The classroom was calm and welcoming as usual. This week, the activities the teacher had planned out for the kids were planting a garden, playing with "flubber" and making muffins. The kids have a choice as to what activity they want to work on. The kids that chose to work on the garden were outside with a parent that was volunteering for the day, that parent also took her tortoise for the kids to observe. She fed the tortoise some lettuce.The parent simply left the leaf of the lettuce on the floor and waited for it to go towards it. When the tortoise finally reached the lettuce, one of the girls squats down next to the tortoise and says "he did it!" The other four kids joined around her squatting next to the tortoise to get a closer look. They all got closer and pet the turtle. One of the boys picks up a leaf off the ground and places it in front of the tortoise (just like the parent did with the lettuce). The kids spoke amongst themselves saying "It scared me", "Oh, wow it eats!", "He's eating like us", one boy pointed toward me and said "He likes her, he's walking to her".
The boy who gave the tortoise the leaf picked up quick as to how to feed it, this showed cognitive skills, being able to squat and maintain that position in balance for a long period of time showed physical skills. They were occupied for a long period of time and although they weren't sharing materials they were being cooperative by taking turns and being gentle with the reptile.
The kids really seemed to enjoy having "Mohave" the tortoise visit, if I was the teacher, I would look for a book that had more information on reptiles that's kid friendly so that they can make a connection with things they see in the book and thinking back to when they had the tortoise in front of them. Since they seemed very interested I would finish reading the book to them and have them play with some clay and tell them to make a reptile out of it, its interesting to me how some kids when working with clay get very creative with small details and others make something unrecognizable but are able to explain what it is they have created. Whatever it is the child is explaining would definitely go under the description of their masterpiece. :)
Oh wow must of been fun seeing then plant a garden. Especially because the children were able to see the turtle eat the lettuce. I could just imagine the children talking among them self and following the turtle. Also, the children can see that when they plant a garden it has results, that not just people eat them but also reptile.
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