“Hermit crabs have eyes, too!’

Using the hermit crabs to investigate our ongoing

exploration  of perspective

Early in the semester, we borrowed the hermit crabs from another class to observe their movements. The children were very curious about the hermit crabs’ bodies and how they moved. We brought the hermit crabs back to our classroom once a week for consecutive weeks.  At first, the children focused on how the hermit crabs moved and how they looked.  Using magnifying glasses,  we noticed details in the shells we hadn’t noticed before.

“This is the little one. When he fell on his back,

 his whole body came out."

After the children observed the hermit crabs in their shells, we studied the exoskeletons of older crabs. We provided photographs to the children to use as part of their research while they compared the exoskeleton parts and the photos. The children noticed the various features of the crabs, such as the joints and hard “shells.”

    

   

One day, after noticing the crabs crawling on a mirrored surface, the children decided the hermit crabs needed homes and playgrounds. We encouraged the children to draw their ideas for the type of home the hermit crabs might enjoy.  Although the children knew from their research that hermit crabs lived in the water, their drawings had many characteristics of human homes. The drawing displays Zaynab’s design of a house for the hermit crabs.

This drawing  shows Natalia’s idea for what the hermit crab will look like in the house the children created. The blue background represents the blue board  upon which the children built the house/playground.