The Three Billy Goats Gruff

For the month of June, we have decided to focus on the fairy tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  The students in both classes took a vote and they selected this one to finish off our year long look at different fairy tales.  We are reading different versions of the story and have written poems and made pictures of the characters.

The SK's wrote poems about the troll and used words such as old, big, yucky, creepy, fat, scary, hairy, ugly, mean and dirty to describe that troll.

Troll

Fat, ugly troll,

hairy, big troll

mean, old, scary troll

Let us cross!

Some of the students were inspired by the story and decided to make their own trolls.



 

 

 

We have Tadpoles in Kindergarten!

Thank you to Mrs. Penner for lending us some tadpoles from her Kindergarten class at Evergreen.  She lent us two tiny ones and two large ones and the students were fascinated by them.  They noticed them as soon as they arrived at school last Friday morning.

Looking at the tadpoles after the weekend, we noticed that one of them was beginning to sprout tiny little legs.  It was really hard to get a picture of that as they don't seem to stop moving long enough to get a good shot.

They seem to eat just as much as those caterpillars did but they are taking longer to complete the life cycle.

Goodbye to our Painted Lady Butterflies

We released the final butterflies today in the bright afternoon sunshine.  I was so impressed by how careful and considerate the students were around the butterflies as they flew out of the butterfly house and around the school yard.

Some of the butterflies became quite 'attached' to the students and they were wondering if they might have to spend the rest of the afternoon outside waiting for the butterflies to take flight :) It actually didn't take all that long and then we headed back inside.

As we were walking back I overheard a couple of students talking about the butterflies.  One said to the other, "Did you see that?  Those butterflies really loved us."

June Newsletter

June Newsletter

Butterfly House

We were hoping to release some more of the butterflies outside with the JK's.  The rainy and windy weather made that impossible.  Instead we decided to add some more butterflies to the house so we could observe them in comfort for everyone.

We had 13 butterflies in the house and the students were crowded around it throughout most of the day.  They got to see them fly around the house, climb up the walls with their fragile looking legs and drink the sugar water with their long curly tongues.  Some of the students have been taking pictures of them with their iPads and even recording videos of their movements to show their classmates.

Recording and documenting extended to the art easel where some of the students decided to draw out the life cycle.  It was awesome to hear them talk about metamorphosis while explaining their drawings.

Week 3 with our Painted Lady Butterflies

When we returned to school on Monday, none of our butterflies had emerged from the chrysalises.  As the day progressed, we kept a close eye on what was happening and sure enough near the end of the day our first butterfly came out of the chrysalis.

Day 17

We dipped cotton balls in sugar water for the butterflies to eat and watched with fascination as they used their long tongue or proboscis to get their food.

The rest of the chrysalises were wiggling like crazy as the butterflies inside them worked hard to be released from the covering.  It sounded like wings flapping already as they vibrated inside the container.

Mrs. Boucha and the JK's put 2 of the butterflies into the butterfly house so we could observe them for a bit.

Day 18

Today we released most of the butterflies with the help of the SK's.  We were very careful and sat very still so the butterflies could land on us.  Some of them landed on our hats, clothes and even on our fingers.  We also got some of them to climb onto a stick so we could release them in safety.  It was a pretty exciting day all around.

Day 19

It has been quite the adventure for us.  Stay tuned---next week we are going to observe tadpoles.

Week 2 Butterflies - The Chrysalis Stage

We have entered the third stage of the life cycle of our Painted Lady Butterflies.  According to the timeline, the caterpillars should form into their chrysalis stage between 7 - 10 days.  The timing wasn't great because day 7 coincided with the beginning of a three day long weekend and I thought they might change while we were away from school.  Mrs. Hensrud suggested that I bring the caterpillars home with me so I could keep an eye on them without having to run back and forth to the school each day.  With the cold and rainy weather I just wanted to stay at home and cocoon under some blankets :)

Right on schedule on Day 10, the first caterpillars formed into their chrysalises.  As the day progressed, more and more of the caterpillars changed.

Day 10

We checked out a chrysalis under our new magnifiers.  You can look from the top down or if you look through the bottom viewer you can see whatever is on display from underneath.  Very cool.

Thanks to Mrs. Hensrud for this link for a time lapse video of Painted Lady Butterflies.  Check it out. Butterfly Time Lapse video








Week 2 Observations:

• they changed into chrysalises
• they are brown-green
• they are hanging like monkeys do from trees
• the chrysalises have yellow-gold spikes on the outside
• looks like a zipper
• they are attached to webs
• they are sleeping
• we saw caterpillar skins
• one chrysalis was split open

So now we just wait---this stage takes 7 - 10 days too.   Sometime next week we should have butterflies.  I just hope that it happens on a school day and not the weekend.  We'll have to keep our fingers crossed :)