What do snails do at night?

Our Predictions:

"They escape."
"Their shells glow."
"They sleep."
"They crawl in the container."
"They go on an adventure."
"They hide in their shells and sleep."
"They play together."
"They talk.

We used an iPad to make a video of our snails at night. The six hours of footage was time lapsed into the clip below. Watch this!

We learned that during the day, snails hide under logs and stones. They come out at night when it is cooler. They look for food at night. The students were very surprised to see how active and hungry our snails are at night!

Observing our Snails

Simple Subtraction

We practiced simple subtraction using the poem FIve Green and Speckled Frogs. Students enjoyed dramatizing the poem as well!

Nature Walk to the Forest

Our class has been exploring animal homes. After learning about snail habitats, we investigated (and took apart) an old birds' nest to see what materials were used to make it. Our class then went for a nature walk to the forest.  We looked for and collected items that we could use to build our own birds' nests. We found leaves, twigs, sticks, mud, grass, tree bark, straw, paper, cotton, and plastic. Students are now working in groups to build their own nests. We will post those pictures soon!

Students were very excited about the living things we saw at the forest. We turned over logs and found worms, snails, and potato bugs. We saw lots of squirrels racing up and down the trees and we heard  birds chirping. We saw some early signs of plant life. We even saw a couple of nests way up high in the trees.

Cucumbers are Delicious!

We continue to experiment with offering our snails different kinds of foods to see what they like to eat. Check out what the cucumber looked like after the long weekend! The snails ate right through it and even seemed to tunnel inside of it!

Snails Need Attention Too!

Pets need attention - even snails! Our snails loved being out and about today. Here are some of the students' observations:

"It's coming out. I see the eyes."
"There's slime on my hands."
"He's waking up. It's ticklish."
"He put slime on me."
"It's sticky."
"He's getting out longer."
"Why is it going inside (it's shell)?"
"Maybe it likes me because he's crawling everywhere on me."
"It makes slime on people."
"The tentacles are big."
"He's making his eyes looking at me."
"It's searching around for food on my hand with the tentacles."
"It's sad because it's going into its shell."
"It's hiding."
"It's moving its shell. The shell feels hard."
"It tickles me. He likes me."
"We can name them."

A Letter to The Three Bears

We took on the role of Goldilocks and wrote a letter of apology to The Three Bears. Students are learning about different forms of writing.

Recreating a Snail Habitat

We are learning about how to care for pet snails. Snails kept indoors need a terrarium. Our terrarium has many openings so that the snails can get air. We put gravel on the very bottom of the terrarium to absorb excess water (snails like it moist but not too damp). Next we added a layer of charcoal to prevent moisture or mold from building up and to reduce any bad smells. Then we filled the terrarium with soil, which snails like to dig in. We added a stick because snails like to climb, and they can use it as a hiding place as well. The cuttlefish bone provides calcium which helps the snails' shells grow hard and strong. We added moss which also helps to prevent moisture from building up. All of these materials can be purchased at a pet shop.

Check out our new skills

Cut and Rip Station

With Miss Jen (ECE Student)

The children worked on building muscle and dexterity in their hands and fingers as they ripped, cut and used tongs to pick up the materials.  Some of the children decided to sort the items into the bottles.

The Scavenger Hunt

With Miss Jen (ECE Student)

The children developed social skills and acted like explorers as they worked together in teams to find a list of different items from around the room.  Once the items were found, the children took them back to their group tables to sort and label them together.

Writing Words

With Miss Jen (ECE Student)

The children worked on writing and spelling words from the word wall by using their finger to spell in the sand.

Snail Inquiry

Students noticed that our baby snails have grown in size and their shells have gone from light to dark. These changes have sparked renewed interest in our classroom pets! This has led to our latest inquiry about snails and other living things.

We have been experimenting with different kinds of food to find out what snails like to eat. We learned that snails do not like peppers and peas very much. They prefer baby carrots over larger carrots. They enjoyed a sweet strawberry this morning. Their favourite food so far is romaine lettuce.