Thinkers in the Making: What's Next for Flight?
Though not all the students were present on the day of the vote...the majority ruled. We had 19 votes for caterpillars and butterflies and 3 votes for the exhibition!
I went ahead and ordered a butterfly kit - it will send us painted lady and monarch caterpillars very soon!
Our first steps were to gather what information and misconceptions were held by the children already on this topic.
Once we had gathered their initial knowledge and understand, we created a class web of knowledge to see what they knew as a group and where our teaching and facilitating of this next part of the project needed to begin. Here is the web that was created.
This gave me a good idea of where they are. They mentioned some of the parts - but not all (not the thorax). They really focused on the butterfly and not the caterpillar. Their knowledge of types of butterflies is slim. Needs of butterflies and caterpillars wasn't mentioned at all, along with the fact that they are insects. I believe we'll start by learning what qualifies something as an insect, then study caterpillars, and go from there.
Our kit has arrived, and the caterpillars should arrive once the children return from Spring Break. I am looking forward to launching this with the children!