As we were investigating snails, the children were surprised to learn that a famous artist was intrigued by the same garden snails that caught our imagination.
Matisse's daughter said that her father made many drawings of snails, and that his work The Snail (1953) came out of these drawings.
Before we we ready to paint with scissors like Matisse, we did some reading.
One of the Eric Carle books that just has to be read and enjoyed every year is The Very Grouchy Ladybug.
We love the art work, as a teacher I embrace the math concepts, and we enjoy all the animals. But we wonder, why does that ladybug need to be so grouchy!
We are learning about seeds and roots.
We like to eat.
We like short term gratification. (Although we do practice longer term gratification - planting potatoes and pumpkins).
Solution: let's grow some sprouts.
I had a sprout seed mix from my local health food store - a mixture of a variety of beans and lentils.
We watched a "how-to" video.
First job was to let them soak in water over night.
The seeds needed a "bath" in fresh water 4 times a day. We have a special sieve-like lid that fits on mason jars (also from the health food store). Our daily class helper was ready to take on this additional responsibility.
By day 2 we were seeing wee roots.
More water baths and bigger roots.
Then they began to sprout.
Ready to eat.
Some of the kids tried them.
One little who is usually very fussy with her food wanted to try "one". Then she asked if she could have "two". Then she asked for "more" and took a handful.
I thought that they tasted like garden peas from a pod. Delicious.
I think we will do some more sprouting next week. Maybe I will have to share with a few more kids!
One of our Springtime have-to-dos is planting seeds.
When we plant seeds, we read books about seeds and plants and growing things.
One of the books that we read is by one of our favourite authors, Eric Carle. Eric Carle flowers just begged to be re-created kindergarten style.
Spring time -- green grass, tree blossoms, birds gathering twigs and grass, and the chirping of baby birds.
A good time for a birds and nests sensory bin.
The World Wildlife Federation gave us milkweed seeds to provide food for migrating Monarch butterflies.
It all seemed to work together to make part of our Monday plan.
Last week our milkweed seeds arrived in the mail from World Wildlife Fund.
Researchers have found that the Monarch butterfly numbers have dropped worryingly low in the last few years. One reason is the lack of milkweed - the Monarch's only host plant. WWF is asking folks to plant milkweed in your backyard, cottage, farm, or in our case, school yard.
A colleague down the hall made the cutest fireflies with her kids. We just had to make them. (Actually, I think there are fireflies in a lot of the classrooms in the school!) And they added some Lonely Fireflies to our Grouchy Ladybugs and Hungry Caterpillars.
Luckily I had some sparkly pipecleaners left over from lovebug antennae.
I had gold and silver paint, and found some copper paint in a storage closet.
I post pictures like this, so that everyone knows that I have a regular, chaotic, messy, not picture perfect classroom.
Four thumbprints, two on each side, make a firefly.
They have made good friends with the ladybugs, and the caterpillars. The rumour is that some beautiful butterflies might show up soon.
You cannot raise butterflies without reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I firmly believe that it is not allowed.
And for good reason. Kidlets love the predictable simplicity, the Eric Carle-ian illustrations and the miracle ending.
(Don't we all eat too much and want to become a beautiful butterfly?)
It is a perfect story for retelling. These girls took turns reading the book and putting the cards in the pocket chart.
And the story frame lends itself perfectly for creating a new story.
My kidlets love to eat. So we made a new book: The Very Hungry Kindergartener.
First job was to make caterpillar hats. Thanks ItMom for the great idea.
It was one of those moments when everything worked together perfectly. A number of kidlets who had been struggling with making "curvy corners" figured out how to make them concave rather than convex. They followed multi-step instructions, helping each other. Basically making my heart sing.
Boy did they look cute in their caterpillar hats.
Next job was to decide what they were going to eat. And what day of the week it was.
And write about it. We are practicing using environmental print in our writing, so they had to find the words in the classroom. They figured out where the food cards with the words printed on the back were pretty quickly!
Click on the graphic to download a copy of our class book page.
