Balloon Fun!

Well, we are on the home stretch of first grade 2013-14! A colleague of mine from Blue Star Elementary reminded me of a cute idea I had seen on Pinterest last fall.  So for the final two weeks of school, we will be having a 'balloon fun' activity or event each day!  

I wrote down eight fun activities on paper, folded them up, and placed them into balloons.  I have them hanging from our ceiling, waiting to be popped!

Eight balloons hang from the ceiling in our classroom!

Today we popped balloon number 1, which revealed our 'balloon fun' activity for the day:  Pick your seat for the day!   You should have heard the excitement!  They all looked at me and I said, "Well, what are you waiting for???  Go move your desks!"

The moving process!  Our room ended up looking like a maze today,
but the kids were super excited about choosing who they sat next to
and where they sat for the day!

This is what our classroom ended up looking like
after they chose their seats!  Funny how they chose
to make rows rather than groups!

What will tomorrow's balloon reveal????  You will need to check the blog (or maybe your first grader will fill you in each day).   Can you believe we have so few days left?  Time goes by so quickly!

ANOTHER Math Whiz and Miss Brandy's Graduation Party

Today we had yet another student pass addition facts to 10!  Owen L. has been working very hard both at home and at school to master his facts and has now joined several other classmates in this celebration!  Congratulations to you Owen!

Last week Thursday we celebrated Miss Brandy's final day with us. She has worked with all three first grade classes daily from 1:00-2:30 all year long!  Each first grade classroom made a book for Miss Brandy.  We all collected money and purchased a gift card to Target for her to use on supplies she may need when she goes off to college.  Finally, we all had a cupcake and juice!  Thank you, Miss Brandy, for all your work and dedication to us this year!  We appreciate you and will miss you.  We wish you all the best when you go to CMU to be a teacher!  

Miss Brandy reads a few pages of each book to the class.

Yummy, yum, yum!  Cupcakes that look almost to pretty to eat!

Beautifully set table for celebrating!

Enjoying our treats!

Congratulations Miss Brandy!

Math Whiz and Monarch Release

On Friday we had TWO big events happen in our class!  First, Bailey earned her certificate from Xtra Math for mastering her addition facts to ten!  She has been working very hard both at home and at school to reach this milestone!  Congratulations Bailey!  She will now switch to subtraction facts on Xtra Math!

Our second big event was setting our first two Monarch butterflies free!  Mrs. Middleton, one of our favorite guest teachers, is also a butterfly expert.  She has done extensive learning about butterflies and even volunteered at Fredrick Meijer Gardens in the past with the butterflies!  She was our guest teacher on Friday while Mrs. Ferrell did assessments with students.  She said it would be fine to let our first two butterflies go even through it was quite a chilly day.  So we packed them up in a container and headed outside!

The kids made a circle around Mrs. Middleton to watch the release!

Our butterflies did not want to leave the safety of the container!

Usually, the butterflies fly away immediately after the container is open, but it was a very chilly day.  Mrs. Middleton tried several ways to coax them to fly away.  She even had one butterfly on her finger and the other one on the edge of the container.  Both dropped to the ground!

We ended up taking the butterflies over to a pine tree in a protected area of the playground and placing them in the tree.  Mrs. Middleton said they would fly off when they got used to the cooler temperatures or got hungry enough to search for nectar.

Mrs. Middleton places the butterflies in the pine tree.

Protected from the wind, our hope is that our butterflies
would fly off to find nectar and a mate!

The good news is that we still have two butterflies left to emerge!  We may return to school on Monday and see them waiting for us!  The weather looks more promising and warm for next week, so when we set the final two free, hopefully the kids will be able to watch them fly off right away!

Monarch emerging!

Well, the big day is finally here!  When we got to school, three of our first chrysalis's had a different look to them!  To the kids, they looked 'black', but actually, they were transparent.  They looked 'black' because the colors on their wings were visible.  They could actually see some orange and white as well.

They look black, but are actually transparent.  If you look close,
you can see orange and white as well as black.

We recorded in our observation journals this new stage and anticipated the arrival of our butterflies!  By 10:45 this morning, our first butterfly emerged!  Unfortunately, we were all in All Star Reading groups, so only a few who work in our room noticed at first.

Within an hour, we noticed that a second chrysalis was beginning to crack open!  We all gathered around the butterfly net to watch!

First, the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis in a bunched up mass.  Many kids gasped because it looked like it might fall to the ground.  It clung on to the broken chrysalis safely.

It is a bit difficult to see, but this shows the butterfly
just emerging from the chrysalis!

Next, we watched as the butterfly pumped it's wings and stretched out.  The body was very fat at first, because it is engorged with blood.  But as the butterfly pumps it's wings and stretches out, the blood moves through the veins and into the wings!

Just a moment or two after emerging from the chrysalis!

Just beginning to stretch out it's wings.

Close up view of the butterfly just out of the chrysalis.

 Finally, our butterflies were totally emerged with wings stretched out!  We were fortunate to see the butterfly move his/her proboscis too, which was exciting for the kids.  They will cling to their chrysalis for today to rest.  By tomorrow, they may be fluttering around the net a bit, and hopefully the weather will be nice enough to let them go!

What a great day!  We were so very lucky to be able to view the final stage of the life cycle fully!  Most years, we miss the chance to see it happen in person!  I'm certain this is a great moment for every one of the kids that you will hear all about at home!  

Monarch update

Once again, much has occurred with our Monarch caterpillars this week!  When we returned from our weekend, we found that our littlest caterpillar fell out of the plant over the weekend and did not survive.  Three of our caterpillars have made a chrysalis!  Three were still hungry, so we placed our last milkweed plant into the net for them!

They have been busy munching and munching away all week!  Finally, on Thursday morning, one more has attached itself onto a leaf and is now in a "J" shape, waiting for it's skin to split one last time and the chrysalis to form.

One is now searching for a place to turn into a "J" as well.  Our smallest friend is still on an eating adventure and growing!   Luckily, Mrs. Church had an extra milkweed plant for us to put into our net, because the four plants we started with have no more leaves!

Enjoy the photo updates!

This Monarch caterpillar attached itself to the top of our
net and is waiting for it's skin to split and the chrysalis to emerge!

This caterpillar chose to attach to the underside of a leaf on
the milkweed plant and is waiting for the skin to split and the
chrysalis to emerge!

The chrysalis is a beautiful green color with a ring of gold around the top!
In a couple of weeks, the chrysalis will turn clear and we will be able to
see the orange and black colors of a Monarch butterfly!

This caterpillar is 'searching' for a good place to hang upside down.
It will attach using a strong silk from the end of it's body and hang like
a "J" until the chrysalis emerges.

Where will this caterpillar choose to attach????

Close up picture of a chrysalis!

Our next update will be a BIG ONE!   I plan to take many pictures at Teusink's Farm tomorrow, and will post them over the weekend!  I will email parents when the blog is updated as I usually do!  Enjoy this beautiful weather!  Hopefully the rain predicted for tomorrow will hold off!

Butterflies, Clue Searching & WEB Helpers (Oh My!)

Our Monarch caterpillars have been very busy this week! Fortunately, our friends were delivered with FOUR milkweed plants, because they have eaten half of them as of Friday!  

The caterpillars have more than doubled in size in a week. We learned that they will grow and shed their skin FIVE times before the next stage in their life cycle. 

If you remember back to the first post about our friends, you will see how much they have grown!

The next stage of their life cycle should begin this coming week.  After shedding their skin for the fifth time, they will search for a good place to make a chrysalis. That stage takes almost two weeks for them to transform into butterflies.  We have not lost any of our caterpillars, so we still have seven healthy Monarchs! Hopefully all will complete the entire cycle and be set free!  Keep watching!


Did you hear about the bow tie?  Mr. Ferrell secretly came to the classroom at lunch time recently, and he leaves a 'bow tie clue' on the white board for the kids when they return.

When the kids returned from lunch, the search was on! Reece was the first to find the clue! Mr. Ferrell had covered the noses of the cherries on our CH digraph poster! He was awarded with a candy Smartie for his expert sleuthing! Of course, the others children immediately asked, "When will Mr. Ferrell come back and leave another clue?"  Hopefully it won't be long!

Finally, I want to personally thank our WEB (Wonderfully Exciting Books) helpers!  Mrs. Blauwkamp, Mrs. Nevins, Mr. and Mrs. Hoogeveen, Mrs. Neilsen, Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Kay, Mrs. Stacey and Mrs. Becksford were invaluable this year! They were depended upon to be at school for 90 minutes weekly or biweekly and read with each child in class and help them choose another book to take home and read. This daily practice helped the children become excellent readers this year! Thank you WEB volunteers from the bottom of my heart!