Saturday, September 12, 2015

County Fair

County Fair Field Trip
We had a blast at the County Fair!


Can you tell?


How about now?


See!  
I told you we had fun!





Benny's Castle

Benny 
We love Benny.
He's actually very spoiled.


The children construct new habitats for him daily.



This particular castle included custom flooring.
Benny could eat AND poop all he wanted!


What's not to love?



There are always lots of ideas.
"Team work makes dream work"


Sometimes Benny is ungrateful for his lovely home


and runs as fast as he can and
he hides behind the bookcase.
(We scream when he escapes 
and scare the teachers.)

Then it's cleanup time and Benny takes a long nap.









Fred, The Tarantula

Welcome Fred!
Fred is a Common Brown Tarantula.
We think it's a female.
Fred is a good name for a girl.  Right?



We are very happy to have Fred as part of our class!


Fred is very hairy!



Fred is really big!



Fred eats crickets and cockroaches...
Clean, sterile cockroaches from the pet store.

Teacher Nancy uses tweezers for the cockroaches. 
(Teacher Nancy does NOT like cockroaches but she's not telling anyone.)

We love you Fred!



Monday, September 7, 2015

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

This week we observed metamorphosis.
It was simply amazing!
The children thought it was the coolest thing EVER!

Here is what we witnessed!



These caterpillars LOVE fennel, dill and parsley.
They ate and ate and ate!
(And pooped a ton!)


Then right before our eyes we watched one of the caterpillars
transform into this chrysalis.
(We now have three more chrysalises.)


Isn't this amazing?  Those gorgeous wings are all rolled up inside the chrysalis.
(I was happy the children were able to see this part of metamorphosis.)


On Monday morning, we saw this beautiful 
Black Swallowtail butterfly in our viewing box.


It flapped it wings over and over to help them dry.


We took the stick it was on and walked outside.


The children were mesmerized.


The butterfly stayed with us for several minutes.


Finally, it flew onto the roof
 where it paused for a few more minutes.
And, then it was gone.

Tomorrow we have two more butterflies to set free.
Hooray for metamorphosis!

Did I mention we have a new "PET" tarantula in our class?
His name is Fred.








Letter L Week

Letter L Week

Our themes this week included
 Lifesavers, lions, ladybugs, and leaves.


Our Literacy center featured the book,
Little Blue and Little Yellow.


This art was inspired by our book.


We also read the book,
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.


                              We graphed Lifesavers.
                    We ATE Lifesavers.
                    We may have eaten lollipops too...


We sorted leaves, 


described leaves,


 made patterns with leaves,


and stamped leaves.


We described lions
and read the book, The Happy Lion.



Roar!


Ladybugs were featured in the art center.
(We printed the ladybugs with potatoes.)




We also managed to squeeze in three birthday celebrations, music and spanish.
We had a lovely week.







Music With Teacher Karen

Music

Every Tuesday, Teacher Karen brings her guitar
and we sing, sing, sing.


It's one of the highlights of our week.




We get to go to Full Circle with Teacher Karen at the end of the month!
 Full Circle is a daycare for elderly folks.
We are looking forward to singing for them.







We treasure singing with Teacher Karen.
Thank you!



We LOVE you!