It's been a fun week in the Tzemach class! As you read in my last post, the kids were ready to move on from apple orchards and honeybees. Of course, we are continuing to talk about them as they tie in so closely with Rosh Hashanah (dipping apples in honey to represent a sweet new year). However, we've officially started talking about a new exploration. The kids voted from their list of interests that they create at the beginning of the school year. An overwhelming number of kids chose to explore otters! Michelle and I were excited about this because we don't know much about these animals. It's always fun when we get to learn alongside the kids.
To start our exploration, we made our KWL chart. We found that we knew a few things about otters but definitely had more questions with this exploration. We've also been reading a lot of books about otters. Some of these are from the library and some were brought in by the kids. We have loved all the books about otters brought from home! They've provided us with a lot of information and have even helped us answer some of our questions already. As we read our books, we refer to the questions we've asked. It's also a great time for us to add more questions to our list. Here is a list of all the things we already know about otters and all the things we're wondering about...
Know:
- They play in water.
- They swim a lot.
- They live in the ocean.
- They eat fish.
- They are mammals.
- Some live in different types of water.
- They are soft and furry.
- They pop their heads out of the water.
- They use their bellies as a table.
Wondering:
- Do they eat fish?
- What is their hair like?
- How do they play?
- What do they eat?
- How do they swim?
- Where do they live?
- Do they live in different oceans?
- Do they live on the beach?
- Do they have fuzzy babies?
- What do the babies look like?
- Do they dive in the water?
- How do the babies eat?
- How do the babies grow?
As we've been reading, one of the things we've learned a lot about is the size of different types of otters. We found out that a Sea Otter only measures 2 feet long and the Giant River Otter measures 6 feet long. We used measuring tape and rulers to find that the Giant River Otter is much longer than the Sea Otter. In fact, it's the biggest otter species in the whole world! We left the measuring tape and rulers out during center time and asked the kids if they could find some objects in the room that were the same size as the otters we've been learning about. We told them that they could document their information in any way they would like. Most of them walked around in groups or with a partner measuring just about everything in the room! Some wanted to document using tally marks. This is a concept that we've been talking about as we vote. We've discussed how this is a quick and easy way to count and document findings. Some chose to use words to write what they measured. While this writing is inventive, it's an important first step to their writing and reading skills! They're learning to understand that letters form together to make words and that letters have a sound that go with them. You'll begin to see this writing change and develop throughout the year. What may look like squiggly lines and a page full of random letters will soon turn into recognizable letters and joining of several letters together with spacing for a new word. This is one of my favorite forms of development to watch throughout the school year!
One of our students told us that they saw a picture of a Sea Otter in the hallways drawn by one of the big kids. I asked her to show me where it was. We went for a short hunt and found it. We read what the older student had written and then found her and asked her if she would come to our room and teach us about otters since she recently became an expert herself! She was thrilled! Mika is a 4th grader and was so sweet to come and educate us on otters. She told us some interesting facts that she learned and then allowed the kids to ask questions. Mika taught us about the different parts of the otter and what they're used for. We also learned that they were nocturnal so that they could more easily catch the fish at night. We also learned that otters will wrap their babies in kelp when they go down into the water to hunt. The kelp is rooted to the ocean floor so by wrapping them in the kelp they will be able to float on the top of the water and not drift away. This was one of our favorite facts! We were so excited to have a "big kid" come talk with us and hang out with us!
We've also spent some time talking about otter habitats and the reason they live in the areas that they do. One thing we learned is that otters build dens using sticks, moss, leaves, and other soft pieces of nature. We read that they make these dens in order to stay safe and to provide a safe haven for their babies. We decided to try building our own otter den! We found pieces of nature and went to work. We used sticks, pine cones, and leaves to try to construct a den. As we did this, we looked at pictures of real dens built by otters. We quickly learned that these otters must take a lot of time to build their dens and must be very hard workers! It's a lot harder than we thought! This was a great way for us to learn to appreciate these animals and use team work as we planned building strategies.
Since we've been talking about otters, we've obviously been learning a lot about different types of water and it's locations. We have been amazed at how much these animals can swim! This progressed into us talking about things that sink and float. We used this opportunity to do a sink or float activity with the kids. We made this an extension of our center time so the kids could come and play in the water if they chose too. As we tested different items from nature and our classroom, we made predictions. We got clipboards and each child made a chart with 2 columns, one for sink and one for float. After we tested items we either wrote or drew a picture in the appropriate column. They had a blast...of course, because it's water play!
We'll be continuing our study next week. We're excited to see what we learn next about these interesting creatures!
Love,
Ms. Rachael
Approaching to Learning
- Show creativity and imagination using materials in representational play.
- Show curiosity in an increasing variety of activities, tasks, and learning centers.
- Demonstrate eagerness and interest as a learner by questioning and adding ideas.
- Show increasing ability to maintain interest in self-selected activities and play despite distractions and interruptions.
- Demonstrate self direction by making choices among peers, activities and materials.
- Stand up for rights much of the time.
- Respond respectfully to positive and negative feedback from adults most of the time.
- Follow classroom rules and procedures with reminders.
- Combine some letters with pretend writing.
- Begin to identify significant words from text read aloud.
- Begin to ask questions about the causes of events they observe or hear about in books.
- Incorporate information from informational texts into play activities.
- Display curiosity and interest in learning new words.
- Begin to understand the relationship between oral language and written language.
- Make some upper case letters without regard to proportion or placement.
- Locate patterns in the environment.
- Use appropriate vocabulary to communicate mathematical ideas.
- Integrate mathematical ideas into personal representations.
- Count orally forward to twenty and backward from three.
- Show one-on-one correspondence through ten when counting real objects.
Using nature to build our otter dens...
Sink or float predictions and testing...
Measuring classroom objects and comparing them to the size of otters...
Mika presenting to us about otters!...
Learners hard at work...
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