Hi everyone, we wanted to share the following with you. We realise it is a lot of reading (with no photos!!) but we thought you would be interested in what the girls are talking about. At the end there is a very interesting conversation that is worth reading too, so don't give up too soon!
Finding Cicada Shells on Mt St John
12 February 2104
An interest in
Cicadas first began on one of our walks up Mt St John when the girls spotted
lots of Cicada shells on a tree.
They were curious as
to why there were so many on that tree
and some trees had no
Cicadas on them.
Since then, Cicada
hunts have become very popular and we have had several walks around the school
looking for them. The girls have worked out
which trees the
Cicadas like living in.
One particular Cicada
shell they found captured their interest when they noticed
it had a dead Cicada
in it.
What interesting
discussions followed…
“I think the Cicada is still coming out, it’s just asleep”.
“It’s like the butterfly. Something happened to it and it’s dead”.
“He got too tired and went to sleep”.
The dead cicada in
the shell continues to be an interesting topic of conversation.
Extending an Interest
3rd March
Today we watched a
video of Cicadas emerging out of the ground after 17 years. The Cicadas walked
up the tree and then hatched out of their shells.
The girls were
fascinated!
We noticed the sound
of the Cicadas on the video but when
we went outside to
listen to the Cicadas, there was silence.
“How could this be?”
we asked.
I pointed out that
there was no sun and suggested that perhaps Cicadas
only liked singing
when there was sun.
We tested out this
theory during the day…
About 10 minutes
later during morning tea Halle noticed that
the Cicadas were
singing again, and Jacqui remembered our earlier conversation and she wondered
if it was because it was sunny.
Throughout the day
the girls noticed whether the Cicada’s were singing or not and they connected
their observations with whether it was
sunny, cloudy, or
drizzling.
“How do you think Cicadas make that noise?”
“They are singing”
Tess
“I think they make it
with their back legs rubbing them together” Jacqui
“I think they are
singing like Tess said” Imogene
… and someone added
that they thought the Cicadas
made that noise when
they were eating.
To follow up on this
interest we have begun to look closely with the
magnifying glasses at
the Cicadas shells. We have begun
our first drawing
experiences using the Cicada
shells and pictures
of Cicada’s to help us along.
This morning we had a conversation and recapped what the girls could
remember
about the video they had watched.
They came out of the
ground. Dakota
They grow wings when they
come out. They didn’t have wings before that. Lily
They were all
scrunched and then they pushed the skin out (making a movement with her hands).
They push and push and then it cracks. Mika
It’s the skin that
cracks. Scarlet
I know how the wings
came out. They were all scrunched up and they rolled
their wings down… like
this. Zara
The wings got bigger
and bigger. Dakota
Then they flew off
straight away. Zara
But first they do
exercises and get bigger and their wings come out. Mika
You know, the Cicadas
don’t grow bigger. Lily
Yes, yes they do.
Mika
No it’s just their
wings. They grow longer and longer and longer. Lily
How do the Cicadas feel inside of the shell when they are coming out?
I don’t know.
We could close our
eyes and think about it. Zara
When they come out
they do this (stretching) and they see all the world.
They see the sun.
When they are out in the sun they grow. Mika
When they come out of
the ground they come out of their shell first. Lily
They feel good I
think. Scarlett
I think the Cicada
shell is it’s home and I think they would be sad. Zara
What do they feel when they see the world for the first time?
They would be scared
I think. Zara
What do you think it would be like under the earth?
Cold and dark and
damp…
We are continually amazed at the thinking, the wondering and the questioning that these girls are engaging in. Nature is a wonderful teacher!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful story! I remember being in VIrginia when the cicadas came out of the ground. It was wonderful to have such a rich subject to explore. Ours were quite noisy, and my grandmother got one under her wig and one in her pants at the same time!
ReplyDeleteI just finished a mini-workshop with teachers about taking an active role in a child-centered curriculum. I love that teachers saw children's interest and that watching a video could contribute to their own direct studies of the animals.
Thanks for this, I'm going to share it with my teachers!
Hello Kendra, it is always lovely for the girls to see comments from people from far away. They would love to know where you live.
ReplyDeleteDeanna and I are enjoying our own knowledge building alongside the childrens'. Had I forgotten that Cicada's stay in the ground for so long or had I never known that? I ask myself. To realise, as I saw the Cicadas wings unfolding as it came out of it's shell, that I hadn't noticed that the shell had no wings! Thank goodness for children's observation skills!
Thanks for being in contact. Chris