Trees, Leaves, and Whale Wishes

The Whales classroom felt very quiet this week. The Whales noticed that many Whale friends were not here. We sent Whale Wishes to friends who were either traveling, or not feeling too good. Whales even took it upon themselves to write get well cards for those friends. We are hoping our Whale Wishes made it to everyone and we will see everyone feeling better and back on Monday.

This week we started our unit of study on trees and leaves. We learned that there are two main different types of trees. We learned that Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the fall and winter when it starts to get chilly outside. However, Conifer trees keep their needles on through the whole year. The Whales were surprised to learn that leaves have mouths! The Whales noticed that just using our eyes, you cannot see the mouths on the underside of a leaf. However, if you have a very strong and powerful microscope, you would be able to see those mouths. The Whales also learned that these mouths open to get air, and they close when they don’t want to lose moisture (on hot days). The Whales examined Conifer cones and made many different observations. Whales noticed that cones are hard and sometimes sharp so that animals don’t eat them. Conifer cones can come in different shapes, and sizes. When we were looking at our cones, the Whales found a ladybug inside one and let it go outside in our piazza.

During our creative expression time this week, the Whales told puppet show stories. Some friends were audience members while other friends were puppeteers. The Whales thought about a story to tell with puppet characters before they began their puppet shows. These stories included a beginning, middle, and end. There were stories about wizards, princesses, animals with magic, and much more. The Whales are creative and imaginative story tellers!