Plants

Our kindies were very busy last week. Our spider plant needed transplanting and we planted some tomato plants. We are going to watch them grow!

They were so excited we are continuing the learning. Today a mysterious plant appeared in our classroom!

 

We noticed...

There are holes in some of leaves, and we decided a catepillar probably ate it. It has black spots, and lines all over it.

 

Why do the leaves have lines?

- they make the leaf stand up

- they bring water from the ground up

- decoration

 

Finally we looked it up online.... the answer was veins. The veins carry water to feed the plant.

 

But wait... The students ask does our spider plant have veins? Let's go look!

They do! They do!

Then we notice we have veins too!

They are in our hands, feet and arms! And the research continues... What do our veins do?

 

 

Finally we explore using our imaginations!

 

Do you see what I see?

Its a dragon on the table, watch out!

 

Now we are birds!

 

We worked very hard to figure out what type of leaf it was. We guessed a watermelon leaf, a pineapple leaf, and a jungle leaf. We were great detectives and figured it out. Can you???

 

              Snakes

One day a few of our children were doing a puzzle and they noticed a snake in the corner of the puzzle. They argued over whether they thought the snake was hanging out of the tree to bite the person in the puzzle or not. So we asked them how do we figure out what snakes eat? They said the answer would be on the ipad and in books. So we went to the library and took out books, about as many different snakes as we could, and researched pictures and facts on the ipads. We printed pictures and wrote captions, made a classroom book, made plastiscene snakes, and measured how long snakes were using our bodies and snap cubes.  Over time, the select few who started it all had become so enthusiastic, more children joined! We played snakes and ladders, and built a terrarium in our sand table, and their enthusiasm grew stronger!

 

The time came to bring in a professional, professional reptile man to try and expand our inquiry to include other animals. We hired The Travelling Reptile Show to come and visit our class and boy was that a great adventure!! Check out our creatures!

 

                                This is a Blue Tongued Skink! He was even giving kisses!

 

A tortoise and a baby alligator named 'Wallet', lol!

But of course he had to bring something small and hairy, do you see what's on Mrs. Madsen's head? That's right .....a tarantula!

 

But the best part for our students was saved for last. An albino python named 'Marshmellow'! Every student was allowed to touch him, if they wanted too!

 

What a great day!

 

 

Our Measuring Continued!

After our four boys showed the class how they figured out who was taller, the learning continued!

 Sebastian wanted to know how tall he was using non-standard units!

Ryan counted out cubes. He counted and found out that he is 51 cubes tall!

Others quickly joined in and soon we were writing all of our heights all on the white board to see who was the tallest and who was the shortest!

But our journey didn't end there! We read the book Equal Shmequal, and talked about more/less, equal amounts, and fairness!

Stone Soup

The weather is turning cold and there's no better way to warm up than with a bowl of soup.  We read a wonderful book last week called "Stone Soup" by; Jon J. Muth.

  

This book depicts a village that has been torn apart by war and trust issues.  When three strangers enter the town walls their reception is less than welcomed.  It took a curious child to open the eyes of all the villagers.  Soon the community was working together to make this warm meal.

Room 7 is going to make Stone Soup tomorrow!!!  With a little bit of team work I'm sure it will be delicious and nutritious.  Feel free to send your little one to school with a vegetable for our soup.  We will keep you posted on how it turns out :)  

What is that white stuff?

" I like snow castles!" Sam

"I like snowmen!" Adi

"The snow melts when it hits concrete. The rock doesn't have any snow on it

 because it is blocked by the tree. "  Ryan 

 

"The snow melts into rain. The snow doesn't melt over there because the grass is colder." Stefan

 

What do you know about snow?

"It comes from up there!" Isla

"The season of winter makes snow." Olivia

"Snow comes from clouds" Adi

"My mom says that rain turns into snow, when it rains alot." Devon

Mrs. Madsen, whose taller?

I think your the same height. Are you sure? they ask.....

 Then I opened it up to speculation. How else can you measure your height?

(double check)

Take a picture of us against the wall!   I think i'm as tall as this line!

 What about us? And the line grew longer!

How many bricks tall are you?

 

Calling All Parents!!!

We are almost done our apple challenge!  We only have two more apples to sample, the Crispin and the Red Prince.  If you are able to find these apples please send them in.  We have looked EVERYWHERE!!!