"The Naughty Tiger"

In the Deep, Deep Jungle…

In April, the children began writing a story about animals in the jungle. We decided we would continue to work on this story and make it into a book. We discussed how when books are being written and published, the story goes through many processes before it is complete. As we continued the story, we reread and edited our story. The children decided which parts of the story they wanted to keep, and which details needed elaboration. We also discussed needing illustrations for the book. The children first drew their animals and bugs on paper. Next, they used various loose parts to make their characters three-dimensional. Images of these characters will be transformed into the illustrations for our book. As the children continue to finish their characters, they also continue to work on editing their story.

We hope you can join us for our field trip!

Please remember to sign up in the classroom if you are able to join us.

The butterflies have flown away!

When we first introduced the caterpillars to the children, we had them predict how long it would take for the caterpillars to change into butterflies. The children had a range of answers from 2 days to 2000 weeks. Every day we kept track of the days by adding a sticker to the chart.

As the caterpillars grew and changed, the children observed and drew representations at various stages. These experiences helped the children develop fine motor skills and strengthened their observational techniques.

 

Here is a photo sequence of how the caterpillars changed over time. Ms. Masserant used a penny attached to the side of the cup so the children could see how the size of the caterpillars changed over the two week period. The children had many discussions about their observations and used many descriptive words when talking about the caterpillars and the butterflies. "They changed color!" The caterpillars made their chrysalis!" "The butterflies are orange and black. I can see brown, too!"

The children have observed the caterpillars as they have grown and changed into butterflies. This week we let the butterflies go in the school garden. The children were excited to see them fly and tried to catch the butterflies as they landed on the plants in the garden.

“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.

Thanks to all our Guest Readers

Thank you to all our guest readers during the month of March! The children truly enjoyed having family members come and read some of the children's favorite stories. The children develop a love of literature, knowledge about print and strengthen their literacy skills when they see other people reading and have books read to them.

   

                    

               

 

Regie Rainbow visits our class!

Since we finished our visits to all the islands of healthy fruits and vegetables, Regie Rainbow came to visit our class. She encouraged the children to keep eating healthy fruits and vegetables and to try new and different foods during meals. The children were so excited to meet Regie Rainbow in person after learning about all the islands of color!

After Regie left, we made our island of purple recipe. We cut up lots of healthy vegetables and made ratatouille soup. Here's the link:

http://pin.it/hSRVqn4

The children enjoyed cutting up the eggplant, the zucchini and the tomatoes. As we cut the vegetables, we discussed why Regie would like this recipe. The children decided Regie would like the ratatouille soup because it had lots of vegetables and nothing sweet. "We don't put sugar in our soup!"

Through our cooking experiences the last few weeks the children have expanded their palates by tasting many new fruits and vegetables; practiced their cooking skills by cutting, measuring and mixing ingredients; and developed patience and self-confidence by waiting their turn. Our cooking experience have also engaged them on a sensory level, as they have been able to smell interesting ingredients like bay leaves and thyme, mixed ingredients by hand (very clean hands) and watch ingredients mix together to change in texture. We look forward to continuing with our cooking experiences the rest of the semester. 

Our Classroom Map

While the children were gone over winter break, we rearranged the furniture in the classroom. When the children returned, they were looking for materials and objects. One of the ways we helped the children find what they were looking for was by creating a map of the classroom. At first the children drew their own maps on paper, then we combined their maps together on one large poster-size board. 

Lily had many details of the classroom in her drawing including the art table and the snack table. Lily's drawing also included the "hanging thing in the bathroom that you and Ms. Masserant always hit."

Finally the children were given a poster with the outline of the classroom and asked to create individual objects for the map and place them in relation other objects in the classroom. As they worked on  drawing the shelves, tables and cubbies, they included many details that were important to them. They noticed mirrors on the backs of shelves, baskets tucked under shelves, and the vases of dried flowers on a shelf in the art area.

While this mapping experience encourages the children to look at details, the children are also developing spatial and directional language; strengthening their fine motor skills and enhancing their ideas about perspective. By extending this experience over many weeks, the children are revisiting and refining their ideas and using other children's work to add more details to their own work.