Snakes, Suffixes and Skulls

Moments
Some of my favorite moments from each day are the authentic learning experiences that come from conversations among children. Today, as we used our meteorologist's eyes to watch for rain and snow, there were many of these conversations and moments of learning. 

Discuss: Snakes. 

A Moment to Discuss Snakes
Kieran started our day with an impressive Daily News Research Report. He has been anticipating the arrival of a pet brown snake. Together with his family he has researched the species, their home and needs in order to create the perfect spot for a new snake. You can imagine how many questions and comments this sparked among our friends. Please find his summary of Brown Snakes below: 


Brown House Snakes - A Summary
1. Their color is usually brown or terra-cotta (which, as Kieran informed us, is earth colors mixed togethers).
2. There are a dozen species of house snakes.
3. They are usually about three feet long.
4. They can live ten to fifteen years.
5. If they are tame, they will not poop on you. 


A Moment to Discuss Suffixes
During Morning Message our suffixes ran away! Just as the suffixes had done in Happy Endings: A Book About Suffixes by Robin Pulvar,  friends had to quickly determine which endings to write in order to read the Morning Message successfully. In this discussion we revisited the idea of sentences vs. paragraphs and that infamous word that we can never remember - indent. 


A Moment to Discuss Skulls

A Ram Skull

Finally, bringing his world into the classroom, Max shared a ram skull with us as well as the mandible of a eew. We were able to discuss the natural part of life in discussing disease and an abscessed tooth (which the ewe passed away from) and a coyote attack (the ram's death). From this discussion we visited about rams being boys and ewes being girls, wolves vs. coyotes and which species were apart of the Iowa Habitat. Friends wondered how they would save a ram from a coyote and Max explained to them that coyotes are natural predators of sheep. It was quite a discussion. Please stop by the science center in our room to see these fascinating skulls that we are so fortunate to learn from. Thanks Berger family!

A Moment to Ponder 

A Moment to Read a Poem

Another Racerunner Poem to get you ready for the Author's Cocoa event on Friday, February 24th at 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.

On Valentine’s Day I sent love

To my Great Grandfather above.

On St. Patrick’s Day I threw a rock

From my very long dock.