This term during science atelier the children have been investigating the long term transformations of animals and plants as the experiment to further understand animal and plant adaptations. Through their experimentation, the children have become more aware of the scientific process as we outline and follow each step. We practiced vocabulary, both spoken and written, and became very excited when we noticed that the words 'adaptation,' 'experiment,' and 'hypothesis' all have four syllables!
On Tuesday, the children became birds and practiced using different types of bird beaks: hooks for birds of prey to rip into dough, plastic needles for fishing birds such as heron to gather beads in water, tweezers for gathering birds such as robins to collect string, eye droppers for birds such as hummingbirds to transfer water, and spoons and tongs for birds such as ducks to collect marbles in water. Each of these experiments gave the children to practice sorting, one-to-one ratio, and other mathematics skills. It also provided us with the opportunity to use the scientific process from start to finish and proved our hypothesis correct: bird beaks have adapted to help them eat!
Wednesday was a look into the adaptation of animal coloration. After studying a book and playing an eye spy game to find the camouflaged animals we studied three special cases of color adaptation in octopus, cuttle fish, and chameleons. The children were fascinated in camouflage and it led to an in depth conversation about predators and prey. As we were all so focused on our discussion and creating stories for the hidden creatures, we decided to continue the investigation by placing camouflaged animals on a canvas that has many different colors to hide them in.
Thursday was an exciting hands on day with insects. Insects have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have a lot of unique characteristics. With the classroom's Madagascar hissing cockroach and the Indian stick bug we were able to get up close and personal with some amazing adaptations. After our observations, each child drew a diagram of their own (an important part of science).
Friday left us with a look into seed adaptations... How do they travel? Why are there more of some than others? Why do we eat some? Why do some animals store them? Why does their size change? All questions we created an hypothesis for and then did some hands on investigation with tomato, artichoke, and wildflower seeds. The last of our time was used to cooperatively work on a puzzle. The children were able to practice their social and emotional skills and problem solve together as the puzzle came together to reveal a look at animals of the African plains and showed us a lot of the predator-prey-camouflage, that we have been talking about.
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