Insects...

We began our insect unit by reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". We created caterpillars of our own by painting with balloons! We also enjoyed a snack of different fruits - just like the caterpillar ate in the book! It was yummy!

On Tuesday we read a wonderful story called "Waiting for Wings". We looked carefully at the plants and flowers that attract butterflies, and painted some gardens, using a little scrub brush to add the paint. We created the butterflies the next day, and added them to our gardens. Don't they look fantastic!

We created 3 D insect life cycle projects too!

We also have learned that all insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts...the head, thorax and abdomen. We drew diagrams in our journal and labeled the insect body parts. 

Our caterpillars finally arrive on Thursday! We were excited to open the box and look at them. We are documenting their growth and activity in a special journal. 

We had time to learn about one more insect this week...we learned that bees are helpful because they help pollinate plants and they make honey. 

We started out with some rain music on Monday morning. Miss Marlowe brought a rainstick and big drum so we could make rainstorm music - we loved the sounds these instruments made!

We continued learning more about oviparous animals. We learned that octopuses lay their eggs in strings inside of ocean caves. We watched a video and wrote about it in our journals.

We talked about frustration in our social skills lessons this week. Frustration is a yellow zone feeling, and our body cues can help remind us to use a coping skill. Frustration is a strong feeling, and it can be hard to think clearly - we feel uncomfortable. Coping skills can help us feel better and get back in the green zone. We identified some of the times we might feel frustrated at school and at home. Many children named "not getting what they want" and "doing hard work" as triggers for their frustration. 

We wanted to celebrate the spring like weather today, so we ended our oviparous animal study by learning about robins, our state bird. Next week, we will begin a big science unit all about insects! 

April Showers and Oviparous Animals!

We worked together to create this April bulletin board for the hallway! We practiced reading the poem together to find the rhyming words.

We began a science unit about oviparous animals - ask your child to tell you what that word means (egg laying) and have him/her name some oviparous animals. We have been reading many interesting books about oviparous animals and wrote about some in our journals. 

We read some stories about ducks, and painted some for our room. 

In our social skills lessons we talked about strong feelings like disappointment and frustration. We discussed how our bodies feel uncomfortable when we have these feelings and made a chart that shows some of the physical feelings we might experience. Learning to identify body cues can help children know when it is time to calm down... we practiced using a "stop" signal to interrupt the escalation of emotion, and then named the feeling. 

Our individual and group pictures for Picture Day were first thing in the morning. We think we looked pretty good for our pictures. Here we are waiting for our turns...