Oviparous Animal Life Cycles Update-{Butterflies}

A couple weeks ago we studied oviparous animal life cycles in our classroom, and as part of that study, we received five painted lady caterpillars from InsectLore.

We watched those caterpillars for weeks continue to grow bigger and to enclose themselves into their chrysalides. This week we had our butterflies emerge from their chrysalides, and as soon as their wings were dried off, we took them outside to release them.

(Side story: One of our butterflies had actually gone belly up at one point today, and I had to have the conversation with my students that he didn't make it because I, of course, didn't notice that it was belly up until I let my students go look at the butterflies. I decided that in order to keep the others alive until we could release them later today that I would put a piece of a peach that I had in there with them. I placed the peach in their netting and that butterfly flipped itself over and began walking around and went straight to the piece of peach, which made my class cheer. It was like witnessing a resurrection. I realized at that very moment that the poor butterfly was probably near death due to starvation. Moral of the story, put fruit in the netting BEFORE the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides. Whoops!)

We did notice that one of the butterflies had lost one of it's back wings when emerging from it's chrysalis, so it was unable to fly properly. I found a nice spot near our school with lots of flowers to place it, in hopes that it will continue to live. Fingers crossed!

One of the other butterflies didn't want to leave us. He landed on me for awhile and then on a student's brightly colored shoe. My class loved getting up close looks at these beautiful creatures. 

At the end of the day, all five butterflies had been released into the wild, hopefully to live and thrive on their own.

Space Unit-{Earth's Rotation & Moon Phases}

As part of our space unit, we talked all about Earth's rotation and moon phases today. We began our day by going outside to our playground at 8:30 a.m. in the morning and tracing our shadows. I didn't tell the class why we were doing it, and they really didn't ask since they love any excuse to use sidewalk chalk. I'll explain more about this activity later...

We went about our day until it was theme study time. We began our Earth's rotation and moon phases study by watching a short video all about the moon on Brainpop Jr. and then reading two short moon books on the MyOn app on our iPads.

After the video we talked about what causes the moon to be different sizes when we look at it on different days. We created a craft to help them understand the revolution of Earth around the Sun, and the moon's rotation around Earth, which causes the phases.

We then completed a yummy activity from Khrys Bosland from Keepin' It Kool in KinderLand. We used Oreos to show the phases of the moon. This activity looked and sounded so much easier than it actually was, but my students got the gist of it regardless of how some of them turned out, and they got to eat their cookies in the end, so that is really all that mattered to them.

We then headed back out to the playground at 2:15 p.m. in the afternoon and we had our partners trace our shadows again from the same spots we stood this morning. Can you guess what we found out? Our shadows had moved and they were smaller! It was a complete "ah ha!" moment for my kiddos because they took what we had been learning about all day and put the pieces together to realize that the sun was in a different spot in the sky because of Earth's rotation, so that made our shadows move and change size.

Here are our shadows at the end of the day.



Tomorrow we will begin studying the planets in our solar system a little bit more closely.

Space Unit-{All About Astronauts}

We began what is quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite units this year, SPACE! There is so much that I am wanting to do this week, so I have had to break down my days to make sure that I can fit it all in. Today we began by learning all about astronauts. 

We began by hopping onto one of our favorite iPad apps, MyOn, and reading the book If I Were an Astronaut. 

This book was a perfect introduction into the lives of an astronaut while they're on the job. With the help from descriptive, and adorable, illustrations, my students were completely engaged in this book.

Following the book, we created an astronaut can, have, are chart. 

{Bet you can't guess what my favorite clipart store is, huh?}

We then completed an astronaut application writing prompt...

and created an adorable astronaut craft to go with it.

After packing up at the end of the day, I added all of our learning and fun about astronauts to our hallway bulletin board.

If you are interested in grabbing my Astronaut Craftivity for yourself (it comes with four other writing prompts along with the astronaut application prompt), click the picture below to grab it up for your own kiddos.

Along with my Astronaut Craftivity, I am using my products below to complete my Space unit this week. Click the pictures below to check them out for yourself.

May Currently

I am linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for the May Currently.

Listening: My fiance, Alex, and I recently subscribed for Netflix and have been binge watching Prison Break ever since. This past week my allergies have been horrendous and have caused some serious migraines and today I have felt under the weather as well. With that being said, it has given us the excuse to stay in, even though it is gorgeous outside, and get started on the fourth and final season of this series. 

Loving: It has been a BEAUTIFUL weekend, and although I'm feeling under the weather, it is still SO much better seeing the sunshine coming through our windows.

Thinking: We only have twenty-five days left of school, and there is still so much I need to do before the end. Among many other things, I need to get my graduation gifts together for my sweet kiddos. It took FOOOOOOORRRRREEEEVVVVVEEEEERRRRR last year, so I'm anticipating it will again this year. 

Wanting: I am in need of a serious vacation as soon as possible. Thankfully, I will get a vacation following my wedding, but it seriously cannot come soon enough. The beach is calling my name!

Needing: Like stated before, my allergies have been atrocious, and although I have taken both of my allergy prescriptions for the day, they are still not controlling everything very well. I need relief. :(

Summer-

Yes: If you have been following me on Instagram or here on my blog, you know that in July I am getting married. We are in the final stretch to our big day with bridal showers and bachelor/bachelorette parties scheduled, and we couldn't be more excited!

Hope: Alex and I have yet to plan our honeymoon. Procrastinators? Nope. Just two people trying to pay for their wedding on their own, and a honeymoon has had to be put on the back burner in order to have the wedding of our dreams. We will be doing something, and we both are preferring a beach vacation, we just don't know where yet. Hopefully it'll get sorted out in the next month or so. 

Dream: I commute thirty minutes on the interstate to work five days a week and elsewhere the other two days. My car has unfortunately felt the strain of the commute, and although it is a great little car and even better on gas, I am hopelessly dreaming of a new, more luxurious car. I promised Alex that as soon as the wedding was over, he would be first up for a new car, but then it would be my turn shortly after. Marriage is about compromise right? 

I hope everyone enjoys their sure-to-be busy May! :)

Five for Friday-{Baseball & Derby Week}

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

This week we celebrated two great things that are offered just on the other side of the Ohio River in Louisville, KY... Baseball & the Derby!

We began our week with learning about horses. We listened to books about horses on our iPads using the MyOn app. We then completed a can, have, are chart on horses. We ended by making adorable horses and writing one horse fact. 

Halfway through the week, we got more into the baseball part of our unit. I was even able to dress for the part and use my favorite Tervis cup. (I may or may not be crazy about the St. Louis Cardinals...)

We ate Crackers Jacks and graphed if we liked them or not. I couldn't believe everyone enjoyed them, but then again, I do have a class of eaters. 

We ended our day by going outside since it was so beautiful and playing some math baseball.

Here is what I did to play:

I found bases at the Dollar Tree and we split up into two teams. The "pitcher" of the fielding team has a stack of "baseball" which are actually paper plates with addition facts written on them. Each player from the other team comes up to "bat" and is shown a baseball. They get three tries, or strikes, to get the answer correct. (I also count to ten in my head, and if they haven't answered in those ten seconds, it counts as a strike.) If they do get it correct, they move to a base, and then the next player comes up. We did that until everyone had at least had a turn and then switched teams. I scored the game just like in a baseball game, one point for every person who made it all the way home. My students absolutely loved it and were begging to do it again tomorrow. We may play it with some CVC words tomorrow where I give them a word and they have to spell it correctly to get on base. So many ways to do it! :)

We also had graduation pictures this week. Only 25 more days of school with these sweet faces in my class. *tear* :( 

Yesterday, Thursday, I was out sick with a horrific migraine. When I came back in, I had the sweetest message on my board waiting for me. I am seriously getting depressed more and more with each passing day because I have to give these sweeties away.

Since the Kentucky Derby is this weekend, we talked about the hats that are always a must for women to wear to Churchill Downs. We looked at pictures of how extravagant some of them were, and then we created our own! I think we nailed the extravagant part!

We ended our day and our week by having our own horse race called "The Run for the Reese's." Students raced against each other in fours within our classes.

We were great spectators and cheered everyone on!

 After each group of four raced and had a winner, all of the winners raced against each other.

This sweet boy was the winner in our class of "The Run for the Reese's."

Check out that crown he won! (See why we call it "The Run for the Reese's?")

Then, just for fun, the winners from all three kindergarten classes raced against each other.

After all of the kiddos got their turns at racing, it was tradition that us teachers raced.

It was a great, but busy week. Next week I am super excited to do a space unit with my Kinders for the first year. We will also be celebrating Mother's Day.