December 1 to December 5 hive class 1300
This week the children were extremely excited to see the giant snowfall that happened they couldn’t wait to get their gear on and play out in the snow!
But I was happily surprised that even though the snowfall had brought us a white blanket the children were still engaged in finding birds and nests around at the park that we had gone to build our snowman.. They also decided to build their snowman closely next to a tree that had a bird nest in it that they had already discovered.
Upon their investigation they found a second nest in that tree, it was interesting to look at the perspective of slowing down and revisiting the same tree and seen something completely different the children were even surprised to find the second nest it was very difficult to find but we found it.
I typically bring salad and eggs to the classroom every day to eat for my lunch and while we were eating lunch and I was cracking open my egg one of the children named A in the classroom looked at me and said
Chrystal, do you know chickens poop out different colored eggs?
I said oh do say what colors do the poop out?
The child A then said Green, Brown, white, blue, rainbow, pink
I looked at A and said do you know they are all those different colors?
She looked at me and said well that’s because we’ve seen all those colors before.
This got me thinking they had shown a real interest in eggs in their drawings and now they were talking about my chicken egg.
This is where I thought it would be a great opportunity to print out a couple of different pictures of eggs in some nests of course because that has been a big focus this last couple of weeks.
I found some picture of a nests with blue eggs and I found a picture of a nest with brown eggs in it I also found some pictures with different kinds of birds in their nests and also how a bird builds a nest.
I displayed these on the table for the children to be able to look at and draw I waited patiently by the table with my pencil and paper.
One child came over and started looking at the pictures and drawings but didn’t really say much she then didn’t want to talk about her drawing which was okay.
Later that afternoon we were having snack I decided why not have a conversation while we are all gathered together.
That’s where I came up with what asked the children what bird they thought the egg’s came from.
I then asked the first child what kind of bird do you think late these blue eggs?
O said I think it’s hummingbird eggs
I said why do you think it’s hummingbird eggs?
O said because there blue.
I then asked that same child what about the brown eggs what bird do you think late these
O said the brown ones of course, are crow eggs.
I said why are they crow eggs?
It’s because they’re brown Chrystal!
I went on to the next child and I said what bird do you think late these blue eggs?
A said well a rainbow bird of course.
I said why do you think it’s a rainbow bird?
A said because it’s blue!
I went to the next child and asked the same question about the blue eggs
what bird do you think late these blue eggs?
E said then said rainbow bird
I finally decided to say why do you think it was a rainbow bird?
E said blue is the color of the rainbow and that’s why it’s a rainbow bird egg Chrystal.
I the asked what bird do you think late the brown eggs
E said a peacock did Chrystal.
I then asked why do you think it’s a peacock that late these eggs?
E said they are peacock eggs because it is the colour they lay and it just has to be a peacock.
I then went on to the next child
I said which bird do you think late these blue eggs?
S said a Siegel laid the blue eggs.
She was sitting right by E.
I asked S which bird late the brown eggs she looked at me and said she doesn’t know what bird laid the brown egg’s.
I then came back and said I do have a question for you why do you think a Siegel late the blue ones?
S then took a second then looked at me and said this Siegel late it because it’s blue and they like the colour blue.
The child that I had spoken to before her E, looked at her and looked at me and said that is why Siegel’s fly in the sky all the time, it’s because they like the sky, it’s blue and they like blue.
I finally came to the last child that was at the table I asked the same question
what bird do you think late these blue eggs?
J then said well I think it was a rainbow bird.
E then looked at him and looked at me and said I’ve never seen a rainbow bird before?
I looked at both of them and said I’ve never seen a rainbow bird before either!
J then laughed.
I then looked at the child and said what bird do you think late the brown egg’s?
J then said a red bird Chrystal it late the brown eggs.
Then J then said chrystal, bluebird late the blue eggs and the brown bird late the brown eggs.
I looked at J and said oh I thought you said it was a red bird for the brown eggs.
He turned and looked at me and said Chrystal I’ve changed my mind it was a brown bird not red.
It was interesting to go around the table and hear the thoughts of what these children thought about each of the eggs it definitely sparked a huge conversation with each of the children at the snack table for lunch..
I have not corrected them on what bird play what egg is I think it’s important that they have their researching in investigation alongside me and this will come up eventually where we learn which bird lays what color but for now we are talking about different colored rainbow bird’s.. I also think I am sure that out there somewhere there is a rainbow bird.
This also lead leaves me to a collaboration with a fellow educator that works for the center, she brings us a chicken bucket every week and we put our food scraps in this bucket so that it feeds her chickens. I got chatting with her and she has some nests that she’s going to bring me to collaborate with the children..
We then began to talk about her chickens and I asked her if she had any photos of them in nests or just photos of their eggs things like that she said absolutely she has tons.. She has sent me a bunch of photos that I’m going to introduce to the children this week. There’s big chickens baby chickens eggs different colors and also a chicken that’s made a nest to lay her eggs also a chicken on top of some eggs. I think this will be a nice addition to nests and eggs that we’ve been kind of following this week that is coming up.
Something else that I have introduced to the children this week is collaboration on one piece of paper that we all draw on.
It took some time of me sitting there with my paper and pencil and pencils in hand for other children that after about five minutes I started to have other children coming over to me and asking what we were doing.. At one time I had four children drawing on the same page as mine..
There were some prickly moments where one child was quite concerned that another child was going to draw on top of her drawing.
But with some guidance from me about respecting the drawing that was on the paper and that you could contribute to some of the drawings or find a spot that was empty.
The child that came over decided to contribute to one of the drawings on the paper and it happened to be a bird now this bird has a beak has eyes has wings has feathers has legs has a tail..
But didn’t have any feet
I asked the child what’s missing from this bird?
She said I don’t know as she looked at it for a couple of minutes.
Then she looked at me and said the feet.
She looked at me and said well how do you drop bird’s feet?
I said oh I have an idea to remember those pictures we took of the birds?
She said yes
I have them in the binder over there on the shelf
she then ran over to the shelf and grabbed the binder, we flipped through the pages and found a picture of some birds she stopped and looked at the feet and set that’s how you draw them.
She then began to put little tiny feet on the bird and pointed that them and explained can you put that I’ve put this here and my name Chrystal and say foot here and foot here.
I said yes of course I can.
I told the children that the drawing would remain in my book and that we could revisit it next week. We can continue to draw together on the same page until it full and then flip it over and use the other side of the page.
They were a little bit concerned about this but were okay that I was keeping it safe.
I think this week I am going to continue on with nests and eggs but also expand in to this mark making collaboratively with the children to help gain multiple perspectives on one piece of paper and to have a sense of collaboration community and teamwork.
This also brings me into democratic practices educators create a culture in which different opinions and views of both adults and children are accepted welcomed and valued on page 85 of the early learning framework.
This also brings me to page 77 of the early learning framework can children engage with materials in ways that are meaningful to them. Also on page 71 how can I or my program express views on inclusion and on page 67 joy in relationships with people places materials and ideas children and educators are open to joy and wonder. I could go on to so many different pages that this would cover under in our early learning framework as I feel this could be a key piece to introducing so many different aspects within these practices I want to continue on with this moving forward.
I am going to work on getting some photos for the garbage along the river trail as long as the snow is melted I’m going to work on that this week and if I come into some obstacles then I will just have to keep pushing forward revisit this another time.
I am looking forward to the children seen the pictures of the chickens this week and what that brings to the egg nest dynamic.