A Rhino knocked the tree down!

The day after we returned back to school from our field trip, we had so much to talk about and see!

The teachers got all the pictures developed from our field trip...

We all gathered around the table to talk about what we saw from the pictures...

We had a lot to share! :o)

" I liked seeing the worms!"

"I saw an ant stump that was sharp!"

                           "I found a caterpillar with my mom!"      " I like being with my friends!"

" It's all my friends!"

 After sharing all our thoughts about that day, we picked a picture and described what we like most about our day at the Arboretum, Please check out our work displayed in the hallway!

One very interesting detail that caught the children's eyes was a tree that was on the ground. Bishop shouted to everyone, " A rhino knocked it over!"

So of course we thought this would be a great opportunity to do a science project when we came back to class...

The children were asked why the tree fell? They responded by telling me different things:

"Some one cut it." -Bishop

Some one ripped it.-Kylie

We discussed that dirt keeps the tree in the ground.

We asked the children what happens when it rains? "It gets muddy and turns soft."

This is when the children began understanding that when it rains the roots begin to get loose because the wet mud  is no longer strong enough to support the tree, and the wind blowing increases the chances of the tree falling.

Hendrix hollered, "The mud made it fall down in to the mud water!"

The children showed me how the tree gets knocked over by creating their own demonstrations!

"Watch how the wind knocks the tree over!"

"Wait wait, watch this!"

The children began drawing their illustrations of how the trees get knocked over from the muddy water.

"The wind blew hard and the tree fell down into the mud."

We tested out our theory by using some clay and trees we bought from the store. We covered our whole ground with mud (clay) and put in a few trees..and after a few days of it hardening we all tested it out to see if the tree would fall over with so much support and no water!

We were excited to see they were all still standing tall!

Stayed tuned to for our second part of the project where we will test our trees out in muddy water! =)

A Visit to the Arboretum!

As we began to pull out different maps to learn about landmass and legends, the children began to notice all the different animals on the map.

"Walruses live in Greenland? Did you see the beaver in Canada? Whoa! Look at that alligator in Mississippi!"

As the students continued to look at the maps, they realized that there are many animals that live in specific areas. We than discussed what a habitat is and how each animals needs a home and food.

We thought, “Wouldn’t it be perfect for the students to see this first hand?” We ventured to the Houston Arboretum: A place where trees and animals are protected for the purpose of studying animals in the natural setting. There the students were asked to make specific observations. They were asked to note anything they touched, smelled, heard, saw, and tasted. From these observations, the students were able to identify the animals and the habitats that they lived in!

The children were responsible for their own documentation and photography! 

(Our little scientists in the making!) ;0)

Here is a slide show of all the amazing pictures taken from our field trip! ;o)

Make a Free Flash Slideshow
As we returned back the children were so excited to talk about all the things we saw there! We took out our worksheets that we filled out at the Arboretum.  We wrote down and drew things we heard, saw, touched, and smelled.  We also wrote and drew about the signs we found that helped us know what animals lived there.  The children have been looking at the pictures from our trip to help them deepen our learning that took place there. 

The photos are helping us discuss and understand more about this habitat and the animals that live there.

" I see an Armadillo like on the field trip!"

We are now looking at more books and pictures to help us learn about the animals that live at the Arboretum.  So many ideas have stirred up after visiting the Arboretum! ......stay tuned for updates on our project work!

All Around The World!

We have started a project all about maps and animals because one of our students has shown an interest in learning about them.

We talked about maps and what we knew about them. He said, " Maps help you get to places you need to go. They help you get to Germany. I want to know where maps lead you to."

 

 

 So first we looked at a few maps. We asked Preston what he saw. He talked about some of the animals that were located on this particular map. Most importantly he said, he saw ice and wanted to know about it!

We saw that ice was covering Greenland.  Preston made a map of Greenland!

 

We moved on to talk about where we live. We went over fun facts about our country.  We talked about how our country is the United States of America.  From there our conversation went deeper and we started to talk about how we live in Sugar Land.  Sugar Land is in Texas, and Texas is in the United States of America.

 

We looked at the shapes of Texas so it could help us recreate our own drawing of it!  Preston wrote the word Texas and found Houston on the map.  We then focused on sounding out and spelling Houston.

After doing that, Preston said he would like to finish his picture.  He added the land and water around our state. We talked about the names of the other states, and the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The next day, the children found more maps and writing materials on the table.  Preston started working on his Greenland map again.  He wanted to show the ice and spell Greenland.  Some of the other children came over to look at Greenland and noticed the animals that live in that part of the world.  A beautiful conversation came about! 

The children talked about the Orcas that lived in the cold, icy, water.  They started talking about shrimp, fish, and lobster.  Conversations arose about many other animals like.....

penguins

salmon

grey whales

buffalo

whale sharks

We used the map to see what type of habitat the animals lived in.

Preston spent some time spelling Greenland on this map.  Then he said, "Oh, wait!  I need to make the ice with white."  He started to get out of his seat, but he looked back at his paper and said, "It already has white!"

So here we have a Map of Greenland with White Ice!

 

 After the map of Greenland was done, Preston said, he needed to show how to get from North America to Greenland.  He looked at this map and said, "I need to draw this!"

He grabbed all of the colors he saw and started to draw the map........

 

We used our fingers to show how to get from North America to Greenland.  Every time the children got to a blue part (that represented water) they "jumped their fingers" over to the next part of land and said "Jump!"  We talked about how the blue represented water, and asked if the people going to Greenland could just "jump" over to the next piece of land.
This got them thinking!!!!!
Some of the children said, "We could use a boat!"  Preston said, "Hey!  We could ride on a whale shark so that we don't bump into the ice!"  Good idea ;0)

 

The children started looking at more animals on the map and talking about where they live.  Sam saw an Indian in a forest and said, "Look!  The Indian lives in Greenland!" (since the forest was green)

This was a good opportunity to have Preston, who was learning about Greenland, tell Sam where Greenland actually was, and that Greenland is white and not green because there is snow in Greenland.

Ashton was very excited about the Orcas, so he continued looking at where the Orcas lived, and drew one.  He studied the fins and the body and drew this picture......

 

 

   Here are the orcas eyes, and his fin!

 

 Bishop wanted to find an elephant, but he had no luck ;0(  

He found the cow and said, "I am going to draw the cow!"

 His first picture of the cow had 10 legs!  We counted and wrote the numbers 1 - 10 for all of the legs.  We looked at the picture of the cow and counted 4 legs.  He redrew the picture on the right.

 During the time that the children helped each other write their numbers.  It was great to see them helping each other!

Next Bishop said, "Wait!  Do cows have tails?"  Preston looked at the picture and said, "Yes"!  More questions came about the cows ears, horns, environment, etc.  The children continued to study the map to answer their questions and draw what they were learning.

 

 Sam said, "I am going to draw the wolf, he lives in the forest!"  But when we took a closer look at the map, we saw that the wolf is actually where the ice is!  So Sam drew the wolf, and then started to make the snow.  He said, "I am going to make the snow all different colors!  It is going to be rainbow snow!"

How creative! ;0)

 

 

He then drew the Indian in the forest, and an octopus!

 

 

Grace wanted to draw the beaver, but said she didn't know how.  Preston came to the rescue!  He sat with her, and the two of them analyzed the picture of the beaver to help her draw this picture!  When they were done, they spelled and sounded out BEAVER!

Much more is coming from this project.  So far the children have taken it in the direction of environments, animals, and how to get to places.  Lets see where we go next!