Roots

observing Dandelion roots
In this grouptime the children answered Cameron and Damon's question: How does water go up the tree?

The children observed roots of a dandelion plant and compared it to the roots of the trees we see around the picnic tables.  They noticed that tree roots are much bigger and harder than other plant roots.  Some roots can be as thin as hair while others are hard like wood and can stick out of the ground.

We did a short song game "Stormy Weather"  to demonstrate other functions of the root: hold down the plant on the ground and bring nutrients to the rest of the tree
Big roots stick out of the ground and
hold the tree so it won't fall
Multi-media painting of a tree: blow painting for the roots
torn brown paper for the trunk
sponge painting for the leaves.

How does water get to the roots?
The children pretended to be the roots sucking up
water (juice) to help them grow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frienships start with a simple "Hello"

Image
     In this part of the inquiry the children were drawn to a story about a Boy and  a stray puppy who developed friendship as they go through the feelings of sadness, loneliness and in search of a friend. The story lines were catchy and simple enough that children repeatedly said the lines over and over again in their play. "......sad, ... no fun....all alone....why am I the only one?"       They were so attuned to the sadness of the characters that they even created their own dramatic play on the ideas of feeling alone and what to do when no one wants to play with you.  The story "Say Hello" by Jack and Michael Foreman explores the concepts of care, inclusion and open-mindedness.   At the end of the story both the boy and the dog were connected by acknowledging the presence of the other through a simple "hello". It shows us that a warm greeting and a smile is all it takes for friendships to flourish.  Christina asked: " How do you
Read more

Yoga story: Lion and the Mouse

Image
 Before we began our Yoga story of the day the children greeted the beautiful Spring sunshine with their gentle, yet energized breath. I find Sun Salutation poses are the best to revitalize and refresh the mind and body. These poses are dynamic yet focused so provide children the space to be actively engaged and be in their own space while doing the poses. Since it's Spring it also gives us the opportunity to pay gratitude to the morning sunshine and embrace its blessings as we think about the growing and changing that is happening around us Sun salutation and sky arrow poses To continue the theme of  Gratitude and Generosity, we acted the Lion and the Mouse fable using different yoga poses. The children enjoyed pretending to be the irritated Lion and the scared mouse. We discussed the lesson of the story: that each of us is important and helpful no matter what size. Then each child were given a task of helping me clean and organize the classroom.  Some spr
Read more

Unit of Inquiry: Friendship

Image
    September is a wonderful time to be experiencing new and exciting things.  As we continue to learn the new ropes and routine in school we also make new connections and build new friendships along the way.  This current Unit of Inquiry will explore Friendships.  The aim of this unit is to help children develop an understanding of: How do we develop friendly relationships, how to foster friendly relationships and the giving and receiving of friendship. Who is your friend and why?      We began the formative unit (first week) with a simple task of asking the children to tell us about one special friend.  They decorated a ginger bread person and used that to represent and talk about this friend.  It was interesting to hear their responses.  Of course, most children talked about who they played with while others talked about their family like their siblings and moms as their best friends.  However there were some disagreements in this because some children did not think that
Read more