Lots of Reading, Fairy Houses, How to Writing and Caterpillar Grown!

Yesterday we began to make a list of possible how to writing topics such as

How to:

• roast a marshmallow
• walk a dog
• babysit a bee 
• play video games 
• brush your teeth 
• speak Nepali 
• make toast

Next week Kindergarten will begin writing their own How to Books!  We also looked at some how to steps for drawing two of our favorite story book characters: Elephant and Piggie!

Ms. Beth taught Kindergarten about Fairy Houses this week in the library and there has been lots of Fairy House building during outside play.  Our caterpillars have also grown A LOT since we first got them last week!

How to Writing

Today during Writer's Workshop I introduced "How-To Writing" and we discussed how sometimes authors write stories and sometimes writers write to tell others information.  I read a (silly) book How to Babysit a Grandma which gave directions for how to "babysit" a grandma and then as a whole group we wrote and illustrated "How to Plant a Seed."  Students worked in small groups to illustrate each of the six steps we came up with:

During Reader's Workshop I read a favorite book of mine, Bob and Otto by Robert Bruel.  It is the tale of two best friends who at first seem very much alike but Bob and Otto soon learn that they are indeed different.  Bob is a caterpillar who turns into a butterfly and Otto is a worm who digs underground!  Otto feels sad that he cannot fly like Bob but Bob teaches him that if he didn't dig underground then there wouldn't be tunnels for water to get to the roots of the trees.  If the trees didn't get water then Bob would not have green leaves to eat!  A lesson not only on friendship and appreciating differences but also on the importance of worms in our environment. 

Introducing...Star Light, Buzz, Alex, Mango and Hairy Caterpillar!

On Friday afternoon we to got a special delivery - caterpillars!  Kindergarten has been learning about insects and what better way to extend this learning then to watch caterpillars change into butterflies.  Today we learned that this is called metamorphosis.  We have 5 caterpillars which Kindergarten wanted to name. The names are: Starlight, Buzz, Alex, Mango and Hairy Caterpillar!  After about 7 days the caterpillars will eat up all of the food in their cup, climb to the top and attach themselves to the underside of the lid.  There they will hang in a "J" shape, shed their exoskeletons one last time and harden into chrysalides.  In another 7-10 days, the butterflies will emerge from the chrysalides - how exciting!  Mr. D also shared an empty beehive and bee that he found with us.  Kindergarten enjoyed getting a safe, upclose look at a real bee hive.

 

Planting our Pea Plants!

We had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather today both in the woods and later this afternoon in our school garden.  Ms. Christine from the Burlington School Garden Network visited us again today to help transplant our pea plants to our raised garden bed!  While we were in the woods we collected some sticks to build little teepees for the vines to grow up.  One group played a pollination game with Ms. Christine while the other group worked to prepare the soil for planting.  We are excited for our first pea pods to grow!

Kindergarteners are Entomologists!

What is an entomologist you ask?  An entomologist is a scientist that studies bugs!  After reading a few books on bees kindergarteners said that they are very interested in learning more about insects.  This morning during Morning Meeting I passed around a pair of bug goggles and discussed how bugs have compound eyes.  Kindergarteners said that it was hard to see out of the bug goggles and that they saw more than one of anything that they looked at.  We learned that insects have compound eyes because they are invertebrates (have no backbone) and that these eyes help them spot things that are moving quickly past them!

A Rainy Tuesday

We were able to beat the rain and get outside this morning.  This morning after morning meeting we watched a video about bees to learn more about pollination.  Also, during Reader's Workshop I read The Bumblebee Queen by April Pulley Sayre.  Kindergarteners had lots of questions about bees and tomorrow we will be looking at a diagram to look at the different body parts.  All insects have 6 legs, 2 antenna and 3 body parts: head, thorax and abdomen. 

During Math we used teddy bears to work on solving subtraction problems with the numbers 9 and 10. 

Welcome Back!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful April break and had a chance to enjoy the warmer weather! Students were excited to be back at school and reconnect with their classmates.  There was also LOTS of excitement around the growth of our pea plants!  These will soon be transplanted to our raised garden bed outside.  We also observed growth with our Lima Beans.  Students have been able to observe how a seed grows over time.

This afternoon I read the book Brilliant Bees by Linda Glaser and Kindergarten learned a BIG word: pollination!  Students were very interested in learning that bees in addition to making honey, bees are responsible for helping many of the fruits we enjoy grow.