Snails in the Classroom

Alongside exploring the live snails found outside, we've also been doing some different snail activities to learn more about them.

We'll see if and how this interest continues to evolve, but here are a few of our favorites so far:

Shells and Playdough

I set out some sea snail shells for them to explore with playdough. One thing we've learned about snails is that there are different kinds- sea, freshwater, and land snails. Some students tried to make snails using the dough, while others just created using the shells.

Rolled Paper Snails

One misconception the children had about snails was the fact that they cannot leave their shells. Several students thought that snails left their shells to become slugs and look for new shells. We explored this idea in a few ways with questions like, "Why are some shells bigger than other shells? Do shells grow?" and thought about other animals that have shells. With some conversations and research we learned that the shells grow with the snails, and that snails need to stay in their shells to survive. We created these rolled-up paper shells as one hands-on way to visualize that the shell is part of the snail's body.

 We also learned that snails have 4 tentacles, and some students chose to show that in the snails they made.

Collecting "Snail Eggs"

We had water beads out in the sensory table, and several children pointed out that they looked like snail eggs! This was not intentional on my part, and I loved watching them make that connection on their own. After that a couple children started collecting only the white water beads because they looked like snail eggs.

Snail Slime Painting

This was a super messy, but favorite activity. Some kids who never come to the art table couldn't resist trying out the snail slime paint! We mixed up a batch of slime to a consistency that would work for painting and added some food coloring. 

The batch in the morning class was extra stretchy, and by the afternoon class it was more gooey. The students were free to use pipe cleaner snails, sticks, or their fingers to explore the slime. It was a great sensory art process, and dried into smooth, colorful blobs. :) 

Writing Journals

I always love to see how students express their interests and learning in their writing journals. Many students have chosen snails or snail habitats as a topic for the journals recently. 

The Wonder of Snails

We get a lot of snails in my yard. And all summer long I had been cursing those little, slimy creatures because they love to eat the vegetables in my garden. But I've found a new appreciation for them since school started. The kids started finding snails outside on the very first day of school, and their interest has only continued to grow since then.

Whenever the children found a snail, they would usually move it to the porch to take a closer look.

Often they would bring water over to it, or other natural materials like grass or leaves...or a stray seashell.

One day, the morning class found a group of snails by the sandbox, and we used the empty water table to observe them. Then they proceeded to bring sand and water over to the table for the snails.

The afternoon class noticed the table, with only a few snails left, and decided to create a new home for them, saying, "they'll love it so much, they'll never want to leave!" They gathered materials from the yard, including some discarded produce as "snail snacks."

After that day when all the students became engaged in one way or another with the snails, I decided to start adding some snail exploration activities into our day to support their interest. I started off with a simple shelf of materials,

that later evolved into an entire table.

In the middle of the table, you can see the little snail habitat the students helped to create to observe one pet snail in the classroom.

 Then we let the little guy go free.

After reading that snails like damp and cool places, to avoid drying out in the sun, the children also set out to create a shady habitat for them outside. We built it near the sandbox, since they found a lot of snails in that area before.

It started out small, and continued to grow and evolve as the days went by.

And any time a snail was found, it was usually placed right into the habitat.

Some children still check to see if they can find snails there right when they go outside.
And some children have become pretty attached to these little friends.  :)

These snails are probably getting more attention and excitement than they ever wanted...

More on our snail activities in the classroom coming up next!

Ladybug Learning

Our ladybug larvae kept growing and growing this week, and some are getting in position to pupate- which means we should have fully-formed ladybugs by next week!

So we've been getting ready with some different ladybug activities.

Ladybug Spots

We've used ladybug spots in our art and in math. 

Ladybug Books

We've read some fun ladybug books, including Yoo-Hoo Ladybug, The Grouchy Ladybug, and A Ladybug's Life.

Yoo-Hoo Ladybug was great for a more interactive reading. Each student had a turn to use the magnifying glass to find the hidden ladybug on the page.

Ladybug Journals

And of course we've been spending a lot of time observing the growth of our ladybug larvae and we've been writing about our observations in our ladybug books or journals.

We're excited to see how they change next week!

Nest Building

We are exploring living things that we might find in the garden this month, and so besides insects and plants, one of our other focus topics is birds. We first started talking about birds and eggs around Easter time, so we've already been building up some background knowledge.

This was our egg/chick exploration table back in March.

  

But today we focused specifically on nests. We read a new favorite book: Mama Built a Little Nest

The book showed us that there are lots of different ways that birds build nests, and that they typically use materials common to their environment. We even read about one bird that uses only their saliva to build a nest! So with a "there's no wrong way to build a nest" mentality, we decided to give nest building a try. I provided different materials found in either our preschool environment or the yard.

I also used this time to share a real, abandoned bird's nest that I found in my yard this winter. It was fascinating to observe the materials used in the nest and how it was tightly woven together to form it's circular shape.

There was a lot of great engineering, fine motor, and problem solving work going on as everyone tried different ways of building a nest.

We discovered that birds have a pretty tricky job! One kid said, "Nests are a little complicated..." It's amazing what birds can do with just their beaks and feet!

Wake Up, Bears! It's Spring!

Our bears have been sleeping all winter long, and we have been counting down the weeks to know when to wake them up.

Although we had been noticing signs of spring, we've also had some unpredictable weather around here- as is often the case this time of year in Utah. On the day we planned to wake them up, we had another snowstorm and decided it might be too cold for the bears. So we waited just one more day and decided that the bears were ready, even if our weather was still a bit chilly.

We made a checklist of things that the bears might like to do on their first day of Spring. The list included things like...eat, go to the bathroom, read a story, see signs of spring outside, and exercise.

The kids seemed to love having an extra buddy to play with throughout the day, and it was cute to see how the bears were included.

We decided it would also be good to prepare them for the new season, and so we taught them about spring using some of our informational books.

We also danced with the bears during music time, to help them exercise, and drew a picture of them for our journals.