Harvest Season

Autumn doesn't really exist here in California and even though I love the permanent sunshine here in San Diego, I do miss the change of seasons sometimes. Since we don't get to experience all of the beauty of the fall season, we (Angela and I) brought the season of harvest into our preschool. We started with exploring pumpkins and gourds, followed by hay and farm play. Children enjoyed various squash activities involving arts, science, literacy, math and physical exercises, of course.

Gourds Exploration
Children used senses of sight, smell and touch to explore variety of small gourds. They used magnifying glasses to take a closer look at the plants as we talked about the different colors, sizes and  textures. Later we cut the gourds and pumpkins open. As I was cutting the pumpkins, some children engaged in a conversation about the insides; wondering if they all looked alike and predicting the color of the seeds.

Indian Corn Experiment
I placed an Indian corn in the water and invited the children to observe it daily and notice the changes. It took couple of days for the corn to start sprouting. Below are some of the children's observations as they took a closer look at the plant using magnifying glasses.

10/18/16

Marta: What do you notice when you look at this corn?

Winter: Look at corn! (touching the corn and picking the sprouts)

Nalini: Corn! it has this... sprouts!

Declan: they long, so many! (pointing to sprouts)

Anthony: (wondering) Why the seeds are coming out? Are seeds coming out in the water?

10/19/16

Marta: What do you see?

(no response)

Marta: What color are the sprouts?

Declan: Green and white

Bradley: (holding it up) wet, it drips

10/23/16

Marta: What do you notice about the sprouts, friends?

Declan: so high!

Anthony: they grew!

Once the sprouts got big enough, one of the dads planted a couple of them in our garden. Children were happy to help prepare the soil with water and compost.

Art
Painting inspired by gourds, as well as painting and decorating pumpkins of different sizes.

Farm Play
We set up a dramatic farm play in the sensory bins with hay, pumpkins, Indian corn and farm animals. Children's play involved feeding the animals, transferring hay from bin to bin using shovels, and transporting the pumpkins from place to place in trucks and wheel barrows.

Bales of Hay
At first we set up farm play on the bales of hay but after few days children were interested in climbing on the hay more than anything. I added ramps for the children to climb up and down. I marked one ramp with arrow pointing up and another with arrow pointing down. Children not only practiced their gross motor skills going up and down and balancing on the ramps, but also practiced patience waiting their turn as the area was very popular and got crowded often!

Children are having a blast and my heart is happy!

Garden Update

It has been few months since we planted our little garden. It was upgraded in the beginning of June to a bigger size garden thanks to our wonderful parents! Children patiently watched the butterfly eggs, they loved checking on the caterpillars and watch them grow. One of my favorite caterpillar activities was comparing and predicting what types of caterpillars we have and how will the butterfly look like.

Children compared our caterpillars from the garden to the caterpillars in a book to figure out their names and to see what kind of butterflies the caterpillars will turn into in couple of weeks.

                                         

Children's predictions:

When the caterpillars were big enough we brought one into the classroom. Children checked on the caterpillar daily, but unfortunately the caterpillar made the chrysalis during the kids' nap time, and we all missed the transformation. 

Invitation to Draw: Caterpillars

My assistant teacher, Angela, showed the children a video of caterpillar's metamorphosis during a circle time one morning. The are some of the children's observations while watching the video:

Max: it's getting slimy...it's going to turn into a cocoon!

Noa: A chrysalis

Holden: Look at that!

Angela: What's happening to the skin?

Max: It's getting rid of it! .... I think it's magic

Theo: I think it's magic on its' head 

On noticing different parts of the chrysalis, the cremaster:

Holden: Maybe it has some dirt on it

Angela: It is darker than the rest of the chrysalis. Why would it have dirt there?

Max: I think it's soil

Theo: Maybe it's a piece of dark sand

Max: I think it makes it's own hook

Milo: Why does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

We checked on the chrysalis often for about a week and a half waiting for the butterfly to emerge but yet again we missed it as it happened over the weekend. The butterfly was born early morning on Monday June 22nd - as children arrived that morning I encouraged them to go check on the chrysalis. It was wonderful to see the children so joyful as they discovered the butterfly! We kept the butterfly for a day and a half in its cage for children to observe before we released it. Below are some of the children's observations:

Poppy: I notice that there's a cocoon. Oh! look he just fly! Hello little butterfly.

Ella: He's crawling

Milo: It's quiet. Oh, he fly, he's ready to fly!

Maya: The butterfly spread his wings

Max: Butterfly! It's a monarch

 Release of the butterfly

The sunflowers in the garden are getting really tall, we noticed some tiny cabbage loopers caterpillars munching on them very hard! We had to remove them before they ate the whole plants! We also spotted many caterpillars on the milkweeds. They grew fast! It was so exciting to witness the cycle again.

 Boys spotting for caterpillars

The garden is looking great! We keep discovering more plants than the ones that we had planted. We used lots of compost to fertilize the soil, and now two months later, there's squash and dandelions among other mysterious plants that we haven't been able to identify yet. Children still love to water the plants and spot different creatures in the garden, including tiny lizards. The garden is a wonderful addition to our classroom's environment, and it really provides a plenty of learning opportunities.

 Girls watering the plants

 Lizard!

Squash

Sunflower