April Photos

April was a busy month!

I was impressed by everyone's Project Fair designs!

The pictures from that evening will be added to the Project Fair page very soon.

Grade sheets and reports will be sent home on May 6.

This is an example of "experience writing", done after our field trip to The Butterfly House.

Turtles are oviparous.

We made this torn paper project in art class.

Two hearts can become a butterfly!

The girls enjoyed working together on a unicorn puzzle!

The frog puzzle is a favorite among the boys.

This is a sneak peek into part of something we have made for our mothers!  Shhh!!

Manipulatives became building blocks for a major creation.

We used rulers to practice standard measurement in this math station.

Some letters are tall, some fall, and some are small.

After reading "Tops And Bottoms", we discussed how vegetables grow.

We "planted" a paper garden.

We are all hoping that the forget-me-not seeds will sprout soon!

They were planted in an ice cream cone, then the cone was placed in a cup. 

Hopefully, you will be able to lift the cone from the cup for easy replanting.

Just bury the cone in your potted soil or dirt!

We enjoyed using Dr. Panda's Veggie Garden app on the iPad!

It is also available for iPhone.

Butterfly House~Field Trip

We read to the docents!

We all took a turn in the human cocoon.

After we decorated flowers and butterflies,
we demonstrated our knowledge of camouflage.

Blue Morpho

The butterfly blends in with the food!

The proboscis can clearly be seen in this pic,
curled up under the head.

Moth

This butterfly has hatched and is waiting for wings to dry!

Camouflaged Butterfly

The giant cockroaches are... interesting.
According to the docents, each roach has a unique personality!

April, Butterfly Video, Behavior

Reporters' Updates:

4/2   "Today was a great time!  We made turtles."

4/3   "We played with our friends!"

4/4   "We tested!"

4/5   "We decorated an egg for an oviparous animal."

This week, we will be learning about butterflies!

SPRING MUSICAL

 Bunnies~Descriptive Writing Prompt

A New Behavior Plan:
(This is a copy from the email that was sent to parents on 4/2.)

Over the break, I researched a way to tweak the behavior system for our class.  Every year brings new challenges because every year brings a new group of students together.  As our year has progressed, I've seen a few flaws in the rainbow chart, for this class.  Thus, a new idea was born!

The name cards have been removed.  The binder behavior calendar is gone.  The rainbow chart has been placed in another part of the room, to remind us to "slow down" and "be ready to learn".  We will be writing a daily class goal on the white board.  (Yesterday, we wrote "I can control myself.")  On Mondays, I will be chatting with each child, to establish personal goals for the week.  These goals will be social and academic in nature.  On Fridays, each child will review their goal sheet with me and assess progress. These sheets will be sent home on Mondays, with the work from the previous week.

A kindergarten colleague in Canada stretched my thinking in the area of classroom behavior systems.  Her thoughts can be found HERE.  I urge you to read her post and put yourself in the place of the student.  

I have greatly enjoyed teaching and learning with your children!  Each day, we review how to give "heartprints" and to "THINK" before we speak.  I believe that practicing the discipline of self-evaluation will benefit the children, and also be a blessing for your family.  By evaluating the progress in my classroom management system, I was led to rethink the process!  No matter how old we grow, learning never stops!

Plant A Seed

Blooming In K!

Watercolor Flower Garden

Art Class In Action

Bugs!

Ladybug Addition

Pattern Block Bug

Examining Bugs

Reading~Listening Station

Read To Someone

Read To Self

"Soak The Peep" Experiment

Field Trip

Mariposa

We touched one of these cockroaches....EEK!

"Butterfly", by Lisa Loeb, was our go-to song this week!  Mariposa is the Spanish word for butterfly and is a beautiful part of this song. 


You can find the album, Catch The Moon, on iTunes.  
(The song starts at about 40 seconds in...)