Crawling Creatures #3: Spidy the Spider

Beware when you walk through our writing area! It is now the home of our giant spider, Spidy. The children eagerly put together Spidy's body parts. There is the cephalothorax, abdomen, 8 legs, 5 eyes (the children wanted 5 for Spidy), and we are in process of making a pair of pedipalps and a spinneret. The children learned that spiders help balance our ecosystem by eating lots of insects. Matthew said: "Hey, Spidy can help us catch the flies and mosquitos at school!"

Crawling Creatures - Inch By Inch

The Fir group explored one of Francine's inquiry. She asked: "Is an inchworm a crawling creature?" Maddi added: "I see inchworms on strawberries." Most children thought inchworm is a kind of worm. So you could imagine the surprised look on their faces when I told them that inchworm is the name for the larvae of geometer moths. Jason immediately said: "Hey, it's just like the caterpillars! It's the larvae of butterflies!"

They are called inchworms because they are usually about 1 inch long and can be green brown or black. To imagine what it is like to measure our bodies with inchworms, we cut 1 inch long pipe cleaners to measure our body parts. The children giggled as the fuzzy pipe cleaners are placed next to their arms or hands.

Crawling Creatures - Butterflies!

This week Fir group focused on an insect similar to the dragonfly - the butterfly.

The children learned that like a dragonfly, a butterfly is a flying insect. Below are some fun butterfly facts they learned so far:

• A butterfly’s lifecycle is made up of four parts, egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult. (The children learned the big word, metamorphosis! We also watch a video that mesmerized the children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUeM8MbaIk)
  
• Most caterpillars are plant eaters (herbivores).
  
• Butterflies have a head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, 2 antennae, 6 legs and 4 wings. 
  
• Most butterflies feed on nectar from flowers.
  
• Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet.
  
• Butterflies sip nectar and other liquids through their proboscis.

To imitate how butterflies feed on nectar, the children each made their own flower and placed a bowl of "nectar" (honey water) in the middle of the flower. Then as we sang "Oh, We are Going Flying", they flew around their flowers and sipped the "nectar" through their "proboscis" (a straw). 

The children enjoyed flying so much that we decided to make butterfly wings for art. We talked about the different patterns on the wings and how they are beautiful examples of symmetry (I explained with one side of the body match the wings on the opposite side of the body - a mirror image). 

Plants in Our Midst #7 - Do You See Me?

One thing that the children really noticed in the forest is how the animals are hard to find. They can hear chirps, rustling in the bushes but they do not see anything. On our walk one day, we heard a tapping sound and wondered who was making that sound. Using our ears, the children followed the direction where it was coming from and they found it! It was a woodpecker! The children noticed that it was perfectly blended into a tree that it was pecking. If it wasn't for the pecking sound, we would have never seen it. Molly said: "The woodpecker is camouflaged! It's trying to protect himself."

Owl

Common Baron Catepillar

Can you find the frog?

To see how animals use plants to camouflage themselves, we played an I Spy game. The children used their keen eyes to spy the camouflaged animals in different pictures. They were able to see all but one! Can you help us?

Stick Bug

For art, the children painted a forest scene on a canvas and camouflaged an animal of their choice.

Plants in Our Midst #6 - Slow, Slimy Slugs!

Sparked by the children's interest, we now have a terrarium full of creepy crawlers! You may find, a caterpillar, wood bugs, earthworms, and the star, a black slug!

Everyday when we walk along the trail in the forest, the children can't help but notice all the different creepy crawlers they see. What do these creatures do in the forest? How do they survive in the forest? To help with our research, we put together a forest habitat in our terrarium and relocated some of our neighbourly creepy crawlers into their new house. The children painted a picture of the terrarium as they observed the tank. Here are some things they noticed:

Theo: I can't see the slug, he's hiding.
Allye: Maybe it's sleeping.
Connor: The slug needs water.
Lucas: The slug eat leaves.

Plants in our Midst #5: We're Going on a Plant Hunt

 

 Transdisciplinary Theme: How We Share the Planet

Central Idea: Plants play a unique role in our lives and the lives of animals. 

Lines of inquiry: The feature of plants in our local area

This week the Water group focused on the different plants that can be found around the Pacific Spirit Park. We took a walk in the forest to gather leaves from different plants and tried to  identify their names. Even though the children felt it was a little difficult and confusing (some of the leaves looked quite similar), they showed such enthusiasm and commitment in learning about the different plants. We invited the Wind Group on a plant hunt. Before entering the forest, each child was given a plant card with the name and pictures of a plant and the goal was to locate the plant in the forest.


For a list of Plants and Fungi of Pacific Spirit Park please visit:
http://ecoreserves.bc.ca/2012/03/11/plants-and-fungi-of-er-74-pacific-spirit-regional-park-1992-2012/

Plants in our Midst #4 - How Does a Plant Grow?

 How does a plant grow?

The children are still trying to figure out how the closed dandelion flower turned into dandelion seeds on our collage. We watched The Magic School Bus - Gets Planted (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDSWH9IInQ) and learned that a plant needs water, air and sun to grow. However, there was no water on our collage. Is it possible for a plant to grow without water, just dirt? It is time for an experiment! We planted beans in three different pots (Pot A, Pot B and Pot C). Pot A has dirt and a bean, pot B has dirt, a bean and water and pot C has a bean and water. What will happen to the seeds? Which will grow?

For our art activity, the children dotted with cotton swabs to imitate the look of dandelion seeds. Lucas felt it looked so real that he tried blowing his "seeds" off the paper.