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!