Tid Bits

Since it has been quite awhile since I posted, I thought I would give a quick summary of the fun things we are doing in our class.

Butterflies:
After reviewing the life cycle of a butterfly, our beautiful class butterflies emerged from their chrysalis'! We were very excited to release the lovely creatures, so we all took a little walk into the school field and held a butterfly releasing party. It was such a gorgeous day, so it was perfect!

Here, Ms. Rachel and I are releasing the creatures into nature.

Fly butterfly, fly!

Unfortunately, I was ill on Friday with a crazy eye infection, so I was unable to attend the field trip to a conservation site. I heard it was fabulous and the children had a great time learning about pond and insect life! Here is a shot from last year's field trip. A monarch butterfly was captured and put into this magnifying container, and later released. What a gorgeous creature!

Poetry:

Before my last student teacher left, she did a mini poetry unit focusing specifically on acrostic poems. The children loved it and had a lot of practice. This is the bulletin board that she made. She later filled it with the student's personalized acrostic poems.

Grass Heads:
As part of our Energy and Living Things unit, the students planted grass seeds. We made grass heads. Here they are all grown up! Super cute.

 Character Education:
Our school board is really focusing on character education. This is our character education wheel, with specific character traits that we are to teach and model in our everyday life. This month, I am focusing on cooperation, fairness, and acceptance.

Some of the books that I have read are below:

It's Mine by Leo Lionni

Friendship Goals:

The children have really responded to the lessons, and been able to point out the author's message/main idea in the texts. As part of one of the lessons, I challenged each student to choose one "friendship goal"; something that they felt they should focus on when working and/or playing with others. They all wrote their goal on a post it and then stuck it on the chart paper that I labelled, "Our Friendship Goals." Some of the goals listed were:

- I want to share more with others;

- I am going to include everyone during recess;

- I am going to fill buckets instead of dipping into them.

It has been a great month! June is on it's way! The school year has just flown by!

Until next time,

Amanda