Taxonomy and the Animal Kingdom: Arthropods- Part Three

After repeated trips to the garden to hunt for arthropods in the leaf litter and our visit from the University of Colorado "Bug Mobile," the students have been very interested in the independent classroom works about Arthropods.

Sorting Arthropods into Insects and Arachnids has become very popular; this work is a combination of conceptual sorting and a basic math work. It requires the child to count the legs and body parts of the arthropod and use this information to sort them based upon their taxonomic description (insects have six legs and three body parts, arachnids have eight legs and two body parts)- a pretty high level cognitive operation for these two and three year olds!

Children also enjoy the larger work of sorting Arthropod three part cards into their taxonomic classes (some children have also experimented with their own classification schemes- including arthropods that bite people and arthropods that do not! An important consideration, I agree!).

The children also enjoy trying to identify the hidden Arthropods in camouflage cards (and often play games outside in which they try to hide arthropods cut out of construction paper from their classmates by applying the concept of camouflage).

The children love learning the nomenclature associated with the metamorphosis of arthropods.

And, of course, for the children who have acquired the motor control needed for handwriting, there are lots of opportunities for copy writing (coping text for handwriting practice).

These works are examples of the ways in which Montessori cultural units begin by providing the child with a concrete sensory experience and then permit them to actively construct meaning around the information they have been presented with (rather than passively memorizing facts); additionally, these cultural units reinforce and inter-relate with the traditional Montessori materials by providing additional motives (more practice and repetition) for the child to engage in math, language, and handwriting tasks.

Taxonomy and the Animal Kingdom: Arthropods- Part Two

Hurt no living thing,

Ladybird, nor butterfly,

Nor moth with dusty wing,

Nor cricket chirping cheerily,

Nor grasshopper so light of leap,

Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,

Nor harmless worms that creep.

-Christina Rossetti

Our study of Arthropods continued today with an exciting visit from the University of Colorado Discovery Science Program's "Bug Mobile".

The CU Discovery Science Program is an award winning outreach program that began as a pilot program run by Fiske Planetarium; it collaborates with CU faculty to bring cutting edge and inspirational science programs to Colorado classrooms. The program serves over 30,000 Colorado students annually and has helped to raise the caliber of science instruction in the state.

Our knowledgeable guest facilitator, Samantha McBride, came to discuss the characteristics of arthropods, their life cycles, uses as pollinators, and adaptations like camouflage. She did an amazing job of adapting the presentation to the interests and abilities of the children.

The children got to experience the vast diversity of arthropods by examining a large assortment of mounted specimens, including the molted exoskeleton of a tarantula (with quite impressive fangs)!

The children also got an up-close and personal view of eight live specimens that were on loan from the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center. It was really amazing to be able to view them in such a small group setting and see them at a pace that really invited inquiry and deliberate observation.

I was particularly pleased by the politeness and self restraint demonstrated by the children; I know that CU generally does not do this program with children under the age of three and a half. Nevertheless, the class listened to the presentation with rapt attention and asked insightful questions. The facilitator remarked that their respectful behavior was more impressive than that of some third grade classrooms she had been in! Needless to say, I was very proud of them.

The living specimens included a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach,

a huge centipede from Parker, Colorado!

a beautiful millipede,

a brazen Chilean Rose Tarantula,

a beautiful and inter-active walking stick (he waved his arms around trying to scare us away, before getting very still and eerily rocking back and forth),

a shy hermit crab, a scorpion, a black widow spider, and a terrarium that was practically over-run with large, playful roly polys.

The program afforded the children the opportunity to have a concrete, first hand experience with arthropods that they would not have encountered otherwise; additionally, I have no doubt that it will help to peak their interest in the life sciences and the amazing diversity of life on Earth. Perhaps there were even some future entomologists in the room!

Our sincere thanks goes out to Samantha McBride for her interesting and enjoyable presentation and to the CU Science Discovery Program for making the experience possible. For more information about their program, please visit their website at: http://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/

Taxonomy and the Fungi Kingdom- Part 2

Our unit on Fungi continued this week with Mushroom Slicing, a twist on a classic Montessori Practical Life exercise. The children enjoyed carefully cleaning and slicing fresh Button Mushroom caps.

Later, the children enjoyed a special treat of Spinach and Maitake Mushroom wontons prepared by my assistant, Katie. One boy reported that they "taste like chicken," an idiom I had not expected from a two year old. Without exception, every child took a second helping and begged for more.

Many of the children chose to use the independent work period to reinforce their learning about Fungi by re-reading the Fungi books in the reading corner and matching different types of Fungi with the 3 Part Cards.
Their interest in Fungi even spilled over to outside play time. One boy came running toward me yelling excitedly, "Fungi, teacher! There's Fungi!" I followed him to find lichens growing on some of the trees and rocks in the yard. How lucky!

Taxonomy and the Fungi Kingdom

"Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus; one morning, there they are, we know not how, and they gaze upon us morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Young children are sensorial explorers and science appeals to their natural curiosity about the environment. In the Primary (3-6) Montessori cycle, children begin by learning to distinguish between things which are living and things which are non-living and discussing the characteristics of living things (not a simple feat for children who are in a period of cognitive development defined by animism and magical thinking). Subsequently, children learn to classify living things according to their biological taxonomy. We begin our study with the five Kingdoms.

This week, while we await reliably good weather to begin our study of plants, the children began a unit on Fungi. Fungi are fundamentally important to life on Earth because of their ability to decompose complex organic biomolecules and recycle plants after they die. In fact, if not for fungi, the Earth would be buried in several feet of debris and life on the planet would disappear!

Montessori strongly believed that all studies for children this age should begin with a concrete experience and that "nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses." As a result, we began our study of Fungi with a hands-on examination of twelve varities of beautiful, organic, exotic mushrooms. The children learned about the lifecycle of mushrooms and learned to identify the basic parts of mushrooms. It was amazing to watch how carefully the children handled them and how thoroughly they investigated and observed them (inhaling their earthy fragrance, delicately running their fingers over their velvety gills, and excitedly remarking about the diversity of colors and textures).

After completing the group activity, many of our mini-mycologists chose to continue the activity by matching mushrooms to corresponding matching cards and examining the specimens with magnifying glasses.

The children also began learning about the lifecycle of mushrooms by planting their own self-contained garden of Enokitake mushrooms. Although there are many different mushroom kits available, I particularly love this one because it is translucent; already, the children are able to see the mycelium (cobweb-like threads which are the "plant" from which the mushrooms will grow). The children seemed very excited!

Finally, the children celebrated the culinary virtues of fungi, by making and enjoying a special snack of mushroom risotto. There were more than a few fans of the earthy flavors in this classic comfort food!

Over the coming weeks, the children will continue their unit on Fungi by studying mushrooms using 3 Part Matching Cards and making Parts of Mushroom Booklets. After that, the children will learn about some other common fungi- including yeast, molds, and lichens.

Want to learn more?

-Our favorite local mushroom farm, Hazel Dell Mushrooms, has a great website- http://www.hazeldellmushrooms.com/.

-Mycologist Paul Stamets gave a really interesting lecture at the 2008 TED Conference called "6 Ways That Mushrooms Can Save the World" that you can watch at http://www.ted.com/. He also has a little cottage business where he sells mushroom kits (including the one we purchased), growing supplies, and educational materials on his website http://www.fungiperfecti.com/.