Painted Lady Butterflies have emerged!

It was with great excitement that one of our fine lads in class announced that a butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis this afternoon.  By the time we were ready to go home, another three had emerged.

After I had said good-bye to the students and returned to the room, the 5th one was drying its wings.  How many will be out by tomorrow?  The students were full of questions!  What is the red stuff?  What are they going to eat?  What are they called?  Which one is mine?

These are Painted Lady Butterflies and are native to Alberta.  They are very similar to the colourings of a Monarch butterfly (as one smart cookie noted) but do not fly to Mexico for the winter!  Their life cycle is less than 40 days.  We will be giving them a diet of sugar water soaked into sponges so they can suck through their proboscis.  What amazing observation opportunities the children will have before we release these winged wonders back into God's beautiful world.

Snack time is healthy time!

A few years ago, our school district joined an Alberta Government initiative to help students make healthier choices during the school day.  We participate in daily physical activities, have a 'backwards' lunch hour which means the students play for 20 minutes before they eat their lunch and for their morning recess, the students play and then come inside to eat their snack.  

Having food that is not processed has been encouraged and is supported in research to provide more energy and 'brain power' during their learning time.  Because processed foods have more sugar and salt, the body works harder to process these sugars.  Natural sugars in fresh fruits are actually more likely to boost the energy level of the children.

They smile more when they are eating healthy!

Please consider sending fresh fruits or vegetables, yogurt, cheese or rice cakes or crackers as a mid-morning snack for your little ones!  Thanks!

Family Weekend Fun is Coming!

A few years ago I was looking for a way to have a few reluctant readers find more connection with the stories that they were reading.  In doing some research I found an idea that has many names, but that I call "literacy bags."  The basic idea is to have the students interact with the story through different activities.  I spent a whole summer making enough literacy bags to that every student in my room could take one home for the weekend.  Then through the positive encouragement of the parents, I made a second set at a more difficult reading level, so there are enough to last the entire school year!

I'm sending home the sheets that I would like you to sign and return on Monday.  You can understand that the cost of making these bags was quite substantial. I love the excitement that the students have each Friday as they take the bags home, but can't afford to remake them or replace the items, so ask for your assistance in keeping the pieces altogether.  Each bag has a card that lists exactly what is inside.  Please take the time to count all the bits and bobs before you send the bag back each Monday. NOTE: The items are not baby proof and as many families have toddlers and wee ones, please put the bag back in the student's backpack to ensure that no little hands can take the small pieces and swallow them.

Of course the whole purpose is to enjoy books, so the items relate to a particular story and to an educationally sound objective that we study in the classroom at some point in the year.  The reading level in the first four months may seem quite easy with some of the literacy bags, but recognize that the activities are to be enjoyed as a family, so the story sometimes almost becomes second to the time you spend together!

Manipulatives abound, a stuffed character is almost always included and there may be a writing activity for your child to complete.

Along with the literacy bag, each student is given their Family Journal to bring home.  This is the place that the parents get to tell me about the learning that they witnessed and the opportunities for growth that they noticed.  Please date each entry, write the name of the book and include your observations.  The students are excited to tell me what fun they had each time they return their bags but are often saddened because "Mommy didn't have enough time to write."  It is my dearest hope that you will look forward to the opportunity to snuggle and play with your child through these fun (and educational) literacy bags.

They'll be sent home this Thursday (as there is a PD Day on Friday) to all Grade 2 students who have returned the contracts signed.

Keeping count!

 This past Friday was the 12th day of school.  We have been focusing on the numeral of each day since we began and creating a special book of numbers.  Here are some activities that we did.  On Day 7, we read a book called "Count and Quack" that showed seven ducks in a variety of groupings.  In our table groups, we used rubber duckies to see how many ways we could rearrange the ducks to create groups.

 We then wrote out the different number sentences and noticed that often two sentences were related!  We added little cut out ducks to our '7' page in our book.

 We have also been practising how to make the numerals correctly.  We know that both numerals and letters in the alphabet start at the top!

 Day 10 was full of surprises!  Zero the Hero came to visit our class!  He will come every 10th day bringing small presents and giving us chances to celebrate reaching another special day of school.  On the 10th day he brought us stickers, which we used in an activity in our 'Zero the Hero' duotang.

There is a special sheet to complete every 10th day.  On the sheet we are able to use tally marks, and coins to show how to make the amount, print the numeral and the word and answer a question.   What will happen on the 20th day of school??

The times are a'changing!

 Our little creepy crawly creatures, known as our caterpillars have been munching on their mallow mush and growing right out of their skin!  As they grow they also make waste which needed to be cleaned out of their little cup environment.  A small piece of tissue had been placed at the top of their homes in anticipation for what was to come.  When the caterpillars are the right size they spin a silk button and hand upside down in a j-shape.  That is the signal that something wonderful is about to happen!

 We don't ever get to see this happen but the caterpillar again sheds his skin and inside is the chrysalis!  We did use the classroom SMARTBoard to watch some other caterpillars go through this change, so we understand how it happened. We need to be careful with this creature at this stage.  He is going through metamorphosis, which means he is changing completely!

 Using magnifying glasses, we will look closely at our chrysalis and see what we can.  We are learning how to create a picture or diagram and label it.

The chrysalis have been moved into small 'flight' cages in anticipation of what is to emerge in a couple of weeks!  How exciting to know that we are going to see God's handiwork emerge right in our classroom!

All About Me!

 What a lot of learning to fit into one little day!  We focused on learning more about ourselves.  We lined up in alphabetical order by first names and found out in our little class we have 3 students with names that begin with "C", 4 that begin with "E" and 5 that begin with "J"!  That made for a great challenge.

We created necklaces that told a story about each unique and individual child in the room.  We chose our favourite colour star, added our initials, used 2 dark blue or 2 pink beads to indicate if we were a girl or boy, and followed other criteria to complete the necklace.  We planned, drew and coloured a model and then made a special one of a kind necklace that was our very own!

Each child was so very proud!

Remember that next Tuesday we have our first PAC meeting @ 7:00 in the library and would love to see the place packed with parents.  Then on Wednesday we will serve your family hotdogs if you would just come by the school and "Meet the Staff" between 4:30 and 6:00!

Garden of Good Children

 Continuing our look at how we can be good citizens, we revisited the idea that good citizens use good manners.  We now have this display at our 'religion' centre.

 We are good citizens when we use our manners and we each created a 'glyph' to represent our own special name.  Look how each one is unique, just like each of us!  The students looked at their names in terms of vowels and consonants.  They added a petal to their flower for each consonant in their first name and a leaf for each vowel.  If the child was a boy, the center of their flower was orange, and if the child was a girl, their flower had a yellow center.

 Here's a challenge!  Can you tell which boy and girl in our class made these flowers?

The most exciting part of today was the opportunity to put our caterpillars into their own little individual homes.  The students created an anchor chart of what they already KNOW about butterflies and then created a list of all the QUESTIONS they still want to find the answers to.  The questions ranged from "Where are the butterflies' ears?" to "How do they get out of the chrysalis?"  Hands-on learning will allow the students to ask questions, make observations, record data and draw conclusions in the manner that we expect scientists do.  When you come to the "Meet the Staff" hot dog night next Wednesday, you'll be able to meet our little creatures as well!