butterflies

Our caterpillars arrived 3 weeks ago.  We enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow every day, turning into a pupa, and finally coming out of their pupa as a beautiful butterfly!  We studied each stage of the butterfly life cycle, and the students made a little book about the different stages. 

 Day 1

 Day 3

 Pupa Stage

 Butterflies!



We also did some fun stuff with Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

In college I did an author study on Eric Carle.  One of our assignments was to pick a book and make something that connects with the book.  I wanted to make something that would last through my teaching years.

My mom and I worked together to make a felt board.  I shared this with my students.  I gave each student a felt illustration, and when I read about what they had, they came to put it up on the board.

  

I put this in a center after we did it as a whole class.  It was a huge hit.  They loved retelling the story.

We also wrote about the hungry caterpillar. 

"If I were a hungry caterpillar..."

...I would eat 1 apple, 2 cakes, 3 lollipops, 4 cheese, 5 cookies, 6 pumpkins, 7 oranges, 8 chicken, 9 pie, 10 pears, 11 grapes.

She made sure to include it ALL in her picture!

...I would eat carrot, cupcake, pizza, cheese, and an apple. 

He had drawn a lot of other foods but ran out of time and room on his paper to write it all!

Today we let our butterflies free.  It was exciting as we watched each one fly away!

eventful day!

Only 3 more Monday's left in this school year!  AHH!!!  So crazy!  It is hard for me to believe how fast this year has gone.

Today was a very eventful day.  This time in the year there is so much going on.  We are finishing up assessments, EOGs are starting for 3rd and 4th grades, and there is still lots to teach these kinders! 

We are counting down to the last day of school.  You know that I wouldn't have just a plain boring countdown.  What kind of Kindergarten teacher would I be?!?!?

We are having a countdown ABC style!  I am calling them "ABC days!"  Each day is a different letter and to go with the letter is a theme. 

So far we have celebrated....

A- Stuffed Animal Day

(didn't take any pictures)

B- Bubbles Day

 
(note to self...DO NOT buy Crayola colored bubbles!  They are SUPER messy!!!!!!)

C- Chocolate Day 

Today was Chocolate Day!  They came in first thing this morning talking about it!  I made 5 boxes of chocolate pudding and picked up several table cloths from the Dollar Tree.  We were all set!  I made sure to set some rules...like no licking the table, no touching other friends' pudding, no spreading pudding on your face or clothes!  I counted to three and they were allowed to play free!  They laughed and laughed!  It was so cute to listen to their enjoyment!  To make this a little more educational, I made them practice writing their name, letters, and numbers!  I enjoyed watching as they played in the pudding sneaking little licks off their fingers!

As we were cleaning up several students said that this was the best day! 

Chocolate can make any day better!

This also came today in the mail....

We started our Caterpillar/Butterfly unit today!   

When I pulled the jar out of the box and showed what was in it they started asking lots of questions. 

One student asked if this was going to be our class pet!

I am SO amazed by this metamorphosis!

As I was looking up facts about the whole metamorphosis transformation over the weekend, I became very interested and excited to share these cool facts with my kinders.  

If you have never watched this...it is a MUST!  I am so glad that when I was Student Teaching my cooperating teacher ordered these for her class.   

I am going to try to take a picture of the process these little guys every day. 

Day 1


Check back tomorrow for another blog post about what my Kinders are doing to encourage our 3rd grade buddies for their EOG!