African Zebra Complete!

The class finished our life size adolescent African zebra!! The process for the kids was completely fun, messy, engaging,  and exciting. ....while I prayed it would look like a zebra at the end!
Step 1: We mixed cement in four jugs and used 4 tubes that were more or less the same size (haha) for legs. The cement was used to keep the zebra from tipping over in the end.

Step 2:: We used recycled materials to form the shape. We taped it together over and over and over....lots and lots of tape!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: We used newspapers and paper towels to paper mache over the boxes, milk jugs, tubes...

Step 4: After the first layers dried, we used white computer paper to paper mache. This left the base color for our zebra ( even though we learned zebras are actually black with white fur)!

 

Step 5: We tore strips of black butcher paper and glued it on for the stripes.

 

 

Step 6: We used raffia for the mane and tail. We used cable ties to hold the raffia together and poked it through the paper mache.

 

Voila!!!

Call me Zebra....

Almost turning into a zebra!! The kids have applied paper mache the past two days and added ears to our zebra mold. We are almost there...tomorrow we will add stripes!!

Baby zebra

The class decided to build a life size baby zebra! We researched a lot of African animals, chose a zebra, measured, built,  measured again, taped, taped, taped......Next we will paper mache him to bring him to life!!

Persuasive Letters

We have two more responses from the persuasive letters the children wrote in February/March! So exciting- Amazon and Chick-Fil-A!

Mystery Reader

Thank you Mr. Jacoby for coming in as the Mystery Reader! :Please call or email me if you would like to read before the end of the year!

Simple Machines Fair

Thank you so much parents for helping us run the simple machine stations! The children were able to get their hands on real tools and explore how to make work easier!

We Are SMAP

Who or what is SMAP??? Super Master Animal Patrol, of course!! We are using dramatic inquiry to learn about the life in Rwanda. Dramatic inquiry is when we pretend to be other people, in other places, taking on adult roles!! We then use inquiry to guide our learning. The children wanted to be a group of people who help animals. We looked at names of other animal rights groups to gain some insight. The children then came up with SMAP! Next, we had to determine what exactly SMAP would do for animals. Once we figured out our mission, we decided it was time to advertise our services. We designed a logo and used it on each of our advertisements. Once the ads were finished and "sent out" we discussed what a phone call from a potential client may sound like. Each child had a chance to speak to the client who is looking for an agency to help move his African animals to new habitats. It was thrilling, really incredible, to watch how each and every child wanted to pretend and "talk on the phone" to the client. They came up with a good list of things we will need to learn about to help these animals. Their lists contained extremely thoughtful tasks such as: determine which animals can share habitats, design a truck to transport the animals, research the diets of these animals, study about the job duties of a veterinarian, etc,  Stay tuned for SMAP's accomplishments!