Field Day was GREAT!!!

Our Field Day pictures tell the story....

We have been busy learning about frogs and other amphibians. We drew and labeled frog diagrams in our journals...

We made lily pads and frogs after we read that frogs like to sit on logs and lily pads to breathe air. This project involved using tracers and cutting circle eyes from squares of paper...tricky, but we persisted!

Next Friday, June 9, is our Field Trip to the Outdoor Center. Students need to bring a sack lunch and drink - it is helpful to pack it in a bag that can be thrown out. Please put your child's name on the bag. We will not have a snack, so make sure your child eats a good breakfast. Children should wear close toed shoes - we will be inside and outside during our stay at the Outdoor Center. 
***Please be sure to return the permission slip.*** 

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!