The Creature in the Cave

As part of our unit of inquiry into survival, we've been looking at animals and plants and what they need. One way we've been doing this is through an imaginary scenario to which the children have contributed most of the information...

Our village is by a deep lake. Some of the people in our village dive down into the lake to get a plant that grows at the bottom; this plant is used in a medicine. They have described to us what the plant looks like.

There's a mountain by our village too. High up in the mountain is a cave. Recently, a creature has been seen going into the cave. Some of us went up the mountain, and looked in the cave. We saw what the creature looked like.

Here we are, discussing what is needed for the dive, how we make the medicine, and mapping out what's around the village. There are three groups that are experts on these three things:

After careful preparation, a group dived down into the lake to get the flower needed for the medicine. Another group carefully made the medicine. 

And a third group went up into the mountains to see the creature and its child. The story continues next week...

With thanks to Jenny Lewis for this 'Mantle of the Expert' unit.