A short story.

Once upon a time...

There was a Rainbow Ninja

She had a friend.... the Mermaid Queen

They met a Cowboy.

 And they all became friends.

...probably not "The End"

Epilogue

*It is days like this that I simply love sitting back and watching them play. Today I am thankful for a great zoom that allows me to catch these moments without the children knowing. I am still not sure of the adventures that were taking place, but friendships were reinforced and smiles were made. 

I am also thankful for the creators of Fafu toys, who understand children and have created these amazing open-ended quality play materials to spark imaginations. The costumes and characters were one of a kind!

November Rain

REAL Bones

It has been another busy week of studying bones. We were very fortunate to have some great specimens to see up close and personal. Thank you to the families who let us borrow items and donated their time. This has truly been a fabulous unit and the children and I have learned so much!

Bear, coyote and bobcat.

Chicken Bones.

Deer

This child is holding a part of a VERY old walrus tusk. You can also see two walrus teeth and a whisker. The skull in the back is another bear.

Birds.

Skeletons.

We continued our Bone Study this week. Thank you to all the families that brought in materials to share.

Our visitor was taking a break on the table for examination.

We started the week talking about our three arm bones and elbows. We used cardboard tubes to see what would happen if we had no elbows. We realized that there are many things that we are unable to do without our elbows (e.g. brush teeth, comb hair, drink and hug). We also realized there are a few things we were still able to do, like reach our shoes. 

Last week I used a glove filled with water to show them how little you could do with a boneless hand. This week I froze it to show them how difficult it would be to do things with a hand that had no joints and only bone.

We have been studying our plastic skeleton and skeleton pictures in books. We are really getting a basic understanding for the bones that make up our skeleton. This has led to a lot of interest in drawing skeletons.

One of our friends brought in a new book for us to borrow. I immediately added it to my Amazon cart. It is all about how vertebrate skeletons are the same and different, with a lot of great new vocabulary too. 

I was especially fascinated by the page about bats. Did you know that their wings are made up of finger bones? So cool.

I cut out bat shapes for them to add their own x-rays of bat skeletons. 

Another parent kindly brought some x-rays of a leg and foot that was healing from a serious injury. We all took turns examining and pointing out the breaks. We also discussed our knees and knee caps, which they could see in the x-ray below.

"Hands on" Learning

This week, following a child's request, we have started researching BONES. I couldn't decide if it was appropriate or cutesy to be focusing on skeletons for the two weeks before Halloween, but I'm guessing the interest stemmed from some of the skeleton reading material that has been around the classroom.

At circle time we read a couple books about bones and the importance of the skeletal system. We learned that the hands has 27 bones in all. 

It sure is easy to find skeletons this time of year. The kids enjoyed comparing it to the book.

I filled a rubber glove full of water to show the kids what a hand would feel like without bones. A similar activity can be found here. We used the hand to try and hold a book or a marker, but it wouldn't work.

I saw an x-ray handprint activity on pinterest from this blog and expanded the activity from there. I painted the bones on their right hands and we stamped them onto paper. While I painted we counted the finger bones (One, two, three annnnd a long one to the wrist). I then traced their left hands for them and they drew the bones on with a marker while counting (one, two, three annnnd a long one to the wrist). 

I can't wait to see where our research takes us next week.