Metamorphosis...

After watching our caterpillars eat, grow and molt, we saw them climb to the top of their container. First they hung in the shape of a J, then they molted one last time. Our caterpillars are now Chrysalids! We moved them into a larger habitat so that they will have more room...now we are waiting for them to become butterflies!

We welcomed a new student to our classroom -we are happy he is here with us!
We had a team puzzle build today - it was so much fun! Groups of children had to work together to assemble puzzles - great cooperation and friendly turn taking!

We have been reading a chapter book, "Charlotte's Web" and enjoying it very much. We learn how to really stretch our attention spans and use our imaginations to create pictures in our heads when we listen to a book like this. This book also helps us expand our vocabulary and understand the different character traits of Wilber, Templeton, Charlotte, Fern, Avery and all the others. 
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of our moms, grandmas and caretakers! Enjoy your special day!

Our Caterpillars Arrived!

We began our insect life cycle unit last week by learning how to identify an insect. We sing a song to help us remember that insects have three body parts -a head, thorax, and abdomen. They have compound eyes, six legs and antennae too....and many insects have wings. Ask your child to sing it to you!
Your child will also tell you that insects are oviparous, and they go through a metamorphosis -they change from an egg to a caterpillar or larva, to a chrysalis or pupa and finally into a butterfly or adult insect. Miss Marlowe, our music therapist, taught us song about the insect life cycle that helps us remember that metamorphosis means to transform and change. There are a lot of science words that your child knows!
On Monday  we received a box...

Inside the box we found this...

We have 5 baby caterpillars! They are crawling and eating the green food on the bottom of their jar. We measured them and they were 1/2 inch long, but we think they will grow!
We learned that butterflies have a special  tube-like tongue called a proboscis. They uncurl their tongue to sip nectar from flowers. We hope to see our own butterflies do this when they emerge from the chrysalis stage. In the meantime, we became butterflies ourselves! We squeezed juice out of oranges (great fine motor activity!) and used fun straws to sip our nectar up!

While we continue observing our caterpillars, we will also be learning about other insects, such as lady bugs, bumblebees and fireflies.

Science Alive came to visit!

On Thursday afternoon we had a really special treat from our PTA - we had a Science Alive classroom visit! The Science Alive staff brought animals right into our classroom so that we could look at them up close! Our students remembered a lot of animal information from our science units this year, so it was a wonderful learning experience for them. Thanks PTA!

This week we read "Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter and made a list of character traits for Peter. We finished up our oviparous animals science unit, and your child will be bringing home his/her  oviparous animal booklet. Next week we will begin a new science unit - insects!
We had fun making bird's nests to eat - we used "mud" and "sticks", jelly beans and Peeps - they were wonderful to eat!

In our social skills lessons this week, we talked about fair ways to play. We discussed sharing, trading and taking turns and practiced doing those things during Center Time. We learned how to solve a problem with a friend by following these steps: Say the problem, Think of Solutions, Explore the Consequences and then Pick the best solution. We will practice and work on these steps this spring for all kinds of difficult situations. You might like to write down these steps and help your child use them at home too.
One of our students built a little slide for our fairy door - we were excited to find a little note from them that said that they had a blast playing on it! They've left us some nice treats this week too!

Our final Parent Support Group meeting will be next Wednesday, April 23, at 6:30. We will meet in our classroom - I hope many of you will be able to join us! 

Now we are 15!

A new friend joined our class this week, and everyone made him feel welcome. We have a full classroom of 15 students, so room 113 is a very busy place! Perhaps your child has talked to you about our number system -we each have a number and this is how we line up, and how we sit at group time. Knowing exactly where our place is has helped to reduce some of the commotion we were experiencing during transitions. It has also been a great way to practice odd and even numbers and counting in order.

We have begun to talk about oviparous and viviparous animals -the kids love these big words! Ask your child to give you examples of each, and ask them to explain why! You might be surprised at how smart your child is!  (Here is a hint - humans are viviparous.) On Monday we found eggs by the fairy door - inside each egg was an oviparous animal!

We have been working a lot on the concept of following directions. This is not easy for many students because we are often asking them to do a task that is challenging, or to transition to a task that is not preferred, or to change a behavior that has been a pattern. We actually try to give children a lot of practice with this skill - each time a direction is given, we have another opportunity to learn and practice. This skill becomes the basis of so many other learning opportunities for children. If you notice a 2 on your child's note, you will know that we are working on this with your child. It does not mean your child is "bad" or a "problem" - it means that we all need to work on that area. We review the rubrics for all behavior areas and the notes every day, so children are aware of what each number means. We want to be sure that they know what "following directions" looks like and sounds like so that they can shape their behavior. Thanks to all of you who are also working on this at home!
The playground is thawing, but is still very wet and muddy. Please make sure your child has boots for recess, and extra clothes here at school to change into. We are happy that spring has arrived, but we know the appeal of mud and puddles!
I hope you all have a wonderful Spring Break Week. I will miss the children, but I know they will love being able to get outside in the nicer weather! When we return from break we will finish up our oviparous animal study, and then get ready for insects!   Paper report cards will come home on Wednesday April 16.

Our Bowling Trip

We had so much fun on our bowling trip! The kids worked well with each other, and we were able to bowl for an entire hour! I overheard classmates saying encouraging words to one another - every child was a wonderful bowler! It was a great learning experience for us to take our coping skills outside of our classroom and into the community. We are grateful to the Walled Lake Foundation for Excellence who provided us with a mini-grant. We used funds from this mini-grant to pay for the school bus that took us to and from the bowling alley.

A busy week with Seuss, nouns and leprechauns...

Look who visited our classroom! We loved reading all sorts of Dr. Seuss books this week!

Our social skills lessons focused on using positive self talk to help with strong feelings like anger and jealousy. We practiced bumping out a upset/negative thought and bumping in a good/positive thought. Positive self talk engages the thinking part of the brain and helps divert student's attention from negative self-talk, which can escalate strong feelings. We are working hard on using coping skills instead of other things that may cause the problem to get bigger. We also are working hard to re-frame mistakes as opportunities to get feedback and make changes.
We learned that nouns are words that name people, places or things - we all identified some nouns in a  little bird book we made.
We also had time for some leprechaun fun...we even found little letters from a leprechaun outside our fairy door. Some days there were treats...and today there was a container full of magic powder! We were left a note that said to add milk and shake the container, repeating some leprechaun words. When we were done, we had a special treat to eat!

Our Animal Unit is Done!

Wow! We have finished our big animal research projects! This was a new process for our class, and a great learning experience. We read/looked at non-fiction books about animals, and learned how to find specific information  -   what the animal eats, where its habitat is, who are its predators etc. We learned how to write the information down neatly, and how to add illustrations and diagrams. This week we took time to share our  finished projects with one another -everyone felt very proud! We are bringing home our finished research projects this weekend -please let your child share his/hers with you. We will begin to send home our many animal art projects over the next week or so. They have brightened our walls and added to our learning!

During this unit we also worked in our science notebooks - we will bring these home in June. We sorted animals into categories (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds and amphibians), learned about animal coverings (scales, feathers, fur) and learned about different habitats.
We are excited about our upcoming field trip to Wonderland Lanes Bowling Alley, sponsored in part by a mini grant from the WL Foundation for Excellence.  We will go with Dr. Cohen's class on March 25. Please fill out and send back the permission slip. If possible, we are asking for $5.00 to help with the cost. This will be a wonderful opportunity to practice social skills and teamwork.
We are excited to welcome a new friend to our classroom! Now we have 14 children in Room 113! We love opportunities to practice turn taking, asking for help and sharing - here are some friends playing at Center Time together. This is not an easy skill for us - we practice staying at our center, cleaning up calmly and quietly, and talking to our partner.