Guinea Pig Movements

              The children were very excited when we brought guinea pigs into the classroom.  We brought in the guinea pigs because they were large than the gerbils and the children could see them move a little easier.  The children watched them move and began to really talk about how they were eating.

                To expand on this, we began to feed some different foods to the guinea pigs – things the children have eaten for snack that they are familiar with because they all seemed a little confused by the pellets in their food bowls.  We gave the children oranges and apples to feed to the guinea pigs.

                 The children began to talk about how the pigs were eating and commenting on how fast they were eating. Nathan and Liana continually pointed to the guinea pigs as they ate and said, “Ooo” and “look!” to draw attention to what was happening.  Other children began to comment on the teeth and mouth of the guinea pigs.  They seemed surprised that the guinea pigs had teeth.  Jad continually called the guinea pigs, “bunnies.”  We think he thought they were a similar size.  When we showed him pictures of what a bunny looked like, he was still persistent with his idea and did not change his mind.

               As the children watched the pigs, a couple of children began to bring over pretend animals from around the classroom and pretend that they were eating near the cage to the guinea pigs.  We thought this was very interesting and began to reflect on what the children were trying to tell us.