Highlights September 2013

Parents, it has been an eventful three weeks since I wrote last! I have lots to tell you about! I am starting to see the little scientist that is in each child more and more. The kids are really getting into bringing science to school. Some of the things children have brought to share include: a wasp nest, a potato growing roots, fruit flies in a jar, autumn leaves, rocks, acorns, maple seeds ("helicopters"), a sibling's lost tooth, ocean animal photos/toys, and a spider. It's been great! I love to hear what the kids say about their science. After they talk about their science, they walk around the circle and show the science to their friends up close. 

  

Many of the children are very interested in animals. They like to think about animal body traits and how they compare to our own human body. For example, they were very interested to learn that whales have lungs like us, but they can hold their breath under water for a really long time. They also found it really interesting that fish don't have lungs but gills rather. Gills give the fish a special creature power. They can breathe water instead of air! So fish can stay under water forever, never having to come up for a breath.

 I brought a couple of fish into the classroom for the children to dissect. I wanted them to see the parts of a fish up close. Before we opened up the fish, I asked the children to predict what parts they might find inside the fish. Interestingly, the children didn't think the fish had bones. So it was a big surprise when they discovered that fish do have bones. And even tiny teeth!

  They were also surprised to discover that fish have nostrils, tiny holes in the front of their face. It turns out fish have both gills and a nose for smelling! Pretty exciting.

 We used all our senses to make observations of the fish. The fish were pretty smelly. The fish scales felt smooth and slimy. A child pointed out that they were silver and shimmered in the light, just like the scales in the book we read about the Rainbow Fish. When we peeled back the scales we discovered the fish muscles (the part we eat).

 Unfortunately, the fish had been gutted by the fisherman. So we didn't get to see all the inside parts. But we measured them with rulers, and observed what we could. Next, we recorded our observations for our science journals. 

Another thing the children are trying to figure out is the reasoning behind how animals are classified. For example, some of the questions on our question board are: Is a fish an animal? Is a shark a fish? Is a whale a fish or an animal? We have been thinking about what is the same about fish, sharks, and whales, and what is different about them. The children noticed that only whales have blow holes, and not fish or sharks. We watched an online video clip of whales blowing water out of their blow holes. We decided to use bottles as a model of a whale's blow hole. We had a contest to see which bottle (or "whale") could shoot water the farthest. 

  

Before we started the kids examined the bottles and made predictions about which bottle would work best. Some thought that the biggest bottle would shoot water farthest. Others thought that what mattered was the size of the hole in the top of the bottle. They debated about whether a large hole or a small hole would work best for squeezing water. Then it was time to test our hypotheses.

  

The kids squeezed water out of the bottles and used sidewalk chalk to mark how far the water went. They measured the distance with rulers to see how many feet the water squirted. 

The results of our experiment are shown here. The soap bottle won the bottle contest. The soda bottle was in last place. It turns out a small hole in the bottle top will squirt water farther than a bottle with a large hole. We think other factors made a difference too. Because teacher could squirt water farther than most of the kids using the same bottle. The kids thought I must be stronger. (I am strong. :) ) I can apply more pressure or force to the bottle. Those were great observations. I was proud of my little scientists!

We also measured the length of various kinds of whale, shark, octopus, squid, and fish. We discovered that the blue whale is longer than our entire back yard, and is the biggest animal in the ocean at about 100 feet long!

 

 At exercise time, we moved like ocean animals. We were a wiggly octopus, a swimmy fish, a crawling crab, and a speedy shark. We put our hand on our head to make a shark fin and ran as fast as we could.

 

A social skill we have been learning about is cooperation. I was delighted when I observed the children pretend that their arms were octopus arms to put a puzzle together. A child exclaimed, "We have octopus power!" Then explained that when we cooperate, it's just like having eight arms. Having eight arms was helping them finish the puzzle more quickly. I loved this!   

  

It took the kids two school days to complete this puzzle. But they did it!

The sensory table has been popular as usual the last couple of weeks. We have had floating fish and sinking seashells in the water table, along with a variety of tools for transferring the items to ice cube trays.

 

  

Next we had shark teeth (authentic lemon shark teeth) in blue sand with sifters, test tubes, and plastic sharks and whales. Exactly 20 teeth were in the table. The kids enjoyed trying to find them all, using a lot of math in the process. For example, I found 8 teeth and you found 6. How many have we found all together? How many teeth do we have left to find? Okay, let's keep looking!

  

I love this shot of a boy in the class counting his shark teeth.

  

In the dramatic play area, I included props for fishing and boating (a kayak, life jackets, fishing poles, play fish, buckets, etc.). And the kitchen was turned into a seafood restaurant. 

 

  

I was happy to see that these new props inspired the boys to visit the kitchen area more. They were especially interested in exchanging money for things. At my suggestion they began to take turns being the restaurant owner, the customer, the chef, the boat driver, the fisherman, etc. 

 

Making "fish sticks" for the restaurant. So cute!

 

 This play also inspired a lot of spontaneous clip board use! The children were writing supply lists for the boat and fishing trip, a menu for the restaurant, and other notes and orders for each other.

  

By popular demand, train tracks were put in the building area these past two weeks.

 Below are some of the Montessori-inspired activities that were moved by the children lately, including ocean lacing cards, magnifying glass I Spy work, painting numbers with water, letter sound sorting, shark book-making, sandpaper letter puzzles, and rubber duck counting and graphing (inspired by Eric Carle's ocean book Ten Little Rubber Ducks).

  

 

 

 

 

We wrapped up our ocean study project by making a book of favorite ocean animals, and sending off letters to our new pen pals who live on the Oregon coast. 

 

  

We have been learning to differentiate between coloring and drawing. The children's drawings are already becoming more representational. They did great work! Work samples from six children are above.

I modeled how to write a pen pal letter after reading the book Dear Mr. Blueberry. We wrote a letter together on over-sized paper. The kids then drew a picture for their pen pal and dictated a little something about themselves. 

 We were really working on how to ask questions in a letter. The kids came up with some great questions to ask their pen pals about the ocean: Is it always hot at the beach where you live? Do coconuts grow there? Have you ever found any shark teeth at the beach? Do you have a seashell collection? What is your favorite ocean animal? Do you know what sand is made of? (The kids think sand is made of tiny rocks. Good hypothesis!) Do you like living by the beach? What are your favorite things to do at the beach?  I can't wait to see the excitement of the children when we receive our first package in the mail!

  

We are sending this photo of the kids to our pen pals. Each of them are holding their favorite ocean story book. They really wanted to tell their pen pals that we have cool books at our school. That made me happy. We do have really cool books at our school!

 

By the way, the children are in love with their baby pea plants. It's the first thing they do when they go outside every day. They all run to the garden to check on their pea plants and measure how much they have grown.

 

 

We are moving on to farms and food and fall now. We went on a nature walk today to see the fall leaves, an apple tree, an oak tree with acorns, etc. The kids got to help make homemade applesauce today. It was SO yummy! Stay tuned next time for those photos. Parents, your children are wonderful. It's so great to be with them!

Teacher April