Nocturnal Tendencies

Armed with flashlights, Pre-Primary students walk along the walls of the Willow Room hunting for signs of nocturnal animals. Energy builds as the children shriek and find they are surrounded by owls in trees, racoons, and even bats that fly overhead! For two weeks, with the lights turned down in Pre-Primary classrooms, students have been immersed in learning about the night. From learning about nocturnal animals to sharing bedtime routines, nighttime focus is rich with opportunities to discover and demystify this time of day children often wonder about.

 

Tomorrow they celebrate the end of their nighttime focus with the beloved Lowell tradition, Pajama Day. On this special day students show up in their pajamas, eat waffles, drink chocolate milk, and dance as fireflies under the stars. Each classroom is set up with a different nighttime activity for the children to experience.

 

During the last two weeks, students have been making many discoveries and observations about the night. Their explorations began by comparing each other’s nighttime routines. With pictures of each activity, they arranged the prints in order from beginning to end and observed the similarities and differences. When children in the Adventurers Room were asked “What happens at night?” They responded: “The sun goes away at the end of the day.” “Street lights and headlights come on.” “Trees turn dark.” “The trees look black at night.”

 

Nocturnal animals, specifically owls, were on the minds of children in the Discovery Room as they read books and sang songs about the subject. They even played a game where they were presented with the sound of an animal and then had to guess what it could be. In the dance studio with Elly, they danced like the fireflies at night.

 

Students in the Explorers Room took their exploration of frogs, hedgehogs, opossums, and other nocturnal animals further, asking questions such as What do they eat? Where do they sleep? What are their babies called? They learned some nocturnal animals eat fruits, vegetables, and even items found in trash, while others prefer to satisfy their appetites with smaller animals!

 

When children share in their discoveries of the night, they develop social-emotional skills and strengthen literacy and math skills with reading and sequencing activities. The lessons of the nighttime focus are as limitless as the students’ imaginations and pave the way for fond memories and lasting connections between students, teachers, and even the night itself.