Tide Pool Investigation

Oh it was a blustery day to go to the beach.

But we were on a mission to answer this question.

 Last Friday I set up an ocean sensory table with just water and rocks.

I wanted to learn what the children know about tide pools.

And that is what brought us to the beach today.

It was very windy and even though the tide was going out 

the tidal pools were still covered.

We wondered if we would find anything.

So we searched under a lot of rocks,

and in little puddles of water.

 And we finally found some crabs.

This was a good size crab and he was ready to protect himself.

Even after we let him go.

Other treasures we found were...

A larger crab shell and one leg,

shells,

limpets,

an exoskeleton,

tiny periwinkles,

live clams that spit at us,

a hermit crab hiding in his house, 

and a crab with eggs.

What started as a cold adventure with little hope of finding anything

ended with lots of ideas to add to our tidal pool 

back at school.

Our Horse Stable

This month we have learned so much about horses and where they live.

This week we worked on creating our own horse stable.

It has two stalls.

The first with double doors that contains, at the moment, a bale of hay.

The other side has a swing door and some grooming equipment.

Just like at Sprout Meadows grooming the horse has been popular.

As well as feeding the horse.

Once the frame was built we talked about what colour it should be.

We have seen two barns now and the children have their idea from books

of what colour it should be but we used a picture from our

visit to the Therapeutic Riding Stable for inspiration.

We went with white with green doors just like the Therapeutic stables.

As the children play, the hay from the other stall has slowly migrated to the horses 

stall which meant we had to do some 'mucking out'.

Many times I would find several children tucked in the stall with the horse.

Telling stories and getting to know each other.

Project Planning - Next Steps

Another way I learned if there was enough interest to continue with

our horse project was to do a survey.

Every morning the children sign in by placing their picture on a board 

that has a question.

This week's question is "Do you like horses?"

During the first three days this week about 75% showed that they liked horses.

Seeing that there is a high interest I set up our next question:

"Where do horses live?"

The children were asked to draw where they thought horses lived.

Some said farm but most said barn.

We now have some base drawings to build a barn.

But one more step before we do.

We will visit a real horse stable.

Flower Inquiry Continued

I belong to a Professional Learning Community at my school

and our focus is on Project-based/Inquiry-based learning.

This past week as we were sharing our projects when a comment was made,

by one of the other teachers, that sparked an idea on how we could

extend our question about flowers, art, science and physical activity. 

Our question:  Can we make paint from these flowers?

I provided several materials to add to the flowers to help make paint.

Corn syrup, laundry soap, water, baby oil was the beginning then we

added vinegar and shaving cream.

Most started with cutting the petals into smaller pieces.

Then they added different liquids.

The children tested their findings on cardstock.

We wondered if they were able to mash the petals more

would that have a different effect.

So I brought out our mortar and pestle.

She transferred her ingredients into the mortar,

then used the pestle to crush it up further.

The results were instant.

We saw colour and were able to paint with it.

It was interesting to compare who did this activity versus

the hammering.

Did you notice that it was mainly girls?