Diamonds, Caterpillars and Butterflies

The little ladybugs have been busy, busy making insects, birds, flowers, trees and even a rainbow creating a beautiful "Spring" bulletin board. They decide what they would like to make and then gather materials from the art center. The children have a found sticks and ferns on the playground that they have added representing plants and trees. They are quite proud of their work and love talking about it with their friends!

Our newest little ladybug made "origami" birds and a butterfly to add to our board and then chose where he wanted them to be!

 

On Tuesday Mrs. Mundell and Ms. Wiltshire were honored with a stunning door decoration entitled,  "Best Teachers on the Earth!" Each child had decorated a spaceship with their precious picture in the middle. The teachers received gorgeous flowers, sweet cards and thoughtful gifts. Several parents ate lunch with the children while the teachers attended a delicious luncheon in their honor. What a very special "Teacher Appreciation Day!" THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

The children have been quite interested in the life cycle of a butterfly after reading, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. This week they cut leaves from the "leaf painting" paper that we had made. They were careful to follow the black line as they cut and turned the paper as needed. It is quite exciting to see the progress they have made with their cutting skills! Next they chose a colorful piece of tissue to squeeze into a ball for their caterpillar egg. Using a little dot of glue they attached it to their leaf. Their leaves are hanging from the tree in our classroom.

Bouncing colorful balloons in the air was lots of fun in P.E. class on Tuesday. The boys and girls used eye-hand coordination as they chased the balloons around the gym trying to bounce them into the air before they could land!

We decided to make kites with the diamonds on diamond collages that we made. First we attached a string to the diamond. Then the boys and girls practiced "steps" of tying kite tails to the string. Next they were ready to fly!

Dancing with scarves to the music was a fun activity with Mrs. McIvor this week! While "freeze dancing" the children used their listening skills to stop dancing and "freeze" when they heard the music stop.

While buzzing about the room singing a bumblebee song the little bees sipped nectar from the lovely arrangements of flowers from Teacher Appreciation Day!

 

Very creative insect habitats were constructed using tree blocks. Round blocks were lined side by side and were balancing upon long flat block. When talking to the boys about their structure a connection was made to how they balance when walking on the new stepping stones on the playground or when walking among the milk crate mazes.

 

At the easel the children are using the paint brush to "draw" whatever they chose in bright, Spring colors. This artist chose to paint a butterfly and pointed out that the wings were "just alike" on both sides.

Reading the book, "Butterfly" by Susan Canizares was the perfect non-fiction book as it used "real photographs" to show the life cycle stages of the butterfly. The boys and girls glued pom poms to a tongue depressor for the butterfly's abdomen, wrapped and twisted a pipe cleaner for the antennae and glued two eyes to make their caterpillar.

After observing in pictures that a butterfly has wings that are perfectly symmetrical the children made their own. First we practiced symmetry by placing pattern blocks on a paper butterfly. Then the children folded paper in half and squeezed bio-color paint onto one side of their papers carefully   adding paint to the middle crease to ensure there would be paint for the antennae, head, thorax and abdomen. Next they folded the paper and "tickled" it all over smoothing the dots of paint together. Finally they opened their paper and it was a beautiful BUTTERFLY!

 

Last week each child chose one of their favorite books to share with our "Reading Buddies" in Mrs. Deegan's class. With a partner, the boys and girls have been retelling their books using the illustrations so that they will be ready to share with our reading buddies next week.

On Friday morning we went to the "Relay For Life" kickoff at the Shorecrest track. We joined the JK students and teachers on blankets as we listened to the inspirational ceremony with the entire Shorecrest student body and staff. Then the Seniors joined hands with Alpha students to walk the track in celebration of the "Relay" kickoff!