All About Ponds: Week 2

Ponds, ponds and more ponds!  
Want to read all about week 1?  Click here.
We kicked off week two with talking all about what a habitat needs.  The students were lead through an activity to build a model pond habitat with a marine science educator from the a local science museum.
  
Students marked the water line

Added both sand and gravel to the bottom

Used a piece of a clay pot as the shelter

And finally, added a piece of elodea (water plant).

As we added each piece, students discussed as a small group where things should go in the habitat, how the animals might use the different parts, and made observations.  Then as any good scientist would, we recorded our work in our pond journals.

Throughout the rest of the week, we observed 3 different pond animals (tubifex worms, water snails, and fish).  Each time, students worked in small groups and discussed their observations and made predictions about what each animal would do when it was added to the pond.  We recorded our information in our pond journals.

 "They look like shrimp."

 "The tubifex worms are tangled."

"The fish has a mouth and it has scales."

We then took our learning outside to the school garden where the students worked in small groups to create mini pond habitats.  The challenge was to create a pond using found objects in the garden that would hold water, have a place for animals to use as shelter, include plants and rocks, etc.  The kids had a blast working on these and couldn't wait to show them off to their friends!



My Kinders are now pond experts and we will be putting that schema to good use with our All About books in Writer's Workshop!

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