Ms. Switzer and I planned to continue our inquiry on hibernation but when we sat down to do our knowledge building sessions, the children had many questions, concerns and ideas about the ice storm and they seemed interested in what was happening to the animals in the local playground.
We had 2 sessions. We used the "I See, I Think, I Wonder" method for guiding our discussion. Here's how it went:
Knowledge Building: Animals in winter
I See... Or Will See:
Broken trees - Ethan
We will see squirrels - Jayden
Birds - Kerod
Dogs - Vivi
Pigeons - Rebecca
Cats - Lydia
Flies - Blake
Ladybugs - Sholly
Ants
Spiders - Kaelan
Leaves - Jayden
Snow on the ground - Rebecca
I think that deers might come out - Mary
I think we might see a bunny - Elena
I Think:
"Birds don't hibernate"
"They need somewhere warm to lay their eggs"
"They have less food in the winter"
"They have more food in the summer"
Their feathers keep them warm
"If their tree falls they go somewhere else"
"When the ice melts, the birds feel better"
"When the birds are cold, inside them they have feathers"
"I think the birds are looking high and low"
"I think the birds are eating people food and worms"
I wonder:
Do the birds get frozen in the snow?
How do they eat?
How do they stay warm?
Are their nests frozen?
What happens if their tree falls from the ice storm?
How can we help them to get food?
Since they seemed concerned about the birds, we decided to set up a bird feeder centre to make before our visit to the park at the end of the week. We set out lard, pine cones (we collected them in Fall), wild bird seed (Dollarama), and string.
Before we went out, we asked them what should we be looking for?
Look for bird feeders
Look for bird and other animal tracks
Look for stripped nuts and garbage around
Look for other signs of animal life (homes, etc.)
And then we set out. We were very surprised to see all of the tree damage!
We hung our bird feeders in the trees.
We looked for signs of animal life and found lots of different animals foot prints.
We also put our own footprints in the snow to see the difference.
The children looked around for other signs of life and found interesting and thought provoking things.
A hole in the bottom of the tree.
They even found a couple of ladybugs, which surprised even me!!
Some kind of and insect habitat or pupae??? I guess we have some research to do...
We found some evergreen branches too.
The children dug in the snow and collected some to take back to school. We took our treasures back inside and put the snow in the water table.
I gathered some food colouring, some droppers, a spray bottle with coloured water, shovels, and cans to set up a sensory/discovery table. I also threw in the sticks, leaves and evergreen branches that we collected.
The children experimented putting drops of colours in the snow.
They soon figured out that mixing all of the colours together makes a greeny colour!
We had a fun day and we saw so much. We have some research to do after collecting all of our artifacts...Stay tuned!
Hey Parents! If you are in our local playground, look around with your kids to see our bird feeders hanging from the trees. Are the birds eating it? What kind of birds do you see living in the trees? Do you see any footprints or signs of life?
Discuss it with your children and let us know.
