This month in Rabbit Run...

Good morning, Rabbit Run!


Can you believe it's already May?! The year has flown by! During April we studied the life cycle of bees, as well as the parts of the honey bee. We read The Honeybee Man, Honey Makers, and The Beeman. We talked about the different roles of each bee within the hive family. We recited a poem about bees by Aileen Fisher that many of the children have learned by heart. And of course we observed all the bees flying amongst the wildflowers on our own school campus. Here is the poem.

There wouldn't be Sunflowers
Wouldn't be Peas
Wouldn't be Apples
On Apple trees
If it weren't for fuzzy old
Buzzy Old Bees
Dusting Pollen
From off their knees.

We also have been learning about the Wildflowers of Texas. It has been awesome to see the children identify them at school and to listen as they tell me about the flowers they have seen at home and in their neighborhoods. Some of the flowers in our set are: bluebonnets, prairie fire (or Texas Paintbrush), buttercups, milkweed, rain lilly, verbena, sunflowers, Texas prickly poppy, Texas thistle, and blue eyed grass.

Coming up in May, we will be making connections between the birds we have been learning about and of those the ones that cast pellets. Last week a child found an owl pellet on the playground, which sparked great interest in casting pellets and the diets of these birds. I followed their interest by ordering some Great Horned Owl pellets online and we will be dissecting them next week when they arrive to determine what their diet is and what they ate. We have bone identification charts, pellet identification charts, and we are ready!

We have been singing the song Spin, Spider, Spin for a while now, and the children know all three verses plus the chorus. Yesterday I called them to the Gathering by playing the version by Patty Zeitlin. They were so excited and blown away that the song we have been singing together is a "real song" :) After playing this version I played the version by Dan Crow, and then the version by Ceilidh-Jo Rowe and Matthias Weston. It was a really cool study in the ways people can take the same thing and make it their own in a way that it sounds very different. There were some requests that I tell the parents/grown-ups the names of all the versions so that they can listen at home- so here you are! This song has also helped us navigate moments where there is a spider in the classroom and rather than squish it or feel afraid I will simply say "it's a tiny harmless spider" and the children present will respond with the next lyric of the song "the kind that catches flies" which is a lovely approach for us. I will then catch it in our Bug Catcher and release it outside. 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Happy May!
Elizabeth