Caterpillars
Our annual caterpillars have arrived! We have been making so many wonderful discoveries just by watching and observing them daily. First we learned that we are taking care of 7 little caterpillars. Next we realized that they are growing pretty quickly! They have seemingly doubled in size already. We have watched as they nibble at the brown food at the bottom of their habitat .
What do caterpillars do?
Barak- Eating. Moving. Moving down the drain!
Sloane- Eat. They eat honey.
Riley- Eat pasta and pizza for dinner.
Kennedy- Move. Taking steps. Eat.
Roger- Moving
John- They say caw caw caw!
Luca- They go “hhhhhhuhhhhhhh.”
More Observations:
Barak- And they will be butterflies!
Luca- Caterpillars are moving! WOW! They’re eating my fingers.
Kennedy- (Giggling as they move) It’s butterflies!
Barak- They like me!
We’ve also tried to guess what color our butterflies will be after they have emerged from their metamorphosis:
Luca: Green
Manuela: Blue
John: Red, pink and purple
Riley: Blue
Grayson: Blue
Roger: Blue
Kennedy: Pink
Sloane: Yellow
Barak: Green
(So far no one has guessed the correct color . . .)
Beans
Our beans are growing very quickly. It has been seven days since we planted them, and about half of the bags have bean shoots that are visible now! Each morning we have been spending some time observing the changes and seeing all of the new growth.
Restaurant Play
As our play in the kitchen center continues, we have seen play that truly resembles that of a working restaurant. A child will sit at the table and ask for specific foods- sometimes using the menus we printed out. Then the “server” will go to the kitchen and search for the food and prepare it! Watching this evolution in understanding has been pretty amazing- we are just stepping back and allowing the children to take charge. We hope to rearrange the kitchen a little bit to aid in play very soon. If you have any old kitchen tools that you won’t be using anymore, we’d love to have some safe, real tools to use for play.
We’ve also worked on creating our own recipes, and during our free draw times, more and more menus are being invented and made.
Assorted Classroom activities this week:
Lots of reading! We have started to read some of our Easter related books (mostly centered around bunnies and spring). Our current favorite is an Easter version of “Don’t Push the Button.”
Using recycled tubes as train tunnels- this has been a very engaging project that has evoked a lot of storytelling.
Watercolor and crayons, which make a beautiful resist (as the crayons are oil based and won’t mix with the watercolor inks).
Working on a secret project for our very special visitors next Friday (April 12th at 9 AM!)
Lego and magna-tile creations have been growing in complexity and size! We hope to add more materials that are similar for building and see if it will push the thought process even further.
We started tackling the big big science project of: sound! For this week, we worked with glass jars filled with various amounts of water and tapped on them with a metal fork. Each glass made a different tone. Everyone was very interested in trying and testing out the glasses- and it even sparked a debate about which jar made the “biggest” sound - it was a toss up between the one we colored red and the one we colored orange.
Rachel & Eudenis created the first version of our tonoscope- next week the children will get to predict, engage with, and reflect on their experience with it! We are VERY excited!
Specialists
Diane helped us make charoset, which is a mixture of diced apple, honey and cinnamon. We ate it on pieces of Matzoh.
Ernestina sang songs about Spring, butterflies, and animals with us this week during Spanish.
Coach Jojo had us work on a lot of kicking practice and scoring goals
Emily sang a variety of different songs using a ukelele this week, rather than her traditional guitar.
We made some “apple tacos” this week with chickpea flour tortillas, apples, applesauce, and honey.