Animals Under Our Feet

Ky had been asking if we were going to talk about worms (again!) today. When he looked at the question of the day, he said, “Oh under the soil. I don’t see!”. And that’s exactly what we focused on our circle time --- the creatures that we cannot see under our feet! At the beginning of our discussion, we wondered what other creatures aside from worms can we see under the ground

             Au: I think cow…oh no they sleep on the grass. Bee and fly they are under the ground, I think. I know they are under the ground.

K: Worms!
            Ky: Mole!
            S: Snail!
            Ch Snakes!

We then turned our attention to some animal toys that we have in Flowers. We tried our best to identify the animals and checked whether they could be found under the ground or not.  Then we “met” an animal that we were not quite sure of.   We could not remember seeing them at the zoo so, we asked Vieda if she could help us name the animal. She said, “It is called meerkat!”. Ky started chuckling when he heard the name and said, “That’s a very funny name!”, whereas S looked puzzled as she asked, “It’s a cat but name is meerkat?”. Our interest level just went higher as our friends asked more questions about it. We had an interesting exchange of ideas about underground animals and meerkats in our group.  In fact, we liked how meerkat sounds like, so we tried writing its name!

            K: Now, it’s very cold, right? So, the snakes are sleeping under the ground, so they won’t feel cold.

            Ky: It’s funny like it stands up like this, with hands in front of him. Very funny!
           Ch: Actually, meerkat turns his head to where the light is.

            Vieda: Meerkats use their tail to balance when they stand up.

            Ky: Ahhhh! Like my daddy!  My daddy do it balance like when he is surfing.

            K: Oh, Au is right! The meerkat digs bugs to eat so, it means that there are bugs that live under the ground. (Looking at the meerkats) I think one of the meerkats are looking out for predators.

            Ch: What are predators?

            K: Predators are the dangerous animals that can eat the other animals.

            Ky: This meerkat is a cute animal.

            K: The guard meerkat is like a security guard of the president’s house.

            Ch mentioned that he has never seen a meerkat before, to which his friends said, “Yes, we haven’t seen it either!”. We think that meerkats are cute and funny animals, and we are excited to see real meerkats in the future!

            After our sharing time, we looked at a magazine that talks about animals that live underground. Aside from worms and moles, now we know that squirrels, snakes, meerkats, and rabbits live underground, too. We found it interesting to know that mommy fox digs holes for their babies to keep them safe and warm. Also, we find it exciting to know that turtles hide their eggs underground, too! Underground animals are amazing!

            As we learned about underground animals, we thought it would be great to make our own “underground” poster. We drew and painted tunnels, burrows, and holes with some animals in it. What else can we add to our poster?  We cannot wait for our friends to add more interesting things to our poster.

            For our morning table activities, we got busy making our oni (ogre) mask for setsubun and portrait for our CD chandelier. We made a colorful oni mask and glued yarn for the hair and beautifully painted horns on it! On the other hand, everyone is already excited to have another chandelier up in Flowers. Our portrait drawing will be part of it and for sure, it would be a wonderful addition to our chandelier collection!

Love,

Flowers