Pre-KG 2024 / 25 Blog 22
What do animals eat ? Making connections!
The Pre–Kindergarten children have learnt a lot about animals in recent weeks.
This week they started to inquire into the animal’s eating habits and first applied their previous knowledge. Some children had an idea about what certain animals eat, but were unsure about others.
They tried to match food from our kitchen boxes to some animals and there were conversations and wondering whether this might be the correct food item for them.
In reply to their queries I showed them a wonderful book by Eric Carle called „ My first Book of Food“ that has upper and lower flaps to match an animal to a food item. The book was very popular, so we read it several times.
There were some interesting answers and I realized that there was still a lot of knowledge to be gained. Most Pre–Kindergarten children knew that a bear eats honey ( probably due to the Pooh Bear books), but they all denied that a bear eats fish. So we watched a short video clip by BBC where bears fish for salmon which fascinated the children and a lot of ohs and ash were heard.
Another question was whether a horse really eats carrots, so we had a look at this as well.
We then asked the Pre–Kindergarten children about their favorite animal and what they think this animal eats. The children coloured a printed out version of their favorite animal and enjoyed using a variety of colours.
Titin, the turtle that usually lives in Emma’s house is quite big and so energetic. The children were very excited to see it swim, run and then eat carrots. Yes, dear inquirers, even the teachers learnt something new ! Who would have though that turtles like carrots ?
What a great morning to learn and share knowledge with our curious friends from K1 and K2. That you very much to Emma and her family for this special experience!
After having learnt a bit more about eating habits, the next day the children confirmed the correct food items for their favorite animals, cut these out from pamphlets and glued them onto their drawing. We helped with the cutting and some children managed quite well on their own with supervision.
This multilayered activity was informative and fun for the children and something you can implement at home. If you read a book, find the animal in the book, then in other books, on a walk or in a zoo. Draw or form it with playdough. Talk about the animal‘s habitat, build it with simple materials like boxes and sticks, cut out materials from pamphlets for a collage or stick puppets…..the options are endless and will help your child to connect the learning to different situations and to the wider world.
On Friday we revisited the Eric Carle book with an extended activity to assess the learning.
Ms.Priyanka read the book again and we provided the children with magnetic pictures of the book and ask them to match corresponding items on our big magnet wall.
The understanding was really visible and yes, everyone agreed that a bear eats fish ! Mission accomplished!
The children‘s amazing progress and learning was also shown to their parents in our 3– Way conferences this week. Thank you all for coming into school, joining the meeting and supporting your child!
We are so proud of all the Pre–Kindergarten children‘s achievements!
This week the Pre–Kindergarten children were also invited to Sophia‘s 4. Birthday party in K1 where her mother had lovingly prepared some healthy fruit and sugarfree treats for all to enjoy.
As the children are growing, they need a lot of good nutrition and they learn so much by our role–modeling and talking about food items. They love to cook in our Pre–KG kitchen and are becoming experts at making healthy meals.
Next week there will be more exciting discoveries, but let me wish you a good weekend with the photo of another pet. This cute hamster lives in Mr.Derek‘s house and loves good food and cheese. Thank you for the adorable picture, Mr. Derek!
Have a lovely weekend !
With kind regards, Mit herzlichen Grüßen,
Anita Ursula Mönch
DSKI Pre–Kindergarten homeroom teacher Playgroup / EY Deutsch & German
German Saturday School homeroom teacher
No comments:
Post a Comment