A Log's Life

A Log's Life

By Wendy Pfeffer

Illustrated by Robin Brickman 

 

Brought to wonder by the wonderful world of kindergarten

 

 In the wooded area next to Mrs. Pizzuto's house, a mighty tree stood. It was home to many creatures.

A storm came across the lake. Great wind and lightening made the tree bend and fall.

The tree was now a log and lay fallen...season after season. 

Some creatures left, some creatures made new homes. 

The log became covered by other plants.

    

The tree became spongy and the bark became spongy. 

The log came apart and began to rot.

The log still lays in the wooded area next to Mrs. Pizzuto's house, but...

some of it made it's way to our curious children!

 

Many insects crawled out of their tiny homes.

 

The wood was very soft and crumbled easily.

 

The children explored the log and holes in which small creatures had made their homes.

 

They captured tiny insects and carefully put them into small containers to count and study.

 

The log could easily be pulled apart, exposing more tiny homes. 

Insects scattered and scurried about.

 

The powdery wood was added to the small containers with the insects.

 

There was much to consider.

 

There was much to wonder about.

 

There was much to study.

 

There was much to observe.

 

Children wondered aloud and talked about what they discovered.

The log had started as a seed, became a mighty tree, gave shade, was home to many creatures and was now a teacher. But, what about the log that is still decomposing in the wooded area by Mrs. Pizzuto's house?

Well....like the story goes!

 

We Have Lots More Babies

Today Morgan and Ivy discovered that more of the egg sacks hatched and we have more 

baby praying mantises in our terrarium. 

"We have lots more this time!" said Megan. 

Not only were the babies all over the terrarium they were also 

all over the science centre in our classroom. 

The children were busy exploring the babies. The children think these babies are a bit older than the last ones we released because  they are slightly bigger and most of these pray mantises are jumping around the terrarium. The last ones did not jump.

The children started predicting how many babies there were. We knew that there was well over a hundred new babies in the terrarium. There were so many it was impossible to count all of them. 

We decided to release the new babies in the same place we released the 27 babies on Wednesday. 

The children headed out and started releasing them into our outdoor classroom. 

Lara wondered why a lot of the babies were hanging upside down. Ms. Lecoq explained to Lara that the pray mantises are molting. As the praying mantises grow they shed skin, then grow again and shed again. It is a process called molting. While the pray mantises are molting they will hand upside down. 

While we left some of the pray mantises in the terrarium the children decided to create their own individual habitats. The children gathered rocks, twigs, soil and leaves.

After the children created their habitat they went out to find their new friends some food. Mmmm fruit flies...their favorite. The children trapped the fruit flies in a plastic bag from the digesters and brought them in and added them to their to the habitats that they created. 

We Have Babies!

While the children were out on a nature walk with Mrs. St.Onge three weeks ago, they came across egg sacks on the trees in our school yard. The children removed the egg sacks from the branches brought them inside and placed them in our classroom terrarium where Sparkles had left us one of her own egg sacks.

Yesterday Ryan was observing the terrarium and realized that some of the egg sacks had hatched and baby praying mantises were now roaming around freely.

Some of them had gotten out of the terrarium and were roaming right in our room!

The children went right to work. We researched how to take care of baby praying mantises and found out that their favourite food is fruit flies. 

Hummmm. Where could we find fruit flies? 

In the compost digesters of course! 

A group of children went outside and captured some fruit flies for our new babies. 

Although we were feeding and taking good care of the babies we learned that these species are very aggressive towards each other. If kept in groups they will eat each other, especially when one or two become slightly larger than their brothers and sisters. 

The children decided that it would be best if we released the babies into their natural habitat. The children decided our brand new outdoor classroom would be a 

perfect new home for them. 

A praying mantis egg sack can hold anywhere from 10-400 eggs. Our total count today was 27 babies. The children think only one of the egg sacks in the terrarium has hatched and more are soon to come. We wait and see. 

Polar Bear Inquiry - Penguin Migration

 The wondering has continued...

and so has the learning.

Discussions began about the Arctic and the Antarctic. In the books about the Arctic, we noticed there were no penguins. We discovered that this is because there are no penguins in the Arctic. The Arctic is at the North Pole and penguins live in the South part of our world.

Now, another problem had arisen. 

The penguins needed to migrate.

But, where would they go?

As we talked about a new home for the penguins, it was no surprise that more questions emerged.

Evan wonders, "Is it colder in the Arctic or the Antarctic?"

Carson wonders, "Is there seaweed in the Arctic?"

It was decided that the bottom of the exhibit be cleared and the Antarctic would be created there.

It made perfect sense, "Because the Arctic is on top and the Antarctic is on the bottom."

More investigation about penguins is occurring. There are many different types of penguins.

A one metre tall Emperor Penguin is being created.

How many children will be taller than the Emperor Penguin?

How many children will be shorter?

 

The Exhibit is now moved into the hallway. We are sharing what we've come to know about polar bears, the Arctic, the Antarctic, penguins and the animals, habitat and sustainable life that exist in the very coldest places on our earth!

The children have set up many of their animals in family settings. 

Some of the animals have babies and some have eggs.

Which animals will be hatched from eggs?

"Do polar bears have eggs? Or do penguins have eggs?"

Well...there we go...inquiring again!

Polar Bear Inquiry - Land Ho!

 It is not ignorance but knowledge which is the mother of wonder.

~ Joseph Wood Krutch ~

The more we know, the more we wonder.

So is the case with Jackson and many of the kindergarten children as the polar bear inquiry extends into curiosity and discovery about the mysterious Arctic.

 

The Arctic Ocean is now filled with many Arctic animals and several icebergs. 

  

The children used their animals to create stories of narrow escapes and 
inevitable captures.

And things were going quite until a great blue whale got hungry...
very hungry and...

Well, this created a problem!

 

 With only a few icebergs and many land animals, how could the animals escape to safety?

Are icebergs a place that animals like fox and oxen and snowy owls could live?

This is how land emerged in the Arctic exhibit.

 

 Referring to the books that the children had been pouring through, there were many areas of land for Arctic animals to live and make their habitats.
 
We are seeing the children create den habitats outside.

They began to create land areas, mountain areas, caves, trees and frozen tundra.
Carson exclaimed, "Let's get the animals to the land. 
 All the ones with legs gotta go there."

The children set to work right away. 

   

The Arctic is a very active area in the wonderful world of kindergarten! 
The children tell many stories about the animals and with the animals.

They were invited to put their stories into books. 

Blank books are always awaiting our writers in the writing centre.

When we read books, we talk of the book cover and back, title, settings, characters, a blurb,

how a story begins, what happens and how the story ends...

We asked the children what characters they might choose from the Arctic exhibit

and how their story might begin, what might happen and how it would end.

This inspired great excitement!

 
And some very fun stories!  
It seems Snowmen At Night are not the only ones up to shenanigans!


In the meantime, other children continued to create animals. 
This time, they were offered salt dough.
After making the salt dough, the children began to  
sculpt and fashion animals for the Arctic exhibit.
Books were added to the sculpting area. The children turned page after page and chose an image of the animal they wanted to create.
 

The sculptures were baked and dried slowly. 
Many children came back over a few days to continue to make animals. 
Once dried, the children chose their book and painted their creations.

 

 

 

 At the Arctic exhibit, the children were offered card stock and markers. 

They began to label the many areas of their exhibit and the animals they created.

 

Books that the children had been using and books that the children made were available.

The children were confident in their 'spell by sound' abilities 
and only asked for occasional help.

 

 

It was interesting and exciting to see the children helping each other.

  

They labeled their animals and land area.

The labeled the TOL gRAS AREa and the ARKTic OCHiN.

SNO and ROKS

 

 Wolris and LepRd SEL and NROWOL

 And of course...POLAR BAR

The salt dough sculptures are being displayed in the hallway. 

Just in invitation to what happens in the wonderful world of kindergarten.

 

Funny where things can go when you start wondering about Polar Bears!

There may be some big machinery in our future...

And a discussion about the looooong trip a penguin would have to take to live in the Arctic!