Art allows a child to share their thoughts, ideas, and feelings.
Tori: It's a girl called Princess Leia and a sea anemone.
Art is also a useful tool for teaching. It allows for something which may be an intangible item to become real for the child, even if simply in model form.
Learning through art provides opportunity for vocabulary development, understanding of concepts, as it also creates opportunities for children to share what knowledge they have gained and retained.
Morah Katie: Scout, tell me about what you are doing?
Scout: I'm making a sea urchin.
Morah Katie; What are the spiky spines for? Why do sea urchins have them?
Scout: Because they are sea urchins.
Morah Katie: I agree sea urchins have spiky sharp spines, do the spines help the urchins catch food?
Scout: Yes, they catch the food for them.
Morah Katie: Noah, what would do if you were a fish swimming by a sea urchin?
Noah: Swim away so I don't get poked by the spikes. They are spiky and they catch things to EAT!
In addition to art projects, puzzles provide opportunities for discovery and conversation.
Dena: It's a whale and there's an octopus.
Levi: There is also a shark and a sea horse.
Dena: The crab is really big. Its a big crab.
Levi: I don't understand how a sea horse moves, its not a fish.
Morah Katie: Let's look closely, what does it have on it's body?
Dena: Curves.
Morah Katie: Yes, it does have a curvy body, anything else? Look closely.
Levi: FINS! It has fins.
Morah Katie: What type of animals have fins?
Levi: FISH!
Dena: I didn't know sea horses are fish.
Levi: That means it's an vertebrate.
Morah Katie: Yes it is.
Noah and Aaron discovered something on the whale in ocean puzzle.
Noah: Morah Katie, what are those things on the whale?
Morah Katie: They are barnacles.
Aaron: What are barnacles?
Morah Katie: We can look in some of our ocean books and try to find the answer.
Morah Katie: They are invertebrates that live on things, sides of boats, even whales.
Noah: Wow, that's cool.
(Morah Katie will do some added research and be sure to bring these invertebrates back when we begin our study on whales)
Morah Katie: If I was looking for an octopus, where should I go?
Dena: To the sea.
Morah Katie: Will an octopus be easy to find?
Levi: No.
Morah Katie: Why not?
Dena: They can squish themselves into small places and things.
Kian: If they get caught they let go of their arm and they grow a new one.
Levi: They hide by changing colors to whats near them.
Morah Katie: So it sounds like it would be hard to find one.
Tori: They can hide good.
Morah Katie: Are jellyfish fish?
Levi: They are not fish.
Morah Katie: They are not, fish have something jellyfish do not.
Who can tell me what jellyfish do not have?
Dena: Backbone.
Morah Katie: Which makes them a ???
Noah: Invertebrate!
Morah Katie: Looking at the jellyfish, does it remind you of another sea animal?
Tori: A sea anemone.
Morah Katie: Sea anemones, coral and jellyfish are all closely related animals, like cousins. They all have something, what do you think that is?
Dena: Tentacles.
Morah Katie: Yes, and what can they all do with their tentacles?
Tori: Zap things to eat.
Morah Katie: How are they different?
Levi: Jellyfish float.
Morah Katie: Jellyfish let the water move them around as they float in the currents.
They also suck in water, and push it out to push them around also. How do coral move?
Levi: Coral don't move.
Morah Katie: How do sea anemones move?
Kian: Very slowly.
Noah: Look at these monster fish that live deep deep down in the ocean.
Dena: What are these?
Morah Katie: They are see-through shrimp, hatchet fish, angler fish.
Noah: They are monster fish, they are ugly. I am going to make a family of the scary fish, the angler fish.
(Noah's collage of angler fish)We finished our week with a delightfully fun Shabbat Party.
We welcomed Mom's and younger children to join us share challah, kiddush and music.
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