Saturday 24 September 2016

Let Me Out!

Friday morning was very exciting in 2/3P. Not only did we save a fallen chrysalis but we also had three more monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalis. Before we knew it, we also had two butterflies escape their terrarium. One chose to hang out on the outside of the terrarium and two more attached themselves to our butterfly nets!  





Students repeatedly said, "They are so beautiful. We are so lucky!" This is such a wonderful learning opportunity for us. We have 2 more chrysalis left to emerge. Will they emerge by Monday? We will have to wait and find out!
                                                                                                                 ~co-created with 2/3 students

                             


We Did It!

Our collective efforts paid off! Our fallen chrysalis survived and it turned into a beautiful monarch butterfly!

What a wonderful way to end week #3 at POW!

Wednesday 21 September 2016

Embassadors of Mother Nature

While releasing our 1st monarch butterfly today, one of our chrysalis detached and fell down into our potted plant. Immediately, students said, "Oh, no! It's going to die!" Once I was able to calm students down, we entered the school and walked back to our classroom. I explained to students that we needed to do some problem solving to figure out how we could help our fallen chrysalis. One student told me to go to "www.butterflies.com" and I would find all of the information I would need for us to help. Another students said, "go to youtube.com and you will find a video to help us, Mrs. Pallett. There is a video for everything!". Finally, after exploring both of those options and gathering some information, I asked for someone to tell me another way that we could try and find information to help us, help the chrysalis. One student said, "we could ask a butterfly expert and they could tell us all of the ways we could help the chrysalis!". I immediately replied, "YES we can! I happen to know a butterfly expert!". I continued to share with students that my friend has been raising monarch butterflies for many years and I suggested we call her. Students were soooooo excited and they couldn't wait. So we moved to the back of our classroom where my cell phone was charging and I called my friend and put the call on speaker phone. Unfortunately, my friend was not available but instead, one of my students left a detailed message for her.

I am happy to report that after all of our research, we were able to find thread from Mrs. Blair, our secretary and we tied it around the stem of the fallen chrysalis. Then we tied the chrysalis to one of the sticks that were growing in our potted plant! When I left school, our chrysalis was hanging upside down the way it should be and hopefully, it will soon emerge into a beautiful butterfly! We truly are ambassadors of mother nature! I am so proud of my students and their commitment to raising monarch butterflies :)

Our FIRST Monarch Butterfly - YAY!

The excitement in our classroom was like no other! Our Acting Principle was trying to find out who the teacher was in 2/3 because my students were asking for me to come back to class to see what had happened! I flew out of the staff room full of excitement to join my class and look at our first butterfly! Although we didn't see the butterfly emerge, we could tell by it's wet wings that it had not been out of its chrysalis for very long!




By 3 pm, we knew it was time to release our monarch butterfly. Out on the playground, we lifted up our terrarium net and encouraged our butterfly to take off. We think it was very cozy up there with the other chrysalis' but after a gust of wind, the monarch butterfly flew high up in the sky. I was excited to hear students say, "there it goes, off to Mexico! I have happy tears because we helped raise the butterfly". As a teacher, my heart is full and I have to say, I had goosebumps sharing this wonderful experience with my students and lucky for us, we have 8 more butterflies waiting to emerge! 



Tuesday 20 September 2016

Still Waiting

We thought there would have been one monarch butterfly when we arrived to school today. We are so excited we can hardly wait! One of our chrysalis is slightly black so we know a butterfly will emerge soon!

We also noticed that TWO plants have sprouted up! Leah and Natalie's plants are growing in our homemade green house. We predict 5 other plants will sprout by Friday. Let's wait and see! Stay tuned for more exciting and engaging learning happening in 2/3P!
                                                                                                                       ~co-created with students
                                                                                     

An apple seed is beginning to grow!

 Leah's broccoli shows growth!


Wednesday 14 September 2016

We Were Amazed!


We were amazed at what we saw! During second nutrition break, a few students in 2/3P witnessed a monarch caterpillar "molt" (shed it's skill) and wriggle it's body and tuck it's legs into a chrysalis. Talk about hands on learning! We had a lot of questions and Mrs. Pallett recorded them on chart paper for us. Did you notice where the chrysalis attached itself? We didn't think it could form underneath a piece of plywood! We LOVE everything happening in our classroom!  
~created by 2/3P


Tuesday 13 September 2016

Surprise!

Ambe's prediction was correct! Two caterpillars turned into a chrysalis over night! Since then, we've had 3 more caterpillars 'transform' into a chrysalis. We even got to see one caterpillar wriggle its legs up into the chrysalis and watch this amazing process take place before our very eyes!

During writing today, students were asked to write one paragraph (3-4) sentences about what know about monarch caterpillars. We are so lucky to have these wonderful creatures living and growing on two milkweed plants in terrariums! Talk about getting our creative juices flowing! So much excitement and an awesome way to bring authentic learning and student engagement to life!





Monday 12 September 2016

Adventures of a Monarch Caterpillar!

Today, one of our monarch caterpillars transformed into a chrysalis. Three of our monarch caterpillars are also doing the "J" dance! Courtney noticed that one caterpillar got out of the terrarium and it was crawling on the outside of the net. I wonder what we will notice tomorrow? Ambe predicts that the two caterpillars will be in a chrysalis and Annabelle thinks that the chrysalis might turn into a butterfly. I can't wait to find out!
Co-created by 2/3P

Sunday 11 September 2016

Highlights From Our First Week of School

WOW! What an amazing week of curiosity, wonder, excitement and fun! I had the pleasure of meeting 18 children who put a smile on my face each and every day! We survived heat temperatures that climbed close to 40 degrees and we still managed to be kind to one another!

Our week was filled with endless possibilities to explore and learn about! Our first day of school began with students bringing in a soil sample from anywhere their summer vacation took them! Soil samples were collected from the beach, a garden, student's backyard, and the forest! We used magnifying glasses to take a closer look and of course, this meant that we needed to plant something! I had a variety of seeds for children to choose from; apple, lemon, orange, broccoli, sunflowers and thyme. Students either chose to plant using their soil sample, my potting soil or a combination of both!


Our second day of school, we hosted our first guest, Mr. Pallett! He is a Millwright and he volunteered his time to come into our classroom and help students build a greenhouse to create the best conditions for growing our plants!



Our third day of school, involved all of us going out on the playground to participate in an "insect hunt"! Each student was given a butterfly net to comb the grassy areas to observe living creatures and then set them free. We saw a beetle, a moth, a white butterfly, lots of grasshoppers, a dragonfly with a broken wing, a caterpillar, milkweed plants and a sunflower. The excitement was contagious as students called each other over to see what they had found! Next, we made Nature Journals from brown paper bags and students were asked to draw, label and print one sentence about each of their findings. The day ended with a letter arriving from Mother Nature challenging us to be a "naturalist" and a "botanist" to help protect nature and all of its living things. Of course, we agreed and together we cheered, "1, 2, 3 Mother Nature!"




We ended our first week of school with another letter from Mother Nature and two Butterfly Terrariums! The chatter, excitement and curiosity of what was inside the mesh screen filled my day with smile after smile! We soon discovered there were 4 monarch caterpillars in one terrarium and 5 monarch caterpillars in the other terrarium. Our job is to help Mother Nature raise these butterflies so there is an increased population of monarch butterflies. If we aren't careful, monarch butterflies just might become extinct! Oh no!