Good-bye Butterflies!

On Monday we read a story by a Michigan author named Patricia Polacco. It was called Thunder Cake  and told how a young Patricia overcame her fear of thunder storms while on her grandma's farm in Michigan. We wrote about rain in our journals and painted thunderstorms on foil. 

Monday was also the day that our first butterfly emerged from the chrysalis! We put a slice of orange and a slice of watermelon in the cage, along with some sugar water. Butterflies have a proboscis - a long, coiled tongue that is used to suck nectar. We watched our butterflies land on the juice of the fruit and uncoil their proboscis. On Tuesday, more butterflies emerged and began to fly around the cage. 

We celebrated our butterflies by making some awesome tie-dye butterflies of our own!

When it was time, we took our butterflies outside and set them free on the playground! It was great to know we might see them at recess!

We continued our learning about Michigan state symbols and created pictures of our state fish, the Brook Trout, and our state flower, the Apple Blossom. 

We loved wearing our red noses for Red Nose Day on Thursday. We learned how this fundraiser helps children who don't have enough to eat. This led to a great discussion about having empathy for others. 

Next week we will be learning all about frogs and the amphibian life cycle! 
There is no school on Monday, Memorial Day.
Field Day is scheduled for Friday, June 2. Students should wear comfortable running shoes for outdoor activities, and put sunscreen on at home. We will be in and outside, taking breaks as needed in our classroom. 

Chrysalises!

When we arrived at school on Monday, we saw that four of our caterpillars had changed. They were no longer caterpillars - they had begun the chrysalis phase of the metamorphosis. One of the caterpillars did not change, and was no longer alive. Since we are scientists, we recorded this information in our journals. 

We demonstrated our learning about the insect life cycle in these pictures that show the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly stage. 

Two of our girls were chosen to sit at the special, fancy lunch table this week because they have demonstrated excellent lunchroom behavior and manners. What an honor!

Our Social Skills lessons this week helped us learn about disappointment. Sometimes when we are disappointed, or don't get what we want, we might want to throw things or kick. We learned that disappointment is a yellow zone feeling...so we need to use a coping skill to help us calm down. Adults may be tempted to relieve distress by meeting a child's demands, but we can also view disappointment as an opportunity to identify our zone and pick a coping skill to use, even if this means a grown up needs to guide or help them. 

We began a short mini unit about our state and the symbols for our state. We created robins, our state bird, in nests on Friday. We made the nests by rolling paper bags - it was tricky, and we had to stay calm to do this hard task. 

***Upcoming - next Thursday, May 25 will be RED NOSE DAY at Loon Lake. This is an event that raises money for issues related to children's health and medical care. Several of you have sent in $1.25 for a red nose - I will make sure that everyone has a nose for next Thursday. Your child might also like to wear a red shirt that day. 

Bees are insects, but snails are not...

We continued to work on learning more about insects. We learned that all insects have 6 legs and three body parts: the head, thorax and abdomen. When we read about honey bees, we learned that they smell with their antenna and only the girl bees have stingers! We made hives with bubble wrap painting, and big bees. 

We also have been observing our caterpillars and writing about them in our journals. They have been eating and getting larger... we saw that they have molted, or shed their skins. We think they are almost ready for the next phase...forming a chrysalis!

We created some beautiful snails, but decided that snails are not insects. They don't have 3 body parts or 6 legs.

Even though it is spring time and we want to be outside playing, we are still hard at work, learning all that we can. We are all becoming great readers! 

In our social skills lessons we are working on "managing anger". We have learned many coping skills, and we really need our students to use those instead of aggressive behavior when they are angry. Aggressive students often are less able to identify their feelings - it is helpful to ask your child to name their zone or feeling when they are angry. Sometimes, just stopping, taking a break and breathing help give a child enough time to think about a coping skill that might help them. 

I would like to wish all of the moms of Room 113 a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope it is a day filled with love, hugs and fun! 

Insect Fun!

We are reading, learning and writing about the insect life cycle. We wrote about insect eggs in our journals, and painted caterpillars using balloons. We now know that the first stage in the insect life cycle is the egg and the second is the larva, or caterpillar stage. 

We were very excited when our five little caterpillars arrived on Thursday! 

We measured them and they were only 1/2 inch long. We predicted that they will eat and grow over the next few days. We learned that when the caterpillars get too big for their skin, they will shed it or molt. 

We also learned about ladybugs and read both fiction and non-fiction books about ladybugs. We are glad that ladybugs are helpful friends in the garden because they eat aphids! 

After we read "The Grouchy Ladybug" we talked about the things that make us grouchy. These things can be "triggers" for upset or yellow zone feelings. Using a coping skill can help us feel calmer and back in the green zone. 

We also spent a long time talking about how to make friends and how friends act with one another. We looked at examples of successful friendships in our classroom and talked about what those friends do correctly. 

All of the staff in our room enjoyed Staff Appreciation Week - we loved the cards and treats and extra love our students showed us! Thank you everyone! 

More Eric Carle books...

We completed our Eric Carle author study this week with more wonderful books. We read a funny book about a box of rubber ducks that fell off a cargo ship and floated away, and painted ducks of our own!

We also read a book titled, "The Tiny Seed" and used photographs of our arms to hold flower bouquets. We wrote in our journals about seeds and what they need to grow. 

We had fun with these chameleons after reading "The Mixed-Up Chameleon" and learned a little about real chameleons too.

Next week we will begin our Insect Life Cycle science unit and are expecting our caterpillars to arrive! This is always a very exciting science unit!

*** I will be absent on Friday April 28 - May 2 and will return on Wednesday, May 3. Mrs. Campion will be our sub. If you need to communicate anything to us, please write it on the daily note, call the classroom (248 956-4033) or the office (248 956-4000). Much thanks! 

Eric Carle Author Study

This week we began our Eric Carle Author Study. We love reading books written by this author and creating art work in "Eric Carle" style! We read a book about the moon titled "Papa Please Get the Moon for Me" and created our own moon pictures.... 

We read "The Foolish Tortoise" and painted turtles....

We loved "A House for Hermit Crab" and had so much fun creating our crabs...

And we ended our week by reading "Mister Seahorse" and designing these awesome seahorses! Along the way, we added in some quick science learning about all of these animals. We have more Eric Carle books ready for next week....and then in the early part of May we will begin our insect life cycle unit. Our caterpillar larva should arrive during the first week of May!

In our social skills lessons we talked about using calm down strategies to manage strong feelings. We heard and discussed stories about children who were sad, worried or frustrated - we identified the feeling or zone and role played things they could do to feel better/get back in the green zone. Many children were able to share that they need to use their words/get adult help when frustrated or sad. This is important because our students need to be able to tell us when they have a strong feeling so we can help them. In addition, naming a feeling (saying, "I'm sad" or "I'm mad about my work") can help decrease the intensity of the feeling for children. 

Spring....

It was great to have everyone back from their Spring Break! We worked hard to get back into our classroom and school work routines. We enjoyed some stories about rabbits, ducks and chickens this week and created some beautiful spring art. 

One of our classmates has a new baby brother! We wrote about it in our journals. Congratulations to this family and very proud big sister!

Next week we will begin a two week author study about Eric Carle and many of his wonderful, artistic stories. 

** Remember, no school this Friday, April 14.