Farms and dinosaurs

We think it's safe to say that Cape has been a trendsetter in the classroom lately. His enthusiasm and knowledge about barns, farm animals and farm machinery has sparked interest in many other Brown Room friends.
​Many of us have even been to a farm before.

Remy has been to a "flower farm", which had "flowers and a playground. And I played and played and I saw a kid and then I was hiking somewhere." She also shared with us, that she "went to a mermaid farm". 

Cape told everyone that he has been to two farms. "A Christmas tree farm. I'll tell you how I got my Christmas tree home. We got a trailer in the back of the car and put it on the trailer." About the other one he reported: "It was all about chickens at that farm".

The farm that Wilder went to also had chickens and he even met someone who works on the farm. He told us about a trip to "Papi's farm". "There were only two horses and a lot of chickens and a tractor. And Allen. He gives the chicken's water."

"I went to a cow farm." said Jade. The cows there were "eating hay. They were inside. Someone feeded them."

Researching question we had about cows....

While watching the video of a woman explaining and showing us how she is milking the cow, Remy mimicked her movements by opening and closing her hand along with the video instructions.

The conversation about Jade's trip to the cow farm started a deeper investigation of cows. Together we watched a YouTube video that taught us how to milk a cow by hand. 

"The moms give milk and the dads give water"
- Jade

We discussed what an udder is and identified differences of male and female cows by comparing images of them. We noticed that a lot of times "dads" are not only missing the udder but also have longer and bigger horns.

"Oh boy, we can make a barn!" - Wilder

Lucas adding sheep and cows to his barn

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​Cape has told us a lot about the equipment he has at home to construct larger farms, including a red barn and many farm animals. He was so kind and thoughtful to bring them to school today so he could share them with his friends. Sharing toys, especially your own, that you bring from home, is not always easy but he was happy and excited to let his friends explore the toys he had brought in for us. 

Thank you, Cape!

His friends were eager to figure out how to put the barn together, how to attach the different trailers and machines to the tractors, or how to connect the fence pieces.

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Some of the children's first reactions to the toys Cape brought in:

​"This is interesting" - Wilder,
​inspecting the different trailers

"It's a hay baler" - Cape,
explaining the use of a specific machine to Wilder
​(the red trailer in the picture below)

"So many vehicles" - Michael,
when first coming in in the morning, seeing Cape's toys

And our exploration of farms continued at snack time...

While we ate pita chips, apples and peanut butter for snack we learned about all the different ways a farm prepares for winter. 

Thank you, Wilder, for bringing in this amazing book!

We learned about some new fruits and vegetables (have you ever seen or tasted okra?) that can be grown on a farm, farm stands, and how animals, such as chickens and bees get ready for the winter. 

​What did you learn from the story?

Even Farmers go to sleep. And they go shopping. And decorate their house.
And the queen is the biggest bumble bee.
- Finlay

They live in a bee hive and they are black and white striped.
- Lucas

The tractor equipment. I learned about back tractor attachments.
- Cape

I learned about bees. They're making wax.
- Bea

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Finlay's favorite dinosaur
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​A deeper interest that Finlay has been showing lately is dinosaurs. He keeps being drawn to one book in particular, a pop up book that showcases different kinds of dinosaurs. Today he showed us his favorite dinosaur from the book - the car-sized ankylosaurus, a giant spiked tortoise with a clubbed tail. 

He decided to draw this complex dinosaur and brought the book over to the message center. First he identified its colors and searched for matching markers - blue and orange. 



Finlay narrating while drawing:

I make its spikes. See it have a tail right here. It's two heads they are together and a neck, and another neck. 

(After drawing the dinosaur with the blue marker, including the body, spikes, a tail, four necks ('the rows of spikes'), a head and two eyes, he continued with the orange marker)

Can you ask me what the lines are? (pointing to the orange parallel lines he drew over his dinosaur) He's in prison. Because he ate the whole town. The people are in his tummy. I'm gonna draw some people in his tummy. 

​I'm gonna put him in my portfolio. I make a surprise for mommy. She will oooaaaah (expressing surprise).

(Finlay is reflecting on a previous conversation about the use of our portfolio drawers, in which we save and collect the children's work. We have discussed that we will show all their work to their parents at the end of the school year.)

​We are impressed by his persistence, observation skills and attention to detail during his project.  Amazing work, Finlay!