Hatching Butterflies!!!

We were greeted first thing Monday morning with our butterflies "Herky and Hawk" fluttering around our net. We were excited but bummed that we did not get to see any of the hatching from the chrysalis ourselves. Thank goodness for technology and being able to show a quick video snip of what they missed. Our classroom butterflies are now on their way to Mexico to overwinter.

Don't Play the Bully Game

The students enjoyed an assembly with magic and information to remember with Dennis Regling presenting Change Your School: Don't Play the Bully Game. Our PTO paid for the program which kicks off our year and the school's  Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

 

Egg-Larva-Chrysalis & Pupa-Adult

We were fortunate enough this year to get a couple of Monarch caterpillars or as the students have learned, larva from Patricia, who faithfully watches for them every year for me.  The students were able to journal and draw the life cycle and even clean up some frass!  When we received our larva they were close to the 5 cm. so I knew we wouldn't be feeding and cleaning for long and sure enough Monday our larva changed into pupa with a new chrysalis covering.  This is such an exciting scientific wonder to watch.  They have enjoyed learning about this life cycle, what they eat, how they lay their eggs, and then how they emerge from the chrysalis. We will update our post when they hatch and we send them off to Mexico. By the way, the class named them appropriately Hawk and Herky with their distinctive black, yellow, and white coloring. Quiz your student on all of their Monarch knowledge!

Math Stations

We start our math with a mini-lesson and then have whole group or station work.  I like to use stations to work on our math because it gives me an opportunity to work with small groups of students. Working with smaller groups helps to differentiate the teaching to have extra time with struggling students and accelerate others.  This also allows students to work at their own pace and level on the computers on IXL at http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-2. This program is aligned to the Core and works with all of our standards. The students also work on their fact work on XtraMath at http://xtramath.org  program and then various hands on fact games and ipods with Pop Math.

Baked Seeds!!!

Baked Seeds!!!

I love Science and all of the inquiry and learning that goes on with the exploring that takes place.  We always plant seeds in the fall in our room because it is warmer than it is in the spring and I always have better luck with the seeds germinating and growing. We had a slight problem this week. When we checked our seeds - nothing had happened by Monday. The students didn't think anything of it because when they predicted how long it would take for them to grow they thought they needed to wait another 3 weeks. I happen to know that the lima bean seed will usually start to show roots in a couple of days - so I was worried. The plants have always sat in between the window and the blinds - problem was we were fortunate to get new shades this summer and they block out most of the light and are heavy duty. Hence, a little oven was formed and our beans were cooked. The containers were almost hot to the touch. I decided I had to replant Tuesday and told the kids what had happened. They were extremely excited to see roots starting by the end of the week and have been journaling the growth. The students enjoyed learning about seeds and were able to dissect 3 different seeds and see the tiny new plant inside and take the seed coat off. We have also explored the plant parts and some didn't really appreciate the chives smell in the room but were fascinated to see all the parts of my cherry tomato including a tiny flower and right next to it the beginnings of the little fruit starting to grow. Next we will explore seeds and decide how they could be moved and try to identify them. They will also decide if the size is related to the size of the fruit/vegetable. Make sure to ask all about our exploring.

Planting the seeds in cd cases - for easy examining of the plant parts.

Finally-roots have emerged!