Bats

Wow, what an amazing fall we have had.  It has been absolutely the most perfect weather to pilot the Forest Day program at Loudon Elementary.  The children really had the opportunity to watch the forest, behind their school, change from summer to fall.  All of our observation skills increased as we made notes of the changing color and smell in the woods.

Over the last few weeks older students have been testing their stick rafts and planning redesigns, and some classes made it out to the forest to do a little bit of fort repair before winter.  The primary children partook in a fall scavenger hunts and a mini lesson about bats.  The most amazing find on our scavenger hunt was a spider web that had caught a beautiful red leaf that was falling to the ground.  We never would have spotted the spider web, had the ruby red leaf not been caught up in it!  While searching the forest for signs of chipmunks, acorns, and mushrooms, we also took time to use logs as balance beams, and touch the rough lichen growing on the side of old trees.

We started our bat week by reading Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies.  This story tells the tale of a mother bat and how she uses her echolocation to hunt for food.  This was the first introduction to the concept of echolocation for many of the children.  It is amazing that a bat can catch thousands of mosquitoes each evening by using their amazing tool of echolocation!  After reading the story, we discussed what insects bats might eat.  After compiling an extensive list, we headed to the outdoor classroom to see what we could find beneath decomposing logs.  Children are scientist by nature, but when you put a magnifying lens in their hand, they become all business!  We spent time peeling back the bark on decomposing logs, revealing a variety of fungi, spiders, ants, beetles and larva of a variety of insects.  The children shrieked in delight when they made these discoveries, being certain to put the bark back and cover up any larva that was exposed.  Afterall, we didn’t want to harm them as we were visiting their homes!

Throughout the fall we’ve been watching a mysterious vegetable growing from a pile of debris by the start of the nature trail or “Nature Portal” as one class named it.  We were not sure if this was used as a compost pile in the past, but we could clearly see that something was growing from it!  Many children thought that the vegetable might be a watermelon, or maybe a pumpkin.  Some thought it must be an over-sized zucchini.  We watched the vegetable get larger and larger over the last eight weeks and then on Monday we discovered that the vines had all died back, leaving this mysterious vegetable all alone.  On one trip back from the outdoor classroom with Mrs. Mitchell’s Kindergartners, it was decided that they should pick this mysterious ‘thing’.  It was like Christmas as the children carefully cradled their harvest and marched off to show their teacher.  Mrs. Mitchell, being the good sport that she is, thought that the children should do a little research and see if it could be determined what the vegetable was by the characteristics of its skin.  At last report the mysterious veggie was thought to be a spaghetti squash!  The children were going to continue their investigation by cutting the squash open to see what the inside would reveal for clues.

This squash is a perfect example of emergent curriculum.  There are so many ways math, literacy, and science can be taught through this squash.  The children can use math skills to weigh the squash, measure its circumference, and count its seeds.  A story telling or writing piece could be made about how the squash got there and what it saw as it was growing through the seasons.  When these little unexpected gems present themselves, it makes our teaching so much richer and the learning experience so much more meaningful for the students!  The outside is full of these opportunities!