About a month ago (when it was still chilly out), a few students noticed several birds outside the window on the field. They wondered if the birds had returned from the south. Others mentioned that not all birds flew south and stayed here during the winter months. More and more students became curious about the birds out the window and spent a large part of the afternoon talking about them. We set out a provocation to see what students knew about birds. We were very surprised to see how much they knew! During Sharing Time, these students shared what they knew about birds and others contributed too! We decided to track our thinking on chart paper so we could revisit some of our theories and wonders. We walked down to the Library Learning Commons and asked our librarian Mr. C. for some books on birds. The children spent so much time looking at all of the pictures and asking great questions! I made these bird cards to get an idea of which bird(s) they were most interested in. They began drawing their favourites and asking more questions. As the interest in birds continued, we read more books to help us answer our wonders. One of my favourite books is Mama Built a Little Nest, and we used this book to set up a provocation inviting the children to build and design their own nest. We even spent much time watching the live bird feeder (I found it on You Tube). We not only looked for different birds we could identify but also listened for their sounds. L.G.: The Blue Jay makes a "jay jay" sound! I read that in the book! We asked the children if they thought any of these birds would be good pets. J.C.: I have 2 budgies at home! A.A.: I would love a bird because some birds can talk to you, you know? One parent (J.C.) sent us pictures of their pet birds for the students to see! This provocation had children come up with a story about birds, now that we researched and found out what birds eat, how they make their nests and even knew the name of many types of birds. This lesson, labelling the parts of the bird, came from A Day in First Grade. Many of the questions around the different birds we were studying were about how big they were. Ms. Bowes, an E.I. in our classroom, shared with us her pictures of a trip she went on and saw flamingos. The children were so excited to take a measuring stick and find out how big they truly are! A.D.: I'm the same size as the flamingo!!! So we set out large poster paper and helped the students research and draw the birds life size! We had the children also add their research to each bird they chose to draw and paint. Some children also decided to create different backgrounds, as we learned some birds only live in certain places around the world. We set out Plasticine and invited the children to make their own bird. They all came out incredible! They even enjoyed drawing them! In our sensory bin, we added shredded paper (you can buy this at a craft store) and cut up small pieces of yarn. The students used tweezers (these are from Wintergreen Learning Materials) to pick up the "worms" and feed the birds (place them in the containers). It made for a great fine motor activity! After reading the book Riki's Birdhouse, we invited the children to use the 3-D figures we had collected from a few weeks back (see post here) to design their own plan and make a bird feeder. After making our bird feeders we went outside to find the ideal place to hang them. After we read the book to the class, many children took an interest in the book An Egg is Quiet, as they enjoyed looking at the pictures and wondering about the eggs. We left the book out with some plastic eggs (I picked these up around Easter at the Dollar Store) and as the students learned what the eggs looked like they painted them. Finally it came time to assemble our documentation. We are fortunate to have a large hallway and wall space just outside our room. Here are some closer pictures:
About a month ago (when it was still chilly out), a few students noticed several birds outside the window on the field. They wondered if the birds had returned from the south. Others mentioned that not all birds flew south and stayed here during the winter months. More and more students became curious about the birds out the window and spent a large part of the afternoon talking about them. We set out a provocation to see what students knew about birds. We were very surprised to see how much they knew! During Sharing Time, these students shared what they knew about birds and others contributed too! We decided to track our thinking on chart paper so we could revisit some of our theories and wonders. We walked down to the Library Learning Commons and asked our librarian Mr. C. for some books on birds. The children spent so much time looking at all of the pictures and asking great questions! I made these bird cards to get an idea of which bird(s) they were most interested in. They began drawing their favourites and asking more questions. As the interest in birds continued, we read more books to help us answer our wonders. One of my favourite books is Mama Built a Little Nest, and we used this book to set up a provocation inviting the children to build and design their own nest. We even spent much time watching the live bird feeder (I found it on You Tube). We not only looked for different birds we could identify but also listened for their sounds. L.G.: The Blue Jay makes a "jay jay" sound! I read that in the book! We asked the children if they thought any of these birds would be good pets. J.C.: I have 2 budgies at home! A.A.: I would love a bird because some birds can talk to you, you know? One parent (J.C.) sent us pictures of their pet birds for the students to see! This provocation had children come up with a story about birds, now that we researched and found out what birds eat, how they make their nests and even knew the name of many types of birds. This lesson, labelling the parts of the bird, came from A Day in First Grade. Many of the questions around the different birds we were studying were about how big they were. Ms. Bowes, an E.I. in our classroom, shared with us her pictures of a trip she went on and saw flamingos. The children were so excited to take a measuring stick and find out how big they truly are! A.D.: I'm the same size as the flamingo!!! So we set out large poster paper and helped the students research and draw the birds life size! We had the children also add their research to each bird they chose to draw and paint. Some children also decided to create different backgrounds, as we learned some birds only live in certain places around the world. We set out Plasticine and invited the children to make their own bird. They all came out incredible! They even enjoyed drawing them! In our sensory bin, we added shredded paper (you can buy this at a craft store) and cut up small pieces of yarn. The students used tweezers (these are from Wintergreen Learning Materials) to pick up the "worms" and feed the birds (place them in the containers). It made for a great fine motor activity! After reading the book Riki's Birdhouse, we invited the children to use the 3-D figures we had collected from a few weeks back (see post here) to design their own plan and make a bird feeder. After making our bird feeders we went outside to find the ideal place to hang them. After we read the book to the class, many children took an interest in the book An Egg is Quiet, as they enjoyed looking at the pictures and wondering about the eggs. We left the book out with some plastic eggs (I picked these up around Easter at the Dollar Store) and as the students learned what the eggs looked like they painted them. Finally it came time to assemble our documentation. We are fortunate to have a large hallway and wall space just outside our room. Here are some closer pictures:
One of the things I’ve noticed about inquiry projects is how everlasting the learning is. Our projects never really end; though we may “shelve” our thinking and ideas for a time, …
About a month ago (when it was still chilly out), a few students noticed several birds outside the window on the field. They wondered if the birds had returned from the south. Others mentioned that not all birds flew south and stayed here during the winter months. More and more students became curious about the birds out the window and spent a large part of the afternoon talking about them. We set out a provocation to see what students knew about birds. We were very surprised to see how much they knew! During Sharing Time, these students shared what they knew about birds and others contributed too! We decided to track our thinking on chart paper so we could revisit some of our theories and wonders. We walked down to the Library Learning Commons and asked our librarian Mr. C. for some books on birds. The children spent so much time looking at all of the pictures and asking great questions! I made these bird cards to get an idea of which bird(s) they were most interested in. They began drawing their favourites and asking more questions. As the interest in birds continued, we read more books to help us answer our wonders. One of my favourite books is Mama Built a Little Nest, and we used this book to set up a provocation inviting the children to build and design their own nest. We even spent much time watching the live bird feeder (I found it on You Tube). We not only looked for different birds we could identify but also listened for their sounds. L.G.: The Blue Jay makes a "jay jay" sound! I read that in the book! We asked the children if they thought any of these birds would be good pets. J.C.: I have 2 budgies at home! A.A.: I would love a bird because some birds can talk to you, you know? One parent (J.C.) sent us pictures of their pet birds for the students to see! This provocation had children come up with a story about birds, now that we researched and found out what birds eat, how they make their nests and even knew the name of many types of birds. This lesson, labelling the parts of the bird, came from A Day in First Grade. Many of the questions around the different birds we were studying were about how big they were. Ms. Bowes, an E.I. in our classroom, shared with us her pictures of a trip she went on and saw flamingos. The children were so excited to take a measuring stick and find out how big they truly are! A.D.: I'm the same size as the flamingo!!! So we set out large poster paper and helped the students research and draw the birds life size! We had the children also add their research to each bird they chose to draw and paint. Some children also decided to create different backgrounds, as we learned some birds only live in certain places around the world. We set out Plasticine and invited the children to make their own bird. They all came out incredible! They even enjoyed drawing them! In our sensory bin, we added shredded paper (you can buy this at a craft store) and cut up small pieces of yarn. The students used tweezers (these are from Wintergreen Learning Materials) to pick up the "worms" and feed the birds (place them in the containers). It made for a great fine motor activity! After reading the book Riki's Birdhouse, we invited the children to use the 3-D figures we had collected from a few weeks back (see post here) to design their own plan and make a bird feeder. After making our bird feeders we went outside to find the ideal place to hang them. After we read the book to the class, many children took an interest in the book An Egg is Quiet, as they enjoyed looking at the pictures and wondering about the eggs. We left the book out with some plastic eggs (I picked these up around Easter at the Dollar Store) and as the students learned what the eggs looked like they painted them. Finally it came time to assemble our documentation. We are fortunate to have a large hallway and wall space just outside our room. Here are some closer pictures:
One of the things I’ve noticed about inquiry projects is how everlasting the learning is. Our projects never really end; though we may “shelve” our thinking and ideas for a time, …
About a month ago (when it was still chilly out), a few students noticed several birds outside the window on the field. They wondered if the birds had returned from the south. Others mentioned that not all birds flew south and stayed here during the winter months. More and more students became curious about the birds out the window and spent a large part of the afternoon talking about them. We set out a provocation to see what students knew about birds. We were very surprised to see how much they knew! During Sharing Time, these students shared what they knew about birds and others contributed too! We decided to track our thinking on chart paper so we could revisit some of our theories and wonders. We walked down to the Library Learning Commons and asked our librarian Mr. C. for some books on birds. The children spent so much time looking at all of the pictures and asking great questions! I made these bird cards to get an idea of which bird(s) they were most interested in. They began drawing their favourites and asking more questions. As the interest in birds continued, we read more books to help us answer our wonders. One of my favourite books is Mama Built a Little Nest, and we used this book to set up a provocation inviting the children to build and design their own nest. We even spent much time watching the live bird feeder (I found it on You Tube). We not only looked for different birds we could identify but also listened for their sounds. L.G.: The Blue Jay makes a "jay jay" sound! I read that in the book! We asked the children if they thought any of these birds would be good pets. J.C.: I have 2 budgies at home! A.A.: I would love a bird because some birds can talk to you, you know? One parent (J.C.) sent us pictures of their pet birds for the students to see! This provocation had children come up with a story about birds, now that we researched and found out what birds eat, how they make their nests and even knew the name of many types of birds. This lesson, labelling the parts of the bird, came from A Day in First Grade. Many of the questions around the different birds we were studying were about how big they were. Ms. Bowes, an E.I. in our classroom, shared with us her pictures of a trip she went on and saw flamingos. The children were so excited to take a measuring stick and find out how big they truly are! A.D.: I'm the same size as the flamingo!!! So we set out large poster paper and helped the students research and draw the birds life size! We had the children also add their research to each bird they chose to draw and paint. Some children also decided to create different backgrounds, as we learned some birds only live in certain places around the world. We set out Plasticine and invited the children to make their own bird. They all came out incredible! They even enjoyed drawing them! In our sensory bin, we added shredded paper (you can buy this at a craft store) and cut up small pieces of yarn. The students used tweezers (these are from Wintergreen Learning Materials) to pick up the "worms" and feed the birds (place them in the containers). It made for a great fine motor activity! After reading the book Riki's Birdhouse, we invited the children to use the 3-D figures we had collected from a few weeks back (see post here) to design their own plan and make a bird feeder. After making our bird feeders we went outside to find the ideal place to hang them. After we read the book to the class, many children took an interest in the book An Egg is Quiet, as they enjoyed looking at the pictures and wondering about the eggs. We left the book out with some plastic eggs (I picked these up around Easter at the Dollar Store) and as the students learned what the eggs looked like they painted them. Finally it came time to assemble our documentation. We are fortunate to have a large hallway and wall space just outside our room. Here are some closer pictures:
About a month ago (when it was still chilly out), a few students noticed several birds outside the window on the field. They wondered if the birds had returned from the south. Others mentioned that not all birds flew south and stayed here during the winter months. More and more students became curious about the birds out the window and spent a large part of the afternoon talking about them. We set out a provocation to see what students knew about birds. We were very surprised to see how much they knew! During Sharing Time, these students shared what they knew about birds and others contributed too! We decided to track our thinking on chart paper so we could revisit some of our theories and wonders. We walked down to the Library Learning Commons and asked our librarian Mr. C. for some books on birds. The children spent so much time looking at all of the pictures and asking great questions! I made these bird cards to get an idea of which bird(s) they were most interested in. They began drawing their favourites and asking more questions. As the interest in birds continued, we read more books to help us answer our wonders. One of my favourite books is Mama Built a Little Nest, and we used this book to set up a provocation inviting the children to build and design their own nest. We even spent much time watching the live bird feeder (I found it on You Tube). We not only looked for different birds we could identify but also listened for their sounds. L.G.: The Blue Jay makes a "jay jay" sound! I read that in the book! We asked the children if they thought any of these birds would be good pets. J.C.: I have 2 budgies at home! A.A.: I would love a bird because some birds can talk to you, you know? One parent (J.C.) sent us pictures of their pet birds for the students to see! This provocation had children come up with a story about birds, now that we researched and found out what birds eat, how they make their nests and even knew the name of many types of birds. This lesson, labelling the parts of the bird, came from A Day in First Grade. Many of the questions around the different birds we were studying were about how big they were. Ms. Bowes, an E.I. in our classroom, shared with us her pictures of a trip she went on and saw flamingos. The children were so excited to take a measuring stick and find out how big they truly are! A.D.: I'm the same size as the flamingo!!! So we set out large poster paper and helped the students research and draw the birds life size! We had the children also add their research to each bird they chose to draw and paint. Some children also decided to create different backgrounds, as we learned some birds only live in certain places around the world. We set out Plasticine and invited the children to make their own bird. They all came out incredible! They even enjoyed drawing them! In our sensory bin, we added shredded paper (you can buy this at a craft store) and cut up small pieces of yarn. The students used tweezers (these are from Wintergreen Learning Materials) to pick up the "worms" and feed the birds (place them in the containers). It made for a great fine motor activity! After reading the book Riki's Birdhouse, we invited the children to use the 3-D figures we had collected from a few weeks back (see post here) to design their own plan and make a bird feeder. After making our bird feeders we went outside to find the ideal place to hang them. After we read the book to the class, many children took an interest in the book An Egg is Quiet, as they enjoyed looking at the pictures and wondering about the eggs. We left the book out with some plastic eggs (I picked these up around Easter at the Dollar Store) and as the students learned what the eggs looked like they painted them. Finally it came time to assemble our documentation. We are fortunate to have a large hallway and wall space just outside our room. Here are some closer pictures:
Here in Toronto this year we have been having an exceptionally cold and snowy winter! Despite the weather, some of our feathered friends have remained in our outdoor classroom. One day when we were…
Turn a paper bag into a bird's nest in a matter of seconds! An easy paper bag craft to go along with a kids' bird craft. Perfect for Easter crafts and nature crafts at home or in the classroom.
Explore bird-themed activities for preschoolers! 🐦 Craft nests, sensory bins, and more for hands-on learning and fun. Perfect for young nature lovers! #OutdoorEducation #PreschoolActivities
Do you know what you can always count on? Playdough. Kids a little cranky? Playdough. Rain cancelled your plans? Playdough. Friends pop over unexpectedly? Playdough. I tell you playdough activities will never let you down. We love playdough so much, I thought I would share with you some of our favourite playdough activities today. Some
The other day, one of my students brought in two bird nests that her family had found on their property. She proudly shared them during our morning meeting and I set them out as a provocation to see i
Make these delicate and simple bird's nests with your kids using old magazines or catalogs, a bowl, and some glue. Gorgeous for Easter or Springtime.
Free montessori cards looking at birds and their eggs.
4 Easy Spring crafts for a seasonal Bulletin Board display! Torn paper bird nests, paper plate birds, tape resist butterflies & watercolor flowers!
Make these delicate and simple bird's nests with your kids using old magazines or catalogs, a bowl, and some glue. Gorgeous for Easter or Springtime.
Long list of all the Montessori-inspired unit studies & holiday/seasonal posts at Living Montessori Now; perfect for multiple ages in the classroom or home.
Since we are investigating how bats and birds are different, the students thought it would be best if we had two sets of wonder charts at the Discovery Area. One for bat wonders, and one for bird wonders. As so often happens with inquiry in an emergent curriculum environment, the presence of one spark can ignite the interest of many! One afternoon, O. M. brought me a stick he found outside at lunch and told me he wanted to use it to create a bird nest. I asked him how he knew birds used sticks to make nests? He responded by telling me he saw sticks in the nests we had at the Discovery Area, and in some of the classroom books abut birds. Seeing that some students were already creating nests using plasticine, and W. E. and E. E. posted the wonder question, "How do birds make their nests?", I asked the class what they thought about O. M.'s idea of collecting materials to try and make nests like birds? The students loved the idea and so began our investigation. I brought in some wonderful books about nests and placed them at the Discovery Area. It wasn't long before pages were filled with post-it-notes that students felt were important in helping us learn about the types of materials birds used to create their nests. We ventured outside! "We need string, sticks, feathers, leaves, all that stuff for the birds nest (looking at the book)!" J. S. "We need to find moss." W. E. "I found bark!" O. M. "I found string for the birds to make a nest!" L. S. "I found something for the birds, it is like string!" A. F. "I think I found some seeds. They were on top of the leaves and I think birds can find them to build with." O. S. "I found string! Birds use string to make nests." M. O. Back in the classroom, we decided to sort the material. "I found lots of little tiny sticks and rocks. I think birds use them to make their nests." J. K. "I gathered lots of sticks and put them in the bucket." R. S. "I got some string to make a nest." L. S. "I found rocks, leaves, and bark so the nest is warm." O. M. "I saw some sticks in the book, then I went and grabbed them." J. S. "I found mud, and I found leaves and bark so the nest stays in the tree and doesn't fall." A. F. "I found one tin foil and I found lots of sticks. I'll try to make a nest." M. S. "I picked a stick cause I want to make a nest." B. P. The next day, I placed the provocation out for students to explore and investigate nest making with the materials they collected. To further support their learning, I showed them parts of a video I found of a Robin building her nest. It was interesting to listen to conversations and observe students as they created their nests. They experimented with the best way to make their nest like a bowl. Some made a flat round shape and lifted the sides, others rolled and made a sphere, then used their thumbs to make the center hollow. When they added different materials, they used some of the books to help them figure out which nest they wanted to create. "My nest is the shape of a circle." H. S. "The birds spin around in the nest and makes the shape of a circle!" W. E. "The nest is made of feathers." C. C. "My nest is shaped like an egg, an oval." O. S.
I updated this post HERE with freebies and more bird ideas! Enjoy! Thank you for stopping by!
After a nice Spring Break, we gathered to continue our Music Inquiry. The kids continued to explore creating sounds in different ways. We loved how they would bring us random objects from both inside and outside to show us how hey could create sounds, such as rubbing a stick through a handful of grass or striking a stick against a log and other surfaces, noticing that different surfaces created different sounds. Some also used their artistic talents to create instruments using paper! They loved how they could feel the vibrations when striking the chimes, reinforcing the fact that sound is caused by vibrations. The children choose a way to make sound to become an expert in. Each group organized information by creating a circle chart to show different instruments that create sound in the way they were exploring. I forgot to take photos of the finished charts. I will try to add them to this post on Monday. Each expert group chose what instrument their group would make. The shaking experts decided to create rain sticks to show that you can create sounds by shaking. The striking experts wanted to create cymbals to show that you can make sound by striking. The blowing experts created harmonicas to show that you can make sounds by blowing. They had to measure he straws to create different lengths to show different pitches. The strumming/plucking experts are still working on creating guitars to show that you can strum and pluck to create sounds. They used different sized rubber bands to show the different pitches. We are in need of paper towel tubes for them to finish! If any of you parents have any, please send them in. The rubbing experts will be creating their instruments on Monday. They will glue sandpaper to blocks (and of coarse paint them so they are beautiful) to show that you can make sound by rubbing. They will have different grades of sandpaper to show different pitches. As a whole class, we created kazoos! They loved how they could feel the vibrations when when they used them! We practiced creating different pitches with them. It took some strong finger muscles to work the rubber bands and thread ribbon through them to decorate them. We also created maracas by taping 2 spoons around a plastic egg filled with rice, beans, or sand. Each created a different pitch. We had kids model a rythym with them and we all echoed their rhythms. Now that they have investigated, the next steps are for each group to present to the rest of the class about their way of creating sound. We then need to take the information they have learned through exploring and investigating and work on answering our driving question: How can we create an area for kids at our school to explore sound? That journey will be shown in next weeks post. Meanwhile, here are a couple other things going on in our class! In Writer's Workshop, we are discovering that we are all amazing poets! They are being exposed to all kinds of poetry and working on their own poetry treasuries. When we are done, you parents will be invited to a poetry tea so we can share our amazing poems with you! I found these beautiful flowers and couldn't resist sharing their beauty with the class. They are displayed for them to take a closer look and paint. One of our friends brought in a nest with egg shells in it! We set it out for the kids to explore and built this provacation around it to invite further exploration for those who are interested. Mrs. Garrabrant brought us grocery bags to decorate for Kroger for earth day. They will use these bags for their customers groceries! I found some girls trying to plant some dead trimmings from our butterfly bush in our garden plot. I then knew it was time to dig out our gardening tools! The kids were very excited! They weeded, took out the sticks and turned the soil for us. I noticed that we need more soil so I will be looking for resources that could help us get some! They are very interested in planting something, but we haven't decided what yet. Stay tuned to see what will happen next!
Hundreds of resources for a Montessori-inspired bird unit for multiple ages; perfect for classroom or home!
Children learn nest building using loose parts and straw bales to better understand the design and purpose of nests.
I work really hard to listen and observe the kids to see what they are interested in. I like to use their interests to guide the curriculum. I have found that when the curriculum stems from their interests, they naturally use the literacy, math, and 21st century skills needed as they explore and investigate. From the beginning of this year, the kids had been showing an interest in bird nests. Every time we went out on the playground, they were making nests. They also started gathering every stick we could find in order to build a more sturdy nest in our classroom since the one on the playground disappeared every day. Since we were still building a learning community in our room, I observed and put this on the back burner to revisit later, hoping the interest would hold. It did!! I put out an invitation to look closer and see what they noticed about the nests before we started building one. I also put out an invitation to create nests in our clay area. I predicted that maybe our nest inquiry would lead into an interest in birds so I also set out an invitation to learn more about birds to see what would happen. A few kids were interested and enjoyed it and learned from it, but not a majority of the kids. Birds would not be a large scale inquiry. I decided to stick with nests and see where it would take us. As we started a See/Think/Wonder Chart about nests, a picture of a bald eagle on its nest was noticed on our promethium board. All of a sudden, all of their questions and wonders were centered around these Bald Eagles. You could feel their excitement as we discussed and wondered about these amazing birds of prey! I asked if they wanted to explore these eagles further and they were very excited about the prospect! We watched many videos and live cams showing us eagles. The kids never tired of watching these! Based on their wonders, we created four expert teams. The Nest Experts (for those who were originally into the nest making), The Eagle Experts, The Eagle Family Experts, and The Eagle Prey Experts. I put out paints and clay in our Art Studio Area that would inspire them to use art to show what they notice about eagles. I loved how many tried to show that they noticed the curved beak of the eagle! The Eagle Experts learned that an eagle can get up to 43 inches high and have a 7 1/2 foot wing span! They measured out the width and height of the eagle and I drew it out for them. These birds can be massive! They were amazed at how big they were! They enjoyed seeing how much bigger the eagles wing spans were compared to them! They then looked closer at the feather colors and used ripped paper to create the long feathers of the wings and short feathers on its belly. They learned that they have curved beaks and sharp talons to hunt their prey with and learned the terms predator/prey and what they mean. The nest experts used the sticks we had been collecting and started out by throwing the sticks everywhere on a little branch I provided for them. They soon realized this wasn't going to work as all the sticks started falling off. I loved listening to them talk about it and problem solve. I heard terms and phrased such as "team" and "We won't give up!" They asked to look up a picture on my iPad. I had them look closely at an eagle nest to see what they noticed. They noticed the sticks went around the outside in a circle-like way and there was grass in the middle to make it soft. They then watched a video on the computer of an eagle making a nest. They noticed that she tried many places to put that one stick before she decided on where it would stay. When they went back to the nest, they were very careful on their placement of sticks! It was very hard and I still had to wire some pieces together to keep it from falling apart. This team learned how amazing it is that birds can make such strong nests with just two feet and a beak! They came to the conclusion that humans are not as good as birds when it comes to making a good sturdy nest, but we did our best and it turned out great, though fragile! They created a "Stop! Do not touch" sign. The Eagle Family Experts wanted to show what a typical eagle family looked like. They learned that the mom eagle is bigger than the dad eagle and that the mom have one to three eggs at a time. Both help keep the eggs warm and take care of/feed the babies. Two friends chose white clay to make an egg. One put a crack in it as though it were getting ready to hatch. After studying the colors on the birds, they used paper tubes to create the eagle family. They made sure the mother was bigger and that her and the father were brown with white heads and yellow beaks. The babies were fluffy gray with black beaks. They prey team used the computer and researched the type of animals that Eagles hunted and decided to use clay to show some examples. We created a web map in our room to organize our wonders and what we learned. Here are the finished displays to show what we had learned during our inquiry! The kids labeled and added the facts that we learned around our large eagle. It was amazing to see where the students took this! It was entirely based on their interests and changed with them! It took a little while to develop into a large scale inquiry. Not all of their interests go that far, and that is okay. This easily could have been a small scale nest inquiry done by a small group! I just had to listen to them, pay attention, and be willing to set out opportunities for them to explore further based on what I observed! So far, I have noticed two other very heavy interests shared by the class as a majority. Superheroes, and creating sounds and rhythm in different ways. I have noticed these interests since the beginning of the year and those interests continue to be strong, so while many other small scale inquiries may be going on, after the holidays, we may start one of these! I can't wait to see where the kids will take those interests! Here are some other things going on in our room! In math we are learning about making numbers up to ten in different ways to develop their number sense. They are also working hard to be able to write their numbers to 20. Some are even trying to get to 100! It took this friend 3 white boards to get to 80! Her goal is 100! A lot is going on literacy as kids are getting very excited about how much they have learned to read and write! In writing all of the kids are working on different writing skills from drawing a story to letter/sound correspondence to spaces and punctuation! In reading we are focusing on learning as many sight words as we can and noticing blends in words. In our science area, the kids have expressed a new interest in potions. I set up their first potion experiment for them. This station will continue through the holidays. In engineering, the blocks have been largely ignored in favor of K'nex! After reading the book "The Most Magnificent Thing," the kids have enjoyed creating their own magnificent things and showing the class what they do and how they work! Lots of creative and critical thinking are going on here! Stay tuned to see what will happen next in our classroom! You can never tell what it will be!
We always enjoy learning about birds! From eggs, to feathers, to nests, there is a lot to explore. One of our readers, Dagmar Brumovska shared this fantastic bird egg activity with us… including a free printable! You can find this printable in Dagmar’s brand new TpT store HERE. (While Dagmar’s egg printable makes a fun […]
Inquiry is a huge focus in FDK and it aligns well with my view that we should learn the student's interests and differentiate instruction to engage the students using their interests. My teaching partner (ECE) is fantastic at picking up on these interests and she noticed that a lot of students were asking questions about a broken tree in our kindergarten pen. She also mentioned how some were inquiring about the leaves changing colour so we decided to tie that into our inquiry as well. First, we started with brainstorming to the question "What might have happend to our tree outside?" and recorded their ideas. Then we did a K-W-L chart. We compleated the "know" one day and the "wonder" on the next day. My teaching partner wrote the knows and wonders on a piece of paper as they shared and I transfered them onto our chart after school. I loved this idea! This way you could scribble quickly and write the ideas more legibally after school and you can look back and combine similar ideas to save on space! Then we read some books on trees. Here are the books we read. We also had these centres out that tied in with our inquiry. At this centre students were invited to look at the fall vegetables and tree bark from the tree in our Kindergarten pen and were encouraged to use describing words such as "bumpy", "rough", "smooth" etc. At this centre students were encouraged to write a fall picture and label it with the fall words. And at this centre the students used fake leaves and did "leaf rubbings" with crayons. Then they wrote a sentence to describe their picture. My ECE worked with some students on the question "What lives in trees?" one day. They turned out so cute! We also talked about and recreated trees in different seasons. For spring they used small foam shape stickers to represent buds. For summer they used green tissue paper to represent the leaves. For fall they used red, yellow, orange and green foam shapes to represent the leaves. For winter they used torn up cotton balls to represent the snow! And here is our wonder board all filled up with all of the amazing work that we have been doing! Here it is again a couple days later.. it just keeps growing! At the end we filled in what we now know about trees. I have a bunch of smarties! Look at what they came up with! These are just some of the activities we did. Have you ever done a tree inquiry before? Please let me know if you have any fun ideas that you recommend!
Since we are investigating how bats and birds are different, the students thought it would be best if we had two sets of wonder charts at the Discovery Area. One for bat wonders, and one for bird wonders. As so often happens with inquiry in an emergent curriculum environment, the presence of one spark can ignite the interest of many! One afternoon, O. M. brought me a stick he found outside at lunch and told me he wanted to use it to create a bird nest. I asked him how he knew birds used sticks to make nests? He responded by telling me he saw sticks in the nests we had at the Discovery Area, and in some of the classroom books abut birds. Seeing that some students were already creating nests using plasticine, and W. E. and E. E. posted the wonder question, "How do birds make their nests?", I asked the class what they thought about O. M.'s idea of collecting materials to try and make nests like birds? The students loved the idea and so began our investigation. I brought in some wonderful books about nests and placed them at the Discovery Area. It wasn't long before pages were filled with post-it-notes that students felt were important in helping us learn about the types of materials birds used to create their nests. We ventured outside! "We need string, sticks, feathers, leaves, all that stuff for the birds nest (looking at the book)!" J. S. "We need to find moss." W. E. "I found bark!" O. M. "I found string for the birds to make a nest!" L. S. "I found something for the birds, it is like string!" A. F. "I think I found some seeds. They were on top of the leaves and I think birds can find them to build with." O. S. "I found string! Birds use string to make nests." M. O. Back in the classroom, we decided to sort the material. "I found lots of little tiny sticks and rocks. I think birds use them to make their nests." J. K. "I gathered lots of sticks and put them in the bucket." R. S. "I got some string to make a nest." L. S. "I found rocks, leaves, and bark so the nest is warm." O. M. "I saw some sticks in the book, then I went and grabbed them." J. S. "I found mud, and I found leaves and bark so the nest stays in the tree and doesn't fall." A. F. "I found one tin foil and I found lots of sticks. I'll try to make a nest." M. S. "I picked a stick cause I want to make a nest." B. P. The next day, I placed the provocation out for students to explore and investigate nest making with the materials they collected. To further support their learning, I showed them parts of a video I found of a Robin building her nest. It was interesting to listen to conversations and observe students as they created their nests. They experimented with the best way to make their nest like a bowl. Some made a flat round shape and lifted the sides, others rolled and made a sphere, then used their thumbs to make the center hollow. When they added different materials, they used some of the books to help them figure out which nest they wanted to create. "My nest is the shape of a circle." H. S. "The birds spin around in the nest and makes the shape of a circle!" W. E. "The nest is made of feathers." C. C. "My nest is shaped like an egg, an oval." O. S.
Our early learners showed interest in bird’s nests. The children had been building birds nests in the sand outside and we thought we’d bring that interest indoors for them to explore fu…
Last week one of our students found a small nest on her way to school. The exploration of the nest during our sharing circle produced a lot of wonderment from the students: E.A.: I wonder what kind…
I work really hard to listen and observe the kids to see what they are interested in. I like to use their interests to guide the curriculum. I have found that when the curriculum stems from their interests, they naturally use the literacy, math, and 21st century skills needed as they explore and investigate. From the beginning of this year, the kids had been showing an interest in bird nests. Every time we went out on the playground, they were making nests. They also started gathering every stick we could find in order to build a more sturdy nest in our classroom since the one on the playground disappeared every day. Since we were still building a learning community in our room, I observed and put this on the back burner to revisit later, hoping the interest would hold. It did!! I put out an invitation to look closer and see what they noticed about the nests before we started building one. I also put out an invitation to create nests in our clay area. I predicted that maybe our nest inquiry would lead into an interest in birds so I also set out an invitation to learn more about birds to see what would happen. A few kids were interested and enjoyed it and learned from it, but not a majority of the kids. Birds would not be a large scale inquiry. I decided to stick with nests and see where it would take us. As we started a See/Think/Wonder Chart about nests, a picture of a bald eagle on its nest was noticed on our promethium board. All of a sudden, all of their questions and wonders were centered around these Bald Eagles. You could feel their excitement as we discussed and wondered about these amazing birds of prey! I asked if they wanted to explore these eagles further and they were very excited about the prospect! We watched many videos and live cams showing us eagles. The kids never tired of watching these! Based on their wonders, we created four expert teams. The Nest Experts (for those who were originally into the nest making), The Eagle Experts, The Eagle Family Experts, and The Eagle Prey Experts. I put out paints and clay in our Art Studio Area that would inspire them to use art to show what they notice about eagles. I loved how many tried to show that they noticed the curved beak of the eagle! The Eagle Experts learned that an eagle can get up to 43 inches high and have a 7 1/2 foot wing span! They measured out the width and height of the eagle and I drew it out for them. These birds can be massive! They were amazed at how big they were! They enjoyed seeing how much bigger the eagles wing spans were compared to them! They then looked closer at the feather colors and used ripped paper to create the long feathers of the wings and short feathers on its belly. They learned that they have curved beaks and sharp talons to hunt their prey with and learned the terms predator/prey and what they mean. The nest experts used the sticks we had been collecting and started out by throwing the sticks everywhere on a little branch I provided for them. They soon realized this wasn't going to work as all the sticks started falling off. I loved listening to them talk about it and problem solve. I heard terms and phrased such as "team" and "We won't give up!" They asked to look up a picture on my iPad. I had them look closely at an eagle nest to see what they noticed. They noticed the sticks went around the outside in a circle-like way and there was grass in the middle to make it soft. They then watched a video on the computer of an eagle making a nest. They noticed that she tried many places to put that one stick before she decided on where it would stay. When they went back to the nest, they were very careful on their placement of sticks! It was very hard and I still had to wire some pieces together to keep it from falling apart. This team learned how amazing it is that birds can make such strong nests with just two feet and a beak! They came to the conclusion that humans are not as good as birds when it comes to making a good sturdy nest, but we did our best and it turned out great, though fragile! They created a "Stop! Do not touch" sign. The Eagle Family Experts wanted to show what a typical eagle family looked like. They learned that the mom eagle is bigger than the dad eagle and that the mom have one to three eggs at a time. Both help keep the eggs warm and take care of/feed the babies. Two friends chose white clay to make an egg. One put a crack in it as though it were getting ready to hatch. After studying the colors on the birds, they used paper tubes to create the eagle family. They made sure the mother was bigger and that her and the father were brown with white heads and yellow beaks. The babies were fluffy gray with black beaks. They prey team used the computer and researched the type of animals that Eagles hunted and decided to use clay to show some examples. We created a web map in our room to organize our wonders and what we learned. Here are the finished displays to show what we had learned during our inquiry! The kids labeled and added the facts that we learned around our large eagle. It was amazing to see where the students took this! It was entirely based on their interests and changed with them! It took a little while to develop into a large scale inquiry. Not all of their interests go that far, and that is okay. This easily could have been a small scale nest inquiry done by a small group! I just had to listen to them, pay attention, and be willing to set out opportunities for them to explore further based on what I observed! So far, I have noticed two other very heavy interests shared by the class as a majority. Superheroes, and creating sounds and rhythm in different ways. I have noticed these interests since the beginning of the year and those interests continue to be strong, so while many other small scale inquiries may be going on, after the holidays, we may start one of these! I can't wait to see where the kids will take those interests! Here are some other things going on in our room! In math we are learning about making numbers up to ten in different ways to develop their number sense. They are also working hard to be able to write their numbers to 20. Some are even trying to get to 100! It took this friend 3 white boards to get to 80! Her goal is 100! A lot is going on literacy as kids are getting very excited about how much they have learned to read and write! In writing all of the kids are working on different writing skills from drawing a story to letter/sound correspondence to spaces and punctuation! In reading we are focusing on learning as many sight words as we can and noticing blends in words. In our science area, the kids have expressed a new interest in potions. I set up their first potion experiment for them. This station will continue through the holidays. In engineering, the blocks have been largely ignored in favor of K'nex! After reading the book "The Most Magnificent Thing," the kids have enjoyed creating their own magnificent things and showing the class what they do and how they work! Lots of creative and critical thinking are going on here! Stay tuned to see what will happen next in our classroom! You can never tell what it will be!
How many questions do you get asked in a day? My count right now has to be close to 100. Inquisitive, curious kids are fabulous - though, truth be told, exhausting. While I have been known to respond with the day-dreamy "yep" in the car after responding to 38 questions about clouds, I really do
Nature study free printable Bird Book - enjoy a bird-watching unit study with this 8-page notebooking activity using bird cards and mini-book templates.
Learn about 2D shapes and making new things with shapes as you create bird art with preschoolers and kindergarteners for your bird theme.
Here You'll find The Best Bird Activities for Preschoolers, All the best ideas for a Preschool Bird Theme with Lesson Plans, Hands on activities, Homemade Bird Feeders and Bird Science Activities for Preschoolers, Bird Crafts and Bird Activities for kids
Head outdoors for a bird scavenger hunt with this free printable tally sheet Great for preschool and elementary kids!
Print out this free printable bird book and record all your backyard and neighborhood birds next time you’re on a walk or birdwatching! It’s designed for younger children (preschool, kindergarten, and first grade) and provides space for illustrations and details for each bird. Follow our Outdoor Play and Learning Pinterest board! Do your kids …
In this post, Nicole shares some of her favorite bird-themed activities with you. These are simple activities, appropriate for preschoolers, although many would easily supplement a more in-depth early elementary study of birds.
Project/Inquiry Based Learning has been a passion of mine ever since I discovered it about 5 years ago. Since then, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and transformed the way I teach from a typical Thematic Based style through baby steps taken each year and with the help of an amazing on-line community of teachers with the same passion (you all know who you are!). My first baby step was taking themes and science/social studies standards and making them more student lead and project based. I got rid of the two week time limit each theme had in the past and allowed more time for students to dig deeper. I found that students would take my broad theme (oceans) and desire to dig deeper into more specific parts of the theme (sharks, jellyfish, ect.). As time went on, I was able to take the biggest step and totally let go of my themes and allowed the children's interests drive my instruction, incorporating the standards through those interests. I am blessed enough to also teach in a district that does not mandate the curriculum I use. Curriculum programs are purchased to use as tools for our toolbox but not required. Us teachers are trusted and encouraged by our superintendent to write our own curriculum as long as the standards are met. My building principle also has that kind of faith in us as professionals! They know that when it comes to children learning what they need to learn, we are the experts! Project/Inquiry Based Learning is highly encouraged in all grades Pre-K through 12. Some wonder how I plan for this style of teaching and how it flows. Here are some of the tools that I use. Once I notice an interest from the students (usually found out through experiences set up for them to explore during play) , I find out what their knowledge and misconceptions are about the subject. Kind of like a KWL chart! I list all that they know about the subject we will dive into. Then I ask what they wonder. I list all of their questions. NOW I can plan! I take their wonderings and create a web map showing the different directions they want to take the inquiry and possible experiences that will help them find answers to their wonderings. I got this web map from the amazing Joanne Babalis and her amazing blog http://myclassroomtransformation.blogspot.com. On the back I have all of the Literacy and Math Standards listed so that I can highlight the ones we will focus on through the inquiry and project. I add any Science and Social Studies Standards to the bottom of the web map. Here is the link to the web map if you would like it: Web Organizer Here is the link to the Common Core Standards Sheet for Kindergarten Language and Math: Kindergarten CC Standards Once I organize my thoughts, I create my inquiry plan using a template I created based on one I found from a Texas school district. It was so long ago I have no memory of which district but if I find out I will add them to give them credit. Their form was 3 pages long. I tweaked it to fit it all on one page. I use this to show the objectives and vocabulary, plan the investigations and materials I will need, show how they will organize the data about what they have learned, possible projects that could result from the inquiry and how we will present the project to the community. Here is the link to this inquiry planner if you would like to download it: Inquiry/Project Planner The next step is to start the investigation phase. In early childhood I set out experiences for them to explore and document what they notice. We also do whole group and small group investigations through books, videos and hands-on experiences. As we answer questions, we add the answers to our wonder chart to show our new learning. We organize this data in a web map format for all to see. The start of an inquiry wall. Information is added to it as we learn. Once we have investigated we use organizational maps to show what we learn. In kindergarten it usually consists of web maps, circle maps, tree charts (can/have/are maps), and brace maps (to show part to whole). We will chose one or two to organize our data. The next step is the project. We take what we learn and create something to show it! The projects can be individual, small group, or whole group. Some examples of projects in our room have been turning an area of our room into an ocean, forest and sky to show how animals adapt in the winter. The kids signed up to be on the migration team, adaption team or hibernation team. They each became experts on their part during the investigation and worked on their part of the project. A cave, forest, sky and ocean were created to show what animals do in the winter. Animals were created, labeled and added to the habitats. A group interested in map making and migration created this map showing migration patterns of monarchs, geese and grey whales. Another project was our The Sound Exploration Area created for our school. They saw a need (an area to explore sound) investigated different ways of creating sound, organized the data and designed a Sound Exploration Area! An area for everyone in our school to explore sound which is in our science standards. They have also turned the inside of our room into a great hall and medeival kitchen and the outside of our room into a castle wall complete with moat and drawbridge after investigating castles! The outside of our castle. A map created by a group interested in maps and where different castles were found in the world. A big book created by a small group about who lived in castles. A small group project during our castle inquiry. They have created murals and big books to show their learning also. A mural planned and created by Kindergartners. The last step is the presentation to show what they had learned. The kids LOVE this part and I've never had a child refuse to present! They are so confident of what they have learned and proud of what they have done that they cannot wait to share it! I am always so impress with their speaking and listening skills during these presentations! Sometimes small groups go to other classrooms and present what they learned, sometimes we invite parents or other classes to our room to see our presentation, and sometimes we create a video to share with others. They create maps, big books, and, get to show off the projects created at this time! Showing what they have learned through these projects gives the projects an even bigger sense of purpose! They can't wait to show others what they have learned and done! Presenting different weapons used during medieval times. I have never had so much fun teaching in my 22 years as I have he past four years! I could never go back to the way I had done it I the past. The benefits of this way of teaching are not only meeting the standards (the old way did that too) but the 21st Century Skills they are forced to develope when they learn in this type of environment. When inquiring, investigating and creating within thier own interest, they are motivated to collaborate, problem solve, handle frustration, persist if things don't work the first time, and learn from their mistakes. They have to use critical thinking skills and develope research skills. When kids develop these skills, they can learn ANYTHING! My new passion that I am learning to incorporate in my classroom is Playbased Learning! I have been amazed by the learning taking place in this way also....but that's another post! SaveSave
There’s a Robin’s nest that we often pass on our walks and today the babies were hatched. I realized that the kids didn’t know that eggs hatch into baby birds so I created this L…
LitLinks and Patricia Newman welcome guest blogger Jennifer Ward - Birds + Literacy = STEM Splendor - helping children appreciate birds
Watch for birds outside your window use tally marks to keep track of how many you have seen. Robin in the Rain Unit Study
