The children enjoyed the last day of school playing games outside. These games included; cornhole, baseball, Frisbee, looking for bugs and throwing a football. 

Room 3 discovers bones!

While on a walk in the neighborhood, Room 3 children discovered a big tree that they wanted to explore.  As they were looking around the tree a child found a small skull.  They immediately picked it up and were trying to figure out what it was and where it came from.

Leo announced that it was dead!

Some thoughts off what this skull belonged to:

Shark

Dinosaur

Dragon

The teachers then brought in books about bones and skeletons and the class started doing some research to figure out what animal this once was.  This lead to a discussion about their own bodies and bones.

"We have bones in our necks to help keep our heads up”

“Our bones are stronger than steel”

“Bones make us move and walk

“Skeleton head protects our brain”

The children really wanted to find more bones.  On another walk they found a spine.  They were convinced that it belonged to the skull that they found earlier.  The teachers invited the naturalist from Fort Harrison State Park to visit our children and discuss the bones that they found.  Between their research and talking with the naturalist – everyone came to an agreement that the bones belonged to a small raccoon. The children made clay representations in the studio with Mr. Bryan. Parents have told us that their children have been asking to go on walks at home to see if they can discover bones in their own neighborhoods!

As part of our project about our community, the children have shown interest in animals and animal bones found in our community.  As a continuation of the children’s’ interests we went on an “adventure”.  Our adventure included looking for animals and anything else the children were interested in.  We had a great adventure!  One of the children noticed a bird that could not fly, then we noticed another bird not far away “chirping” loudly.  The birds were Killdeer birds.  After researching this type of bird we learned that the bird was pretending it could not fly to draw the attention away from the other bird that was sitting on her eggs!  This is how killdeers protect their young from predators.  At the pond we observed a “family” of ducks.  We couldn’t get close enough but we think one of the ducks was sitting on her eggs as well. Other things found on our adventure were:  a robin egg, an old tree stump and a poisonous mushroom.  The children learned how to find out the age of a tree.  (by counting the circles on the stump).  It was difficult to count all the circles because they were hard to see.  But, we did learn that the tree was pretty old because it had a lot of circles (lines).   The children enjoy our walks and we are fortunate to be located in Fort Benjamin Harrison because it is a beautiful place to observe nature. 

PS The picture of the ducks under the tree is a little hard to see because one of the children took the picture. 😊

A Naturalist from Fort Harrison State Park visited the children in Room 3.  The children have been investigating animal bones and animals that live in our area.  One of the boys found a raccoon skull while we were taking a neighborhood walk.  We went back the next day to see if we could find more of the bones and sure enough we did!!  The same boy found the spine and the pelvic bone!  Ms. Candy brought in a deer skull for the children to investigate too. 

This all led to us inviting Ms. Carla from the nearby State Park to come speak with us about the animals in our area.  Ms. Carla brought a tree frog, a toad and a turtle.  She taught the children fun facts about the animals like how to tell the turtles age and how all of these animals protect themselves from predators.  If you count the lines on a turtle's shell you can estimate the turtles age.  The turtle that visited was approximately 15 years old.  The turtle protects itself by pulling its head and legs into its shell.  The tree frog and the toad protect themselves by camouflaging themselves to the environment.  It was a beautiful day to have this learning experience!

Room 3 at Giliatte did a science experiment with skittles and water.  Before the experiment began we reviewed what it means to do an experiment and what it means to make a prediction about the experiment.  The teacher reminded the children what these words meant.  The children were asked to predict what they think would happen when water was added to the skittles.  Many of the children predicted that the colors would come off.   Some predicted that the colors would come off and make a rainbow!!  Our experiment was a success!

The children in room 3 at the Giliatte Building noticed their teacher, Ms. Candy, drinking from a water bottle.  One of the children asked “Did you paint that?” (referring to the picture on my water bottle).  I answered “No, but how do you think it got there?”  Another child said “They painted it”.  I asked “Would you guys like to paint a water bottle like this?”  The children agreed that they would like to.  I asked “What will we need to make a bottle like this”?  A child answered “Paint” and I asked “What else?”  A child answered “A bottle”.  We gathered water bottles and paint and had the children create their own design on the water bottles.  After the children painted the water bottles, they used various loose materials (beads, glitter, buttons, water, oil and food coloring) to create a sensory bottle.  They worked together to help one another pour the materials into the bottles.  This was a great activity to build social emotional, language and fine motor skills.

Room 3 has been interested in exploring their names.  We have been setting out various materials from pans with glitter, and blocks and scrabble tiles. The children are learning fine motor skills and language art when learning to write their names.  These are important skills for the children and fun to learn with the provided materials.

Room 3 has become very interested in flowers. We have been studying the anatomy of the flower to learn about the parts, the seeds, and the growing process. The students have started a terrarium and are currently discussing the different types of flowers that they wish to grow. 

The children of room 3 observed and discussed a book, "The Colors of Us," by Karen Katz. As we read the story, we discussed our differences and similarities, focusing on all of our varying, unique beautiful skin-tones. This led to the class comparing our own differences with the many different characters in the book and beginning discussions on how we could create these very specific colors! Next, the students began work within a provocation of mirrors, chalk pastel, white colored pencil, and black paper to be used in creating detailed self-portraits. The chalk pastels blend wonderfully, allowing the children to really work on creating their own, unique shades.

Members from the Civic Theater visited our students in Room 3 last week. Ms. Susan read books to the students that discussed various emotions and how to portray emotions in a healthy and safe way. After she was finished reading the books, the children enjoyed acting out the various emotions discussed in the books!