Animals 2 x 2

Eisenhower is lucky to have a wonderful hands-on science program, called FOSS, which is developed by the University of California.  Our first science unit was Animals 2 x 2.  In this unit, students are taught and expected to...

• Develop a curiosity and interest in the living world around them.
• Observe and describe the structures of a variety of common animals—fish, snails, earthworms, isopods, and chicks.
• Compare structures and behaviors of different pairs of animals.
• Observe interactions of animals with their surroundings.
• Communicate observations and comparisons.
• Acquire the vocabulary associated with the structure and behavior of animals.
• Handle animals carefully, and participate in the care and feeding of classroom animals.

As you may have remembered from a previous post, we started our unit by observing red worms, which we later put to work in our worm bin.  After the worms, we observed goldfish and guppies.

On day 1, we observed their structure and recorded our observations in our science notebook.  We also formed "I wonder..." statements (questions) about fish and read a non-fiction book to find some answers.

On day 2, we talked about what fish need to survive.  We learned about responsibility and made sure that our fish were comfortable and well taken care of.

On day 3, we introduced a tunnel into the fish tank and observed their behavior.

On day 4, we observed guppies and recorded our observations with sketches in our science notebook.  We noticed how they were similar to goldfish and how they were different.

After observing worms and fish, we decided to observe even more animals!  What about insects and spiders?  Fortunately, one of my father's past hobbies was to encase insects and spiders in plastic.  He was happy to share his collection with the kindergarteners so they could compare and contrast insects and spiders.  We are still studying the differences.  I was amazed at the detail that the kindergarteners included in their insect sketches.