Skip to main content

The Inquiry continues

It all started with the amaryllis. Without exaggeration, each child has found a connection to this plant and it has become a huge part of our daily class life. Discussions took place about its size, observations made, rules followed... it has had a huge impact.

Last week, we dissected the flower, looked at the parts and learnt their names. The children were absolutely fascinated and proceeded to ask questions. They naturally started to discuss pollination. I cannot begin to express how overjoyed I was that this field of inquiry emerged. We had planned to make mason bee house this Wednesday with the Hugh Boyd woodworking students. So, the fact that the children were leading themselves down this learning path could not have been more timely. After class we had a staff discussion about taking the conversation further from the parts of the flower to pollination to mason bees. I am a big mason bee fan so I was really looking forward to starting this unit.

During our first group discussion today we went over the parts of the flower because we were making #3D plants in class, complete with all their parts. I was impressed at the amount of factual information the children had retained since last week. They enjoyed making their plants and I believe they really understand the function of each part.

I had put out a mason bee house, cocoons and a book on a table during free play. Many children went over to the table, investigated the house ( and stuffed the cocoons into the tubes!) and began to ask questions about the bees. Yvette had brought in some very good pictures, which also sparked their curiosity.

At our second discussion of the day, I thought it might be interesting to gather their ideas before I give them information on mason bees so I asked them what mason bees are, why they thought it might be good to increase the mason bees population and why are mason bees healthy for our environment. These are some of the answers they came up with:

Brooke: They make fruits and vegetables from wax.
Luca: They go around to get nectar to make honey.
Nico: They kill bees that sting.
Zev: They collect pollen from the flowers and they drop it on the ground and make more flowers.
Cyanna: Bees live in a bee hive.
Sidney: Bees are good because they give you lots of honey.
Cash: When bees fly and something bites them they bite back.
Chloe: Bees don't feel well when they sting you.
Alexa: They hibernate in the winter and summer.
Bryn: They give us honey.

I am glad I asked them this question because it helped to guide our discussion. Clearly we needed to talk about the difference between mason and honey bees. We also needed to talk about pollination, stinging, hibernating and many other topics around bees. We briefly addressed the fact that mason bees do not make honey- we will continue this conversation as there are many differences between these bees. We then acted out a mason bee visiting flowers to collect pollen and nectar. Many children wanted to be the bee but we ran out of time so this game will be played again!

I am excited for Wednesday's class- to hear more questions and answers from the children.

Emily

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

4 Year Old M/W/F Class – I Hear…I See…I Wonder…

We began one of our circle discussions with a question for the children, “What would you like to learn, wonder or hear about?” Here is what they said:    “Skateboarding, Soccer, Perches” (Connor) “Bikes” (Taylor) “Going outside to see if I left my toy” (Jun)  “The Sun” (Jack) “Rollerskating and Swimming” (Daniella)"Skating” (Noel) “Ball” (Sofie) “Scooter and Tricycle” (Masaki) “Shoes” (Ashlan) “When you put something under a pillow you can find it” (Tia) “Soccer” (Kyle) From my list I noticed quite a few of the children were interested in wheels, so at our next circle discussion we looked closely at a scooter and a pair of roller skates – as well as the wheels on a long board. The conversation brought up more questions and answers, which the children confidently discussed amongst themselves. One of the questions was “What makes this a scooter?” The conversation followed with “The scooter has a handle and a brake” and “I know how to ride a long board.” ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volunteering at Richmond Food Bank

Today was our last day volunteering at the Richmond Food Bank. I am so grateful we had this opportunity– it has been an extraordinary experience for all of us. I, myself, have been very lucky to work in a community where I have seen dedicated volunteers working countless hours for people and projects they believe in. In my own community centre, the staff devote extra hours for many events, all to help strengthen our community. From these experiences grew a desire within me to try to share this with our children. How can we make them generous with their time and energy for the good of others? How can we teach them to be giving people– people that think of others? Are they too young for these concepts? In my need to answer these questions, I sought to find a volunteer opportunity for them. I thought about many different ideas but the food bank always came out ahead. I was lucky enough to come across an open-minded and risk-taking individual– let's face it, preschoolers gett...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Love for Cabbage

Another day of working with cabbage-our prized cabbage that I babied throughout the summer. The cabbage that I saved from the demise of cabbage worms, watered, and surrounded with copper to scare away slugs. So, yes, babied. After all that care and love I was hoping the children would enjoy working with this gorgeous vegetable and like the taste of it. The coleslaw was a hit last week but would cooked cabbage get the same positive response? We assembled our ingredients for cabbage rolls and showed all the children. They smelled all the spices that were in the recipe and many of them loved the smell of the fresh garlic! They took great pride in recognizing onion, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and ground beef. I wanted to introduce them to another herb so we passed around marjoram, which many agreed smelled sweet. We pre-cooked the meat just so the children could work with the food without any cause for concern. The smell of the onions and meat simmering sparked the interest of many ...
Post a Comment
Read more