Plants & Insects

This week during our insect/Eric Carle study we focused on Ladybugs. Ms. Giraudo came in and read Ladybug Girl with the class and they had fun making and decorating their own Ladybugs. She also taught us how Ladybugs got their name and that the female Ladybugs are bigger than the males!

Later in the week the girls combined math with art when they drew Ladybug families. They combined literacy with math when they worked to illustrate and re-create their own versions of Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug. They then used their creativity to illustrate and label 5 things that are bigger, and 5 things that are smaller than a Ladybug. 

On Tuesday the girls read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and began to wonder how far seeds really do travel. They spent time making Eric Carle inspired flip books using prepositions to describe what the tiny seed flew over, under through etc. Yesterday they learned all about seeds from one of my favorite non-fiction seed books. During integrated learning they drew and illustrated what they learned about seeds in both a silly and a factual way.

As we continue our quest to figure out what an insect is, the girls are getting closer! We combined all of their ideas (last weeks post) to come up with this working definition:

"An insect is a type of animal that has 6 legs, antennae, spots two sets of feet and could have wings and camouflage from a predator. An insect does not have hair on it's head." ~KDH 2021

The girls also decided that we can use the following resources to find out how to classify an animal as an insect.

Ms. Ray (the science teacher), California Academy of Sciences (where the butterflies are), someone that works at our Field trip (The Randall Museum), real books about bugs and an animal encyclopedia.

Next week we will use our class time to explore, interview and investigate and hopefully find out some cool and factual information about insects!

Celebrating Title IV from Lisa Dutton on Vimeo.

Our Quest Continues!

 

 The girls were busy this week, discovering the Art and creative talents of Eric Carle, trying to define an insect, and trying out their How-To Books. How we managed to squeeze everything in to four short days? I have no idea.

How-To Books with Ms. Hamre:
Ms. Hamre has been working on the creation of the girls How-To books. All of the girls have decided on a topic and are busy working on adding detail to their simple instructions. Below are a few videos of the girls sharing their How-To books with each other and providing feedback on their stories.
 

How To Make A Pinch Pot from Lisa Dutton on Vimeo.

How To Make Hot Chocolate from Lisa Dutton on Vimeo.

Insect Study:
Laura came in on Monday to do a lesson on ants with the girls. They had a blast making making ant cities complete with fingerprint ants.

The girls wrote and illustrated their definitions of what an insect is. Their definitions are too cute not to share with you. Please note that I am quoting exactly what they wrote.. Love it!
"(An) Insect is a thing that is (a) ladybug. A Ladybugs are an insect and some insect have wings and some insect, like Ladybugs, have wings and my example is a spider." ~SO
"All insect have six legs and they do not have hair on their head, and some have wings and I feel that insects are a type of animal." ~SG
"All insects have antennas and sometimes the antennas are small and a ladybug is a insect."~MB
"All insects have antennas, example is a butterfly." WF
"All insect have 6 legs, all insect have wings, in example on an insect is a butterfly." ~AaS
"All insect have wings. A example on a insect is a Kokrock (Cockroach)." ~EH
"All insect have wings. A example of a insect is a ladybug." ~MyS
"All insects have two antennae, most insects have wings. An example is a sennaped (centipede)?" ~GA
"Insects have spots like a ladybug. An example is a slug." ~SWB
"All insects have antennas for a example a butterfly have antennas and all insects have eyes for example like a ladybug has eyes." ~AM
"All insect have wings. All insect have antennae an insect is a ladybug." ~AW
"All insects have six legs. All butterflies have wings a example is a ladybug." ~LN
"All insects have antennas, all insects have eyes. A example of a insect is a butterfly." ~SW
"All insect have black eyes. An example of a ladybug." ~MxS
"All insect have wings an example is a ladybugs." ~EL
"All insects have six legs. A spider is not an insect! Insects antennas are mostly hard to see. Insects have two sets of feet. Insects have guts." ~NS
"All insects have antennae. All insects have six legs. All spiders and centipedes are not insects because they do not have six legs." ~AS
"Insects, all of them have six legs and all insects have antennas." ~AY
"All insects have legs and antennas and all insects have six legs and insects can camouflage when predator comes an example is a ladybug." ~DM
"All insects have six legs and all insects have antennae and all insect do not have 8 legs. An example is a ladybug." ~AC
"All insects have 6 legs and spiders and centipedes are not a insect. A insect is a ladybug." ~AL
Next week we will create a class definition and begin classifying bugs and determining if they are insects or if we need to change our definition.

Eric Carle Study:

The girls got the scripts for our Mixed Up Kindergartner play. Each girl got to choose their part and will be creating an action and prop for their line(s). We were able to practice a few times this week and I am loving what they are coming up with.

On Thursday the girls got to paint their tissue papers with acrylic paint. To prepared for the activity the girls watched the movie Eric Carle, Picture Writer and learned about all of the different techniques Eric Carle uses to make his tissue paper collages. Next week the girls will begin cutting their tissue paper to make their own Eric Carle inspired animals.

Eric Carle Art from Lisa Dutton on Vimeo.

The girls integrated math into their reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The girls illustrated, graphed and added all of the items he ate through out the story. They have also been working hard to solve simple addition problems where the colors are predicted by the sums of the two numbers.

It has been a great week and I am looking for yet another busy and exciting week of guided discovery with their inquiring minds.

The Week of Launching!

This week was dedicated solely to getting the ball rolling... Throughout the next six-ish weeks the girls will be learning about insects, plants, How-To books and our beloved Eric Carle. The girls will use driving questions to form their curriculum and Ms. Hamre and I will do our best to keep up. In this weeks post I will do my best to explain how we got each area started.

Insects: 

Our driving question....What is an insect?

The girls began their insect study by brainstorming anything and everything they could about insects (what we call their insect schema). Here are some of their ideas:

Some have spots. AW, LN

Some are skinny and some are fat. DB

Some have spots and some don’t. AaS

They have six legs. AM, SO

They all have bottoms. SG

4 legs. EL

Some have stripes and some don’t. SO

Centipedes and spiders are not insects. AL & NS

They have wings. GA

They all have two eyes. SW

Not all insects have wings. AY

Ants and termites are insects without wings. AY

All insects have antennas. AS

Insects have tiny eyes that make up their big ones. EH

Insect antennas are sometimes hard to see. MB

Insects can be camouflaged. GH, AY

Ladybugs and beetles are insects and are related. SWB

All insects are smaller than a frog. WF

Most insects can fly. MxS

Insects can be long as a paintbrush or short as a block. AC

Insects are eaten by predators when they are eggs. SW &DB

Dragonflies are insects that can fly in any direction. EL

Spiders are not insects because they do not have wings. SO

A caterpillar is an insect because it turns into an insect (butterfly). SO

All insects have saliva. SG

Bees are insects that die when they sting you. GH

Once we had an idea of their insect schema we then asked them to help us come up with a definition of what they think an insect is. During Writer's Workshop they each wrote a sentence (or more) about what an insect is as well as a few examples of one. 

As we learn more about insects, the girls schema will begin to change and so will their definitions of an insect. Next week the girls will have to figure out where they can look or research to figure out what makes and animal an insect and not something else. Throughout the study we will continue to re-form our definition and understanding of insects until we can confidently and properly classify them.

How To Books:

Ms. Hamre has been teaching the girls all about How To books. The concept behind a How To book is that it teaches you how to do something (ie. a cook book or instruction manual). The girls began their week looking at various examples of How To books and learning about some of the things Ms. Hamre knows how to do. The girls then wrote down three things they knew how to do and began the process of writing their own How To books. This week the girls have been focusing on writing simple step-by-step instructions for things like making cookies, tying shoes or doing a cartwheel. Next week they will begin editing for details and working with a partner for peer editing. 

AL showing my how to make a pinch pot.

Eric Carle:

Our Driving Question... What is Eric Carle?

Through out the next few weeks the girls will be using the works of Eric Carle to integrate Math, Science, Art, Literacy and culture into their curriculum. Ms. Hamre and I will spend the next few weeks introducing the girls to his books, teaching them about his life and finding out whether or not they have any interests or wonders about him and his life (hopefully!). Our goal for the study is for the girls to learn about who he was as an artist, a child, a father and a writer. At the end of our study each girl will make their own Eric Carle animal using the style and technique that he uses in all of his illustrations.

This past week each girl chose an Eric Carle animal to make and watched a few of his online interviews. Here are a few photos of the girls exploring his books.