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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

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