Category: Owlets

It’s starting to feel like spring in the Owlet class! The Owlets have been learning about seeds and plants. The students looked at seeds and flowers under magnifying glasses. They identified and sorted different types of seeds. And each student even got to pick a seed to plant and tend to!

After choosing to plant either radish, green bean, or zinnia seeds, the Owlets then made a prediction about which type of seed would grow the fastest. The majority of the class guessed that the green bean seed would grow fastest, but they have to wait and see!

The class watched this video to learn a little about how a seed grows into a plant. The Owlets now know that even though they can’t see their seeds growing just yet, there are roots beginning to grow under the soil. They also read the books A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston and The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss to explore seeds further.

Up next, the Owlets will learn more about plants, flowers, and pollinators.

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This month, the Owlets have been talking about authors and illustrators. They learned that an author is the person who puts the words in a book, and an illustrator makes the pictures for the book. So far, they have studied two authors who are also illustrators. First, they read books by Eric Carle, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug and A House for Hermit Crab. The Owlets then created art inspired by Eric Carle’s illustrations. 

The next author/illustrator the Owlets learned about was Mo Willems, who wrote The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, We’re in a Book! and Should I Share My Ice Cream? The Owlets then began working on a multi-step painting project to create some of Mo Willems’ characters, Gerald and Piggie. The next authors they will learn about are Laura Numeroff (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) and the duo of Margaret and H.A. Rey (Curious George). 

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This month the Owlet class is learning about transportation. They first defined transportation as “something that takes you from one place to another.” Then the students brainstormed some examples of transportation, touching on air travel, water travel, and road travel. Ms. Erin read the book If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen, and then the Owlets used their imaginations and various materials to build their own dream cars. Some of their cars could fly like planes or go in the water like submarines!

The Owlets voted as a class to decide which form of transportation to study first, and the winner was air travel! They started by researching hot air balloons and airplanes. They read Hot Air: (The Mostly) True Story of the First Hot Air Balloon Ride by Marjorie Priceman and watched a video that showed a hot air balloon launch. The Owlets had fun getting messy while collaborating on a paper mache hot air balloon. 

The Owlets read Plane Song by Diane Siebert and watched a video that taught them how airplanes fly. The students got to build and fly their own airplanes. They loved throwing them from the top of the play structure and watching them glide through the air! 

Stay tuned to learn more about the transportation adventures the Owlets have as continue their study!

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The Owlets have been learning about holidays and traditions around the world. They have spent a lot of time looking at maps and globes this month as they learn about where certain celebrations take place. The class found Russia when they learned about the Russian Winter Festival, they found Africa when they learned about Kwanzaa, and found Sweden, Norway, and Finland when they learned about St. Lucia Day.

The Owlets celebrated Hanukkah by learning to play the dreidel game and eating potato latkes with applesauce! They read Hooray for Hanukkah! by Fran Manushkin and lit the candles on the menorah in their classroom.

The class also learned about Kwanzaa, which the Owlets noticed had some similarities to Hanukkah: both holidays last several days and both light candles as a tradition. The candle holder used for Kwanzaa is called a kinara. As the Owlets have been practicing patterns, they all made patterned pasta necklaces using Kwanzaa colors.

The Owlets found the first day of winter on their calendar and watched a video that showed how cities in Russia celebrate the season. The students thought the ice sculptures at the Russian Winter Festival were amazing! The Owlets got the opportunity to build sculptures of their own using colored ice. They noticed that when salt was added to the ice, it made the ice melt quickly but then get colder, which helped the shapes stick together.

The class also learned about St. Lucia Day, which falls on December 13 and is celebrated in a few European countries. They watched a video of children dressed in traditional St. Lucia Day outfits singing songs. The Owlets noticed there were candles used for this celebration too! Some of the students wanted to make candle crowns like the ones they saw the children in the video wearing.

To wrap up their “Holidays Around the World” study, the Owlets discussed Christmas traditions, and then celebrated the tradition of “posadas” with a piñata!

The Owlets wrapped up DINOvember with some exciting experiments! Ms. Erin did a fun activity with the class using dinosaur eggs made from baking soda, water, and food dye. The Owlets then used eye droppers to add vinegar to the baking soda eggs and watched the eggs fizz and bubble! Ms. Erin explained that this was a chemical reaction that happened when baking soda and vinegar were mixed.

The Owlets noticed that there were lots of pictures of volcanoes in the books they read about dinosaurs. So, the class decided to make their own volcano complete with bubbling “lava.” The Owlets helped to decorate the volcano using paint and natural materials like rocks, sand, sticks, and moss. 

While the Owlets waited for the volcano to dry, they read a book that taught them that lava is hot melted rock from the center of the Earth. The class decided that it would be too dangerous to use real lava for their volcano, but they could use baking soda and vinegar to make bubbles erupt out of the top like lava. Each of the Owlets took a turn carefully measuring the ingredients needed for the reaction.

The Owlets and Hoot Owls were all excited to witness the volcanic eruption!

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For the Owlets, November isn’t just any month, it is DINOvember! The month began with a roaring start as the students researched different types of dinosaurs and learned about their sizes, diets, and habits. The class read a book called Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner that taught them about fossils (bones and prints that have been preserved by natural processes), and how scientists use fossils to learn about dinosaurs who lived millions of years before humans existed. The Owlets then got a very special opportunity to look at some real fossils! Ms. Obenchain, Saklan’s Science Teacher, gave the class a box of fossils from the Aurora Fossil Museum in North Carolina. The Owlets practiced being paleontologists as they discovered fossils from coral, shells, and even shark teeth!

The Owlets then got to create their own fossils using salt dough and dinosaur toys.

The Owlets learned that dinosaurs are reptiles and lay eggs. The students enjoyed helping baby dinosaurs hatch from icy eggs by using eye droppers and warm water to melt the eggs!

The Owlets have thoroughly enjoyed DINOvember. Stay tuned to learn more about this hands-on, dino-themed unit!

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The Owlet class has been exploring the social emotional learning theme of creativity. They read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. In the story, a girl named Vashti thinks she can’t do art. Her teacher encourages her to start small, with just a dot, and see what happens. The Owlets imitated Vashti’s art, starting with one small dot then using watercolor paints to add to their piece. Some students painted more dots of different sizes and colors like Vashti did, but each piece was unique! Every dot painting was then hung up in their classroom.

The Owlets also read Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. In the story, a small rabbit shows that a box is not just a box, but can be anything the imagination allows. Ms. Jessica then placed several boxes of various sizes and shapes out on the yard, and the Hoot Owls and Owlets turned them into rocket ships, buses, sail boats and more!

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Recently, the Owlets spent some time learning about fall and what happens when the seasons change. They watched a short video that taught them how and why some tree leaves change color when the weather starts to get chillier. Next, the students used fall colors, like orange, red, yellow, and brown, to create some art pieces. They made hand and fingerprint trees and coffee filter leaves for a tree in their classroom.

The Owlets even helped change the white rice in their rice table to fall colors!

If you are wondering why the leaves are changing colors, ask an Owlet!

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