"Let's do what scientists do! We'll study something, look at it up close, touch it, smell it, listen to it, and think... then write down what we've learned. We can record our ideas with words, pictures, or tracing."
This was our Small Group prompt on Tuesday. The children were each given a clipboard, pencil and sheet of paper. They could choose a magnifying glass, and from a variety of star fish, sea shells, and shark teeth from the basket.
Some things we learned during this activity is that only the swirly shells sound like the ocean. Flatter shells, starfish, and shark teeth do not.
We used a lot of descriptive language like: smooth, spiky, rough, tooth-like, sharp, spiral, striped, and so much more. The students were encouraged to write or draw these words.
We even learned where the starfish mouth was! Imagine eating from your belly button! Starfish have a mouth right in the center of their bodies. Tracing the starfish was challenging as well. All of the starfish that we used had five legs.
Here are some samples of the notes the children made.
Toddler "K" (age 2) "traced" her star fish by drawing circles around it. She made some squiggles which she indicated were the words "starfish." Ms. Harmony helped her write out the letters so another adult could read her words.
Friend "K" (age 5) traced her starfish and shark tooth independently. She also drew her representations of seashells and labeled her diagrams. She sounded out the words she wanted to write and wrote the letters herself. If she was uncertain about a sound, Ms. Harmony would help her identify the correct letters like, /sh/ and /oo/.
