Dear Families,
Today I brought a butterfly. I think it is a Painted Lady or a Monarch butterfly.  We played with blocks and we made pages for our memory books about our favorite things at school.  I wrote about legos and I wrote about recess.  It was rainy, and we got to see butterflies on the Smart Board.
Love,
Joaquin
P.S. We got to watch two short videos today about the states in the U.S.A.

Last Friday our big buddies came to visit us. Our big buddies have been learning about migration. They read us books about migration, and taught us how to play migration card games that the older students made.  It was a perfect time to learn about migration, because this week we will be studying butterfly migration with Ms. Sarah!

View more photos from last week in our April 19-23 Photo Gallery

Today we celebrated Earth Day by gathering as a whole school community. Together we sang The Earth is Our Mother under the beautiful spring sun. We talked about ways in which the Earth helps us and then we planted sunflower seeds in our community garden. Ms. Shelley gave us each a special Earth Day bracelet. Each bracelet has four beads on it to represent the earth, the sky, the trees, and the rivers.

View more photos in our April 19-23 Photo Gallery

Today we had guest speakers come in to speak with us about composting and gardening. Chef Micah organized the presentation and we were thrilled to see him again. Farmer Steve showed us lettuce and broccoli plants that he grows on his farm. Chef Micah uses this fresh produce to cook delicious meals. He saves the inedible parts of his produce, which he gives to Composter Scott.  Scott puts the food remnants in his composting bins to make fresh nutrient-rich soil. Then he gives the nutrient-rich soil to Farmer Steve, who adds it to his garden.  Then the cycle starts again… During the presentation we got to see different plants and taste a variety of vegetables. We also got to examine a plate of compost and see the nutrient-rich soil. Thank you to our special guest speakers for taking the time to come teach us. 

View more photos in our April 19-23 Photo Gallery

We have been talking about the butterfly life cycle this week. As a group we created a poster that depicts this life cycle: egg, caterpillar (larva stage), chrysalis (pupa stage), butterfly (adult). In Writers’ Workshop we are each working on researching and writing our own butterfly life cycle books.

Yesterday we researched the egg stage of the life cycle. We wrote about the egg stage and made eggs for our life cycle mural. Today we researched and wrote about the caterpillar life cycle stage. We created patterned caterpillars in the atelier. We were working on our math skills and fine motor muscles. It can be very difficult to cut out curvy shapes like circles. Come check out our life cycle mural at the end of the week! 

Some of our engineers designed a particularly exciting structure. They asked me to take a photo and print it so that they could send it to the president of the United States. They are hoping to become famous.

Today we had music with Ms. Shelley. We were particularly excited to play the gathering drums with our friends!

Ms. Elizabeth sent in some new research books for us to use. We were so excited to examine the new books during center time.

VIew more photos in our April 19-23 Photo Gallery