DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

One day during recess, some friends were making snow castles. They made big ones, small ones, wide ones and skinny ones.  Mrs. Johnston was on recess duty watching us build.  She loved our snow castles so much that she said she wanted to live inside one of our castles.  We told her that she was too big to fit inside.  But she said she could do some magic and make herself small enough to fit inside our castles. 

At first we didn't believe her but she began to say magic words and waved her arms in the air and we thought that she just might do it.  Then Mrs. Johnston said "close your eyes" and  POOF!   She was the same size.  She didn't make herself small enough to fit inside our snow castles.  She tried 2 more times but it still didn't work.  We told her that she wasn't magic. 

Then she showed us a real magic trick.  She CUT HER FINGER OFF!  For real!  Well it looked real to us.  She is MAGIC! We were so excited to see Mrs. Johnston's magic that now we wanted to do magic tricks too. 

     

As always, we start our inquiry with a question.  We need to show what we already know about MAGIC.

We found out that we know a lot about MAGIC.
AP: I know how to make a penny disappear.
JF: I magic my paper into gone.
ER: I erase the words then they disappear.
AR: When you put cards in your hand you can make them disappear.
JN: Magic words, Abracadabra!
EC: The paper can burn (fire).
EL: I did magic with a penny but it was different.
CG: I do a money trick on my hand, then it is in my ear.
AP: Abrakazoo!
GC: You can make yourself disappear.
LN: You use scarves too.
MT: It's stuck.
JA: Your hand goes and it disappears.
BD: How does fire get in your mouth?
CC: You make it all and it disappears.

Lots of friends thought that magic has to do with making something DISAPPEAR!  We had lots of wonders about magic, so we decided to make a MAGIC Centre.  We wanted to inquire more about magical things.  We made a list of things we needed for our magic Centre.  

      

 

From our gathering circle, we realized that we needed to do some research about Magic.  We know we can do research from books, asking an expert, T.V. or the internet.  We decided to look on the internet to see if there were any magic tricks for us to try. 

We found a trick called The Magic Ketchup Trick.  We saw a magician who could make a Ketchup packet move up and down in a bottle of water.  We wanted to try this trick out so we got our clip boards and drew a picture of the trick and wrote down all of the materials we need to do this trick.

       

We gathered all of the materials that we needed and followed the directions to complete the Magic Ketchup Trick.

       

 

We tried and tried but the ketchup packet just fell to the bottom of the bottle. We took some water out of the bottle but it still didn't work.  We did not give up.  One friend had an idea to try a fat water bottle to see if the trick will work.  We decided to make a chart to see who thinks the fat bottle will work and who thinks the fat bottle will not work.  Then we would test it out to see if it will work. 

       

The Ketchup trick still didn't work.  But we didn't give up yet.  We decided to try a small water bottle to see if the trick would work. 

We tried so many different bottles but the trick still didn't work.  Magic is harder than it looks.  We decided to give this trick a break and try something else.

For our next trick we remembered that Mrs. Johnston did a trick that looked like she cut her finger off.  We wanted to try this trick too.  Mrs. Johnston told us that it was a very hard trick to learn and we might need to get some help.  We thought that our "Big Buddies" would be able to help us out. 

LEARNING HOW TO DO THE "MISSING FINGER" TRICK

 

        

              

We did some more research on the internet.  We found another trick that we wanted to try out. It is called the Disappearing Straw.  We watched the trick and liked it because we didn't need ketchup or water.  Here is our journey to learn the Disappearing Straw Trick.  We had to do some work making the materials we needed to do this trick.  We needed straws, a marker and some tape.  We had to measure a straw so that it was the same length as our thumb.  We worked with a partner to measure and mark the straw before we cut it.  Mrs. Johnston told us that her Father always told her to "measure twice and cut once."  We didn't know what that meant until we made a few mistakes cutting our straws.  Then we knew that it meant to be careful when you measure so you don't make too many mistakes. It is OK to make mistakes because that is how we learn to get better at things.

       

 

       

           

       

Mrs. Johnston showed us another trick that she used to do when she was a little girl.  She told us in the olden days when they didn't have many TV channels to watch, Mrs. Johnston and her friends used to make up magic shows.  Can you believe that there was once, only 5 TV channels to watch! (Our channel choices were: The Tommy Hunter Show, News, Lawrence Welk, Soap Operas and The Beach Combers) I feel old! 

Our new trick is called THE DISAPPEARING FOOT.

           

       

One day Mrs. Johnston brought in a magic kit.  It had some magic tricks in it but best of all, it had a DVD for us to watch and learn some new tricks.  YEAH! The first trick that we liked was called THE VANISHING CRAYONS. Here is our journey learning about how crayons can vanish.



        

       

         

Our next trick that we researched was called the Magic Box. We saw it on our DVD of magic tricks.  You can make a tissue disappear.  You can also use this magic box to make everything disappear. Well not everything as we found out, only things that will fit inside the magic box.  So much for making my Brussel Sprouts disappear!  

       

        

Our next trick is called Magic Colours.  We will take a black and white picture and magically turn it into a coloured picture.  Hard to believe but it is true!

     

     

 

Our next trick is called the Travelling Ball.  A little black ball will travel from my pocket to a cup.  Then the ball will travel back into my pocket.  Yes, It is hard to believe but that is why they call it MAGIC!

    

Would you like to dance?  Oh sorry, I was talking to my money. Do you think a Loonie can dance? Have you ever asked one? Well stayed tuned for our new magic trick called MAGIC MONEY. This is another trick from Mrs. Johnston's childhood.  When she showed us this trick we couldn't believe our eyes.  The Loonie was actually dancing.  We used a cardboard box.  We decided to paint it and add stars to make it look like a magic box.  Then we practiced and practiced. Here is our journey learning the Magic Money Trick.

 

 

Mrs. Johnston says that our next trick is one of the hardest tricks to learn.  It takes lots of patience and very fast hands.  It is called a slight of hand trick because you have to keep your hands moving all the time.  This is the hard part.  There are many steps to this trick that your have to remember.  It is called THE DISAPPEARING SCARF TRICK. WARNING! Hang on to your scarf, we are not responsible for anything that disappears.

      

Some friends even made up their own magic tricks.  So amazing! Here is their journey to create their own magic!

      

Here is how we documented our Magical Journey.

 

 

 

   

Our friend Ms. Bernardi surprised us with a special presentation.  It was a real Magician!  We first met him outside of our classroom when he was looking at all of our magic inquiry work.  He was lost and he told us he was a magician.  We were so excited to meet him.  His name is Sheldon but his Magic name is Morton The Magician.  He was surprised to see our Magic Inquiry and was impressed with our choices of magic tricks.  He knew all of our tricks too.  We asked him if he would like to see our Magic tricks and he said YES!  We chose 3 of our magic tricks to show Sheldon after his magic show.  We brought our clip boards to the show so we could draw and write about Sheldon's magic tricks. We were so lucky to be asked to introduce Sheldon at the beginning of the show.  What an honor! Here are some highlights from the AMAZING "MORTON THE MAGICIAN" Magic Show.

 

 

 

Now you are in for a magical treat.  As you know, we have been studying Magic for many weeks and we are now ready to put all of our inquiring to good use.  We have been practicing and practicing different magic tricks.  We want to show you all of our hard work.  Please sit back and enjoy the show. 
Introducing TEAM WONDERWORLD'S AMAZING MAGIC EXTRAVAGANZA!

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how we have documented Our  Magical Journey.
We hope that you have learned a few tricks. 
Most of all, we have learned that if we put our minds together anything is possible!

“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe