A New Specimen

This morning, Margaret made a discovery in the outdoor classroom just as we were coming in for meeting. We used this as an opportunity to continue yesterday's discussion about insects. First we read some of the children's words from yesterday's blog. Then we asked them for additional thoughts:

Sally: The bees get nectar, but the butterflies get nectar too. 
Leigh: But what if the bees take the butterflies ' nectar?
Will: Bees can sting you.
Rowan: And mosquitoes can sting you.
Jack: And yellow jackets. 
Will: And the bees make honey inside the hive, and they bring it to people and they put it in jars.
Austin: The bees' tongues stick out. They suck out the nectar, then they fly to the bee hive. 
Elle: Butterflies just drink the nectar. But bees bring back the nectar and chew it and spit it out and make yellow honey.
Margaret: Bees get nectar from inside the flowers. They make yellow honey and make a house out of the honey. 

Rachael noticed that during this discussion, friends listened to each other echoing and expanding ideas, adding new information in the process, so that we're all building knowledge and developing big ideas together.

Then we passed around Margaret’s discovery and tried to figure out what kind of creature it is. 
 
Grace: I think it’s a baby crab. Or a bug.
Margaret: Maybe it’s a seahorse.
Leigh: Seahorses do not look like that.
Louise: I think it’s a noodle.
Margaret: It could be a hamster.
Leigh: Hamsters do not look like that.
Kian: I know what it is. I saw this before. It has so many legs. I Think it’s something that goes underwater. 
Rachael: How can we figure this out?
Will: We can use the microscope.
Rachael: We’ve been talking about how it helps to be able to describe a thing so we can look it up. Maybe with the digital microscope we can make a list of ways to describe it, then we could look those things up.

We did not figure out what this little creature is, but we did make it a cozy resting place out of flower petals. Get comfortable, friend, while we unravel this mystery…