be like without time?

By Max B.

A world without time would be impossible. Nothing would exist.  Everything develops over time, some examples are the earth, and the sun.  Time is everything. Also, people would not exist. Plants and animals would not exist either.

Imagine your life without time.

By Delphine

Life without time would be very unorganized.  We would not be able to say things like, “Oh it’s 12:00, it must be lunch time”, or “see you at noon”.  We wouldn’t know when school started or ended.  But I do think that if we didn’t have time we would have another way of recording things.

Our Universe without Time

By Ruby

Imagine it, imagine your life without time.  You can’t, you don’t exist, without time you wouldn’t be able to evolve and change.  There wouldn’t be birds, or monkeys, or even dinosaurs, there would be, well…nothing.  For example, a seed needs time to grow and become strong but without time it won’t become a tree.  Same with animals, they need time to evolve, change and be created too.  Therefore, there is nothing. Our universe can’t even start without time.

Life without Time

By Rees

Life without time would freeze.  I don’t know what space would be like without time, clocks wouldn’t even work.  Then the waves wouldn’t fly up.  Then planes would stop midair and pilots would be stuck because with no time how would the broken glass MOVE through space without time?

Sky divers would be stuck midair as well and then the howling wind blowing one minute would then stop so suddenly, slowly howling.

The rain would stop falling and water would stand still. Then the bunnies stop hopping, the foxes stop walking and all animals would stop moving and then all together……

Still the world would be.  The earth would stop rotating and it would be night or day forever on a lifeless planet, full as it used to be but now the people and animals are stuck forever in unbreakable ice.

Life without Time

By Roham

Time is everything.
We could not live without it. Time is space so if there is no time,

There is no space. So if there is no space there would be nothing. No earth, no sun, no planets. Nothing!!!

While making wish bowls students reflected on how they may
 have changed over time.