Exploring Metamorphosis!

Spring is finally here! The weather was beautiful this week and we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the warmer weather and the sun! This week was especially busy because we had not one, but two picture days and I just have to give a shout out to Hayward Photography that did an outstanding job with the kiddos! I cannot wait to see the pictures when they arrive in a few weeks!

Our pond life curriculum continued with an introduction to the frog and a glimpse at their interesting life cycle.  The children were introduced to the very scientific word, "metamorphosis" and we discussed their fascinating journey from egg (aka "frogspawn" which the children loved to say!) to tadpole to froglet to frog!  In addition, the children learned about a frog's body parts, sequenced the frog metamorphosis using replicas of the stages and we read lots of frog book including factual books and silly books like the "Froggy" series by Jonathan London and the "Frog and Toad" series by Arnold Lobel.  

On Friday, we talked about the many different types of frogs and compared the differences and similarities between frogs and toads.  The children liked the glass frog and the goliath frog the best! The glass frog is neat because his belly is translucent and you can see right through to all of his innards! The goliath frog is cool because it is the largest frog in the world that can grow to be over a foot long and a whopping 7 pounds! That's a big frog! 

We are looking for your help!
If you are out in the woods this weekend and come across any frog eggs or tadpoles, scoop some up for your preschool teachers! We are keeping our eyes open too but haven't had any luck lately.  The reason why we did not simply order tadpoles through the internet is because we would not be able to release them back into our local ponds.  It is not ethical to release "internet frogs" into local ponds because more times then not these online companies do not send tadpoles that are native to our area.  If they are released back into our ponds, their presence can disrupt the delicate ecosystem.  Keep in mind, if we do find native tadpoles or eggs, we have to remember to release them back into the same pond we found them. If you encounter any tadpole sightings, you can also email me and I'll go scoop them up for the classroom :)

Important Dates and Reminders:

May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo, check Evite for more info
May 30: SEE closed for Memorial Day!
June 1: June tuition is due
June 11: June gathering at Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester
June 23-24: End-of-the-year school performance, save the date! More info to come soon!
July 4-8: SEE closed for summer recess
July 11: SEE summer program begins!

Check out some pictures from this week!

The tomatoes are coming! Let's hope our grass follows in our tomato's footsteps!

Sequencing the metamorphosis of a frog in the science center!

Remember our class pet, Molly?
She is an amphibian just like a frog.  However, molly breathes through her gills and a frog has lungs.  Also, Molly (an Axolotl) and frogs both go through a very similar metamorphosis!
So cool!

Investigating the parts of a frog


Play practice begins next week! We are so excited for our third annual end-of-the-year performance!

Have a great weekend!
Joanna

New Month = New Curriculum Topic!

Welcome May! We have patiently awaited your arrival!  Except that it feels more like April... 

Staying optimistic, we explored the world of pond life with the children this week.  We began the week asking, What is a pond, what lives in a pond and how can we protect ponds?  The children learned about the different wildlife found at a pond, the type of water in a pond, how a pond if different from the ocean and the importance of plants in the pond. (There was no way I could have used the word "pond" less times in that paragraph, I tried!)

As the week progressed, we had a group discussion on understanding what exactly a pond ecosystem is.  This discussion started with the question, what helps animals survive? The children all said that animals need to eat.  Which is in fact the basics of learning about an ecosystem! We read the book, "Pond Circle" by Betsy Franco which introduced the children to how an ecosystem works.  It's a fun book if you come across it in your travels! To understand the idea of the book, there was a coyote that stalked the raccoon that stole the owl eggs from the owl that dived for the skunk that caught the snake that swallowed the frog that gobbled the beetle that ate the nymph that nibbled the algae.  Which pretty much sums up how an ecosystem works! The illustrations were beautifully done as well!  

Some activities around the classroom included practiced tracing skills by tracing the lines of a turtle shell, the children played a game with the parachute trying to keep the frog eggs from rolling away, the children wrapped up their mother's day gifts and the pre-k students wrote the sight words for our pond unit including the words cat tails, lilypad, turtle, duck, etc!

If you have a day available during the next few weeks, the Museum of Science in Boston is hosting a temporary frog exhibit, definitely check it out! MOS Frog Exhibit Click Here

Lastly, play practice for our end of the year performance will begin mid month as we prepare to wrap up another wonderful school year! The blog will be pretty quiet beginning mid-May through June as we don't want to give too much away!

Important Dates and Reminders:

May 11-12: Picture Day! Info on the fliers that went home
May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo, check Evite for more info
June 1: June tuition is due
June 23-24: End-of-the-year school performance, more info to come!

Check out some pictures from this week!

The children also created wish flags for our veggie garden, what a busy week it was!

Another wish flag in the making! The flags are proudly hanging in our outdoor classroom.

Tracing skills are a great tool to have for kindergarten!

Don't let the frog eggs fall off the parachute!

A few of our sight words for our pond life unit!

And to all of our SEE mommies, we think you're the bomb! Enjoy your seed bombs! May they bring you lots of pretty flowers :)

Have a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend!
Joanna