Every year in the spring, as a whole school project, each classroom watches metamorphosis as small caterpillars grow, form a chrysalis, and hopefully emerge as a butterfly. They live inside on the science table through this process, where children can watch for changes and document their observations. Then, when the butterflies emerge, children bring the butterflies out to the playground to set them free.
Patiently watching changes over time offers an important opportunity to think about growth and change in the cycles of living things, and reminds children of the changes they have made as they have grown from babies to older preschoolers as they think about their transitions to new school years, classrooms, or schools.
Mud offers children a joyful medium for play and creativity. In our mud kitchen children mix natural materials – soil, water, leaves, grass or stones – to create their recipes. They mix and measure, work together, create pretend play themes, explore the properties and science of the materials they are using to get just the right texture to realize their ideas. It’s great fun and rich learning!
Flower Project
After conversations and observations on previous days about the plants (tulips and peas) growing on the science table, we spent meeting time together closely observing our tulips in various stages of growth and decay. Then the teacher modeled one approach to documenting what we observed with fine black marker and watercolors, using ideas generated by the children.
After meeting, children did their own watercolors based on observations and this meeting conversation, and were asked to follow these steps in their documentation:
- Look carefully at the plants using the magnifiers. Feel the parts of the plants gently
- Use black markers to add lines and details
- Mix colors on the tray to finish work with watercolors
