Holding little lives

Last week, Hamish brought in a Wooly Bear caterpillar that he and his brother found at home. He was very proud and protective of his little charge. He and the other children understood that they were holding little lives in their hands, showing empathy and care.

The teachers took out our glass tank so the children could observe the little guy more clearly, but several children noted that he needed more than just a stick to crawl on.

Hunter and Adam went to our building baskets and added some more logs to the caterpillar "playground". They also included some jewels and shells from the sand box to fancy it up a bit.

At recess, the children in the Bug Inquiry group took out some bug catchers and added a few grasshoppers and crickets to our enclosure.

Already the writing abilities of our children are becoming apparent. Several children made pictures of their observations and with some help added words to clarify their meaning.




We have a family of house flies in our classroom and our Bug group is trying to catch them for us. Their first plan was for this trap:

"The flies will think the yellow tape is a lemon to eat and when they land on it we will be quick and trap it with the pencil cup!"

After giving this some experimentation time (with limited success) the boys tried to just chase the flies with bug catchers in hand. Since science is all about trying ideas and learning from failures, we can assume we have a strong group of scientists in our class!

We reflected on the results and realized we needed more research. Hunter brought a juice bottle in and we wondered how to turn it into a trap. We asked google and came up with this:



The children baited it with meat scraps from their lunches and found a hiding place to see if the flies would visit.

It's wonderful seeing a group of children already wondering and exploring their world with such enthusiasm. As the year progresses, they will develop into inquisitive scientists.