Discovering Sea Shells

Seashell Invitation to Play

I was so lucky last week when I happened to spot a box of these seashells sitting in the office. I asked the secretary what they were for and she said someone had donated them to the school and she was just about to send an email out to any teacher that wanted them. I felt like I had just won the lottery! Of course I scooped them up right then and there! We had already done an inquiry earlier in the year on the ocean. Although this would have come in handy then, I knew the children would be so intrigued and fascinated by these items during any time of the year. So up they went on the table as soon as they were brought down to the room. Treasure like this cannot be hidden for even a second!

Using their senses to explore the sea shells

Admiring the starfish

When the children were touching and feeling the sea life they would often make comments and ask questions about the holes that many of them had. Why are there holes? What could they have been for? They were especially intrigued by the sound of the ocean they heard coming from the hole of the big conch shells.

Using the magnifying glasses to observe the details on the shells 

Recording in their science journals
 

Many of the students drew a picture of the sea shell they were most fascinated by in their science journals and recorded the shell as either being smooth or rough feeling.  

Drawing of a sea horse and describing it as rough

Starfish on a mirror. Seeing them from a different perspective.

Stacking starfish

Noticing the various sizes of the shells.

Learning to be careful with the fragile shells.

 

 

Making a circle formation with the different shells.



 

The children were so curious about the various sea life that were displayed on the table in the classroom. Each and everyone one of them were engaged when it was their turn to come and explore the sea shell table. They had so many questions and observations about many of the shells. They loved just picking them up and feeling them. They would notice the texture and the beautiful colours. They would put the various conch shells up to their ears to listen to the ocean or would cover their face with the ones that were as big as their heads. Some students would stack them, make a display on the mirrors, or would pick their favourite ones to form a circle. Others would comment on the weight of the shell or would compare the characteristics of one shell to another. A few students surprised me when they would know the name of one that I wasn't even sure about. This discovery of sea shells was one that each child was excited about and where they were wanting to learn more about this natural life from the sea.

Building Towers

Building Centre

 Often when the students are playing with the big blocks in our class we noticed they would build structures such as; towers, houses, and castles. So we decided to build on their interest and hopefully inspire the children to build a variety of towers in our classroom by setting up a whole new building centre at the dramatic play area. The building centre had displayed books about towers, framed photos of towers , different block sizes, paper towel tubes, cups, and 3D food containers.  

A replicated tower built by 3 students from a displayed tower book

Using small blocks to build her tower.

 In a basket we had clipboards with a paper titled "My Plan". The students would pick a tower book, look through the pictures and choose a tower they wanted to build. After they chose their tower they would draw it on their plan sheet and then try to build what they drew from the materials available at the building centre. The children really enjoyed this process of building their towers. They looked like little architects hard at work!

Using cut up pool noodles from the sensory bin and small blocks to build her castle.

A Cup Tower

An ice tower built outside during recess by a handful of students

Tower built from our containers in the sensory bin

Painting their own tower



Class Tower's Painting

Some of the children chose to create and draw their own towers. Later they painted their tower above  the drawing they had done earlier. After every student had painted their tower we had a completed class art piece with unique towers of various sizes, shapes and colours that we hung on our building centre wall.