Do Whales Lay Eggs?

Hello Kindergarten Families!  Happy Three Day Weekend!  I hope you are enjoying your time together.

I had a nice first week with your amazing kids.  There were already so many great ideas being exchanged and connections being made. 

Each day in the afternoon we look at something on the world wide web to stimulate discussion and to allow us to research things that we probably couldn't have in our classroom.  I like sharing it with you each week so you can look at it again together if you'd like, and also so that you can know what they are talking about!

Thursday's site was:
http://www.rense.com/general70/drift.htm
I chose this because friends on Wednesday were talking about how they like horses.  I thought these were interesting in that they looked real, but were a special form of art, and take a lot of thought to put together.  The children were very impressed that these were not real.  We had a neat conversation that came out of the fact that one child kept saying, "Bad!" and some friends were mad that they weren't "bad".  This gave us a chance to practice asking questions instead of jumping to conclusions and getting upset.  Once we asked the friend what "bad" meant to them, they said, "cool".  Then all the friends began saying, "Bad!" as we looked at more of the images.  As a result we brainstormed many synonymes that we used when we were exclaiming about this work, and added to our collective vocabulary. (You can find this list up in our classroom)


Friday's site was a short video on the National Geographic website:
http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/mammals-kids/whale-humpback-kids.html
I dreamt about this last night!  What a rich and interesting conversation!  I tried to write as much of what was being said as possible, so you can read it at school in our discussion and observation note binder.   Essentially I chose this video because many of the children already expressed how interesting animals are to them.  And this video in particular I thought might bring up a nice conversation about team work and how we can work together, like these humpback whales did to catch their fish. 

At first the children did talk a bit about this element, but then one friend asked why they are dangerous.  I asked what made them think this, and another friend said that the man said they were "endangered".  When I explained that endangered means that there aren't many of these animals living, and mentioned how the man who was interviewed was wishing that there would be more humpbacks, the friends began brainstorming how there could be more.  One friend said that the whales could lay more eggs.  Many friends agreed.  This sparked a debate of whether whales laid eggs. 

It was interesting to see how the chidlren described their theories and also how they repaired them when I questioned how this works.  For example, when I shared that whales have to keep swimming and have a long migration, to get to cold water to eat, and to warm water in the summer (we looked on the globe), I asked how can they keep a nest with eggs?  I loved watching the wheels in their brain turn as they took in new information, processed it and then thought how all this could work. 

Many friends began wondering if whales could have babies like humans, but a few didn't want to let go of the notion that whales have eggs and nests.  One friend even came up with an elaborate way for the whales to use their tails to tow their nest of eggs behind them as they migrate.  This was a great discussion for only being our third day together as a collaborative group.  As adults we struggle with the worry that children are "learning" theories that are not true.  My question here is, "Is it better for these children of such a young age to continue to see themselves as people who have great ideas and who can break down parts of our world and try to make sense of it all, or is it better for them to know, today, that whales do not lay eggs?" 

In this case I was hoping they would know that all ideas are welcome here in our growing learning community.  I felt if I told them they are wrong so often, they wouldn't have sharpened their skills of processing new information, seeing how it works or doesn't work in their theory and then coming up with many new possibilities.  We finished our deep discussion because some friends weren't used to sitting for so long, even though others were still theorizing.  The two questions I wrote down to remember that we are still thinking about, to discuss further are: If whales lay eggs, how do they keep a nest and take care of it?   and Could whales have babies in the same way that humans do?

Heady stuff for the first week.  I hope this gives you a context for any comments that came home.  I can see what an inquisitive group of children we have!  They are very excited to learn, and that in itself is my true goal as a teacher: to foster and not squelch their passion for learning!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  Thank you for sharing such inquisitive people with me!
Love, Jennifer