The Butterfly Project

We are down to our last 3 weeks of preschool here and to close off the school year we decided to explore butterflies.  There are many different types of butterflies in the province of Alberta and I have already seen some Cabbage White and Common Wood Nymphs on my hikes around the city and out in the Rockies.

We ordered some caterpillars from a butterfly farm in Alberta and they came yesterday! Here they are in their little homes until they form their chrysalis.

The brown stuff on the bottom is their food.  The paper towel keeps the food from drying out and is the place where the caterpillar attaches the chrysalis. 

We explored the caterpillars together and the children each held a cup in their hands.  We talked together about what we know about caterpillars and then made some observations when we were holding the cups.

We said: "They have fur", "They have pokies, pokes!", "They have legs", "They are babies", "What are the spiderwebs?"  We discovered that some were already making their chrysalis in the cups.

In a few days we should be observing the caterpillars in their chrysalis.



Ivory Soap Sculptures

Today we had a lot of fun doing a science experiment!  We wanted to see what would happen if we put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave.  At group time the children suggested various ideas about what might happen to the soap. 

They suggested: it would melt, explode (but they would help clean the microwave), get hot, become bumpy, soggy, or get on fire right away.

We put it in for about 30 seconds and the soap began to puff up and bubble into crazy shapes.  The children said: "The soap exploded!", "It exploded like I said it would!", and "It exploded, it exploded!"

Many of our predictions were correct.  The soap DID heat up.  It DID melt.  It DID have bumps on it.

Some did not happen (thankfully).  The soap DIDN'T catch on fire right away, but we wondered if it would happen if we left it in a long time.  The child who made this prediction is also one who is still enjoying being a fire fighter.  

We put food colour in eyedroppers and painted the soap sculpture.

In September we did a project on colour mixing and this was a great way to apply what we discovered even in May.

The eye droppers are also great for strengthening fine motor skills. 

Tomorrow we are doing this with our 3 year olds as well.  It is a great inexpensive way to include sculpture opportunities within your classroom.  It is also an art experience that the children do together and it encourages cooperation.  Thanks to The Chocolate Muffin Tree blog for the idea!

This month we are trying something that our school has never done before: Individual Projects.  This may be familiar territory to some, but I have generally done one project per class at preschool.  I try to observe the greatest interest within the group or introduce something that may soon be a big life experience for the children, for example, The Tooth Project for 5 year olds.  I was doing some reading on project work that described how several projects could actually be occurring within a group at the same time and thought it would be an adventure to try this. 

Using literature to explore frogs. 

Today we observed that some have webbed feet and others 3 "fingers".  Also a trip to the neighbourhood pond is suggested.

The children picked the projects they wanted to explore. Two children were fascinated by the new penguin exhibit at our Calgary zoo and wanted to explore penguins.  They used a kid's website about penguins to identify the types of play penguins we had in our classroom.

We are also located in an area with many ponds and two children wanted to investigate frogs.  One boy is interested in houses, how they are built, what they look like, and who lives in them.  We have three big windows in our room and he was looking out them at the homes near our school.  He was counting and analyzing their colours and details.

 Another child loves flowers and how they grow.  Two children were intrigued by alligator books and again spend a lot of time at the zoo observing alligators.  And, one girl was observing clouds out the window and exploring them during free play. 

We used our classroom computer to answer our questions.

We thought:  What are our goals for these projects?  It is that they learn everything there is to know about frogs, clouds etc?  Or, is it to create an environment that encourages self-directed learning, critical thinking, and that the children are smart, creative, and have the ability to learn?  We believe that we are showing these children the following:

1.  We hear what you have to say and what you think about
2.  We recognize your unique and individual interests
3.  We will support you in your quest for discovery
4.  You are smart, you can do it!
5.  To discover you need to ask questions and we will help you find ways to answer those
6.  Grow your brain!

Enjoy the journey of these projects.