Baby Spiders

I was so excited this morning when I discovered baby spiders

had just hatched in our classroom.

The egg sac must have been in our pot of dirt because

the spiderlings were coming from it.

It's so exciting to have real life science happen before our eyes so

I quickly set up an area around it for families to get a closer look.

As the morning progressed the baby spiders migrated up the wall.

The question "Where are they going?" was heard over and over.

It prompted me to put up a sheet of paper to document

the children's observations.

As the children watched they noticed a bigger spider and thought it was 

the mother.

But as we watched it we noticed it caught one of the little

spiders and quickly took it to a small hole in the window frame.

It did that over and over.

I don't think it was the mother.

Some families took advantage of the books provided to learn a bit more about spiders.

All morning as new families arrived they were invited

to check on the spiderlings to see how far they had moved.

We opened the window in hopes that they would make their way outside.

This afternoon before I went home I checked them one more time.

The spiderlings that were left were bundling into a group.

I wonder if there will be any left tomorrow.

Beavers

Last week we visited the pond.

But before we went at school we played with a pond.

We talked about all the different animals that might live at a pond.

At the pond we focused on beavers.

We enjoyed a StoryWalk through the mud.

 Page to page the children read the pictures and told us

what was happening.

We looked for evidence that beavers were here.

There is still a bit of their home across the pond but I don't think it has

been lived in for a few years.

Back at school the next day I changed our play dough table.

Brown play dough, sticks, rocks and animals were provided to invite

the children to play.

It was cool to see the children discover that they could make 

animal tracks in the dough (pretend mud).

Or structures for the animals to sit in or hide under.

Making Puzzles

Math Table

Have you visited Teach Preschool by Deborah J. Stewart?

I've mentioned her blog before and it's because

she does fantastic activities

that we can learn so much from.

One activity that she shared was her math table.

I loved the simple idea and decided to try it at our centre.

The table is covered with paper then divided into sections.

Each section has a number written in it and on the shelf

beside it has a variety of materials they can use

to count.

For the first few days each section had only a number

but I found not many children were playing at it.

So I added marks to correspond with each number

it became easier for younger children to play.

Counting Carrots

The children were encouraged to count the carrots in the rabbits' garden.

The carrots pop out of their hole and can be moved around.

Especially if the rabbits are hungry.

This child used the carrot and pretended to draw

and print numbers.