And out came a beautiful butterfly!

We have 3 butterflies!

On Tuesday at lunch time our first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis! We sat down for circle time and Miss Stephanie looked over and noticed a butterfly moving around! After all of the kids left at the end of the day, Miss Stephanie came back in the room and saw another one! The butterflies were quiet all night and then during music time in the morning another one emerged. We anxiously watched all day hoping to see one come out of the chrysalis, but they must have stage fright, because they just won't do it in front of us!

The first butterfly that came out. He is letting his wings dry and harden. It takes about 1-2 hours. It stretches and strengthens its wings by forcing blood into its veins.

The first butterfly after he opened his wings (about 2 hours later)

The first butterfly likes to hang out at the top of the butterfly garden!

The empty chrysalides.

The red stuff is called Meconium.

It is waste product left over from the butterfly's metamorphosis.

One of our beautiful butterflies.

They are starting to fly all over the butterfly garden.

Now we just wait for the others!

On Monday He Ate Through One Apple

This week our caterpillars finished eating and eating. Then they crawled to the top of the cups, hung upside down in a J shape, and their bodies began to change. We learned after they are changed it is called a "chrysalis". Although, in the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, the caterpillar builds a cocoon, we learned that butterflies change into chrysalides (the proper plural form of the word). Moths build cocoons around themselves. A butterfly caterpillar's body changes and hardens and it is called a chrysalis. After they had changed for 24 hours, Miss Stephanie carefully lifted them out and hung the disks they are hanging from to the side of the butterfly garden. Now we wait about a week for our butterflies to come out!

Monday:

Tuesday:

Thursday:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We have new visitors in our classroom! They arrived after school on Friday last week and Miss Stephanie explained to us they were so teeny tiny she could barely see them! She is bummed that she forgot to take a picture. By the time we arrived at school on Monday, they had grown a great deal! Those caterpillars were very hungry!

Monday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

We have to wait until the caterpillars crawl to the top of the cup and turn into chrysalis. Then Miss Stephanie will lift them out and put them in the butterfly garden. We are going to start reading the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" next week. We finished up our 3 Bears unit and are very excited to learn more about caterpillars!

Here are some other pictures of us looking at the caterpillars:

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This porridge is too hot!

Here are some pictures from the last 2 weeks. We have had a lot of fun with our "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" activities. We are super excited for our plays this week and next!

In addition, stay tuned for pictures of the new additions to our classroom....caterpillars for our "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" unit!

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Fun at Centers Time

Sorry for the lack of posts the last two weekends! But here they are...pictures from the last two weeks! We have been having a lot of fun in centers time and we had several March birthday so you will see some yummy cupcake pictures!

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Good-bye to the Ocean

This week we took down the ocean and turned our room back into a classroom. Although we were a little sad to see the jellyfish go, we were excited to have our trains and blocks back in the construction zone! We started off the week with Picture Day and everyone looked great! (Don't forget that orders are due April 1). We enjoyed some St. Patrick's day activities this week as well as some alphabet centers. We celebrated two birthdays in the T/Th class, so there there are some fun pictures of cupcake eating!

Have a great spring break!

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Our new rug!

You may have noticed it in pictures in the last few slideshows, but I want to officially announce that we got our new rug from DonorsChoose.org! Thanks to the generosity of some of the families of students in our classes and also donors who are strangers, we received a beautiful new rug for the circle time area. The kids were SO excited when the rug arrived. They love to have a fun and colorful new place to sit and we have had a great time practicing letters and sounds. It is great to hear them saying things like, "I'm on the rabbit. It makes the /r/ sound!" or "The letter of the week is W! I am sitting on the W!". Thanks again to those of you who donated!

Reminders

Don't forget that it is your last chance to order Independence Ducklings Spirit Wear! Order forms are due on Wednesday. The handprint logo is on the front left chest and the ducklings are on the back and it says "Ducklings". It is a great way to show school spirit for kids and parents!

Relaxing on the Beach

We continued to enjoy the ocean this week with a kick off to the week of finishing Finding Nemo. We had a lot of fun noticing the ocean animals that we have been learning about over the last several weeks. We also talked about St. Patrick's Day and played some St. Patrick's Day games!

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5 Cranky Crabs

Miss Stephanie says that she is sorry she didn't update the blog last weekend. But better late than never! Here are our pictures from last week. One of our favorite parts of the week was making cranky crabs to decorate our hallway-turned-ocean (we have been practicing the fingerplay "5 Cranky Crabs". We also enjoyed the beautiful weather on Friday! In the slideshow you will see pictures of the daffodils we planted in the fall that are starting to grow!

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Rainbow Fish

We continued to play under the ocean this week. One of our favorite activities of the week was mixing colors, reading the story The Rainbow Fish, and then painting rainbow fish with the new colors we made. We watched colors mix together to learn that:

red + yellow = orange
blue + red = purple
yellow + blue = green

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Ocean Fun

We continued our ocean fun this week. We painted jellyfish and they are hanging from our ceiling. Watch out for their tentacles when you walk in. They might get you!

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Under the Sea and Valentine's Day

We had a VERY busy week this week enjoying our Ocean unit as well as preparing for and celebrating Valentine's Day. We painted large sheets of white paper blue to begin the transformation of our hallway into an ocean! We also decorated bags/boxes for Valentine's Day and had a lot of fun at our celebration. We made valentines for friends or family, graphed the colors of candy hearts, handed out cards to our friends, and ate yummy treats!

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Independence Spirit Day!

Last Thursday was our first Independence Spirit Day! Some friends in the Tuesday/Thursday class came to school dressed in their Independence wear! The next spirit day is this Friday, February 13th. Hope to see everyone in their ducks or at least royal blue and yellow!

A Shopping We Will Go!

Last week we went on a shopping trip for pet supplies around the school. Each of us chose a pet and had a shopping list of supplies for that specific animal. We walked all around the school in search of the supplies we needed. Some of us matched the pictures while others of us read the words on our list. We had a LOT of fun!

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Did you miss us?

Miss Stephanie says that she is sorry for being a posting slacker the last two weeks, but we made sure she would go home and post today. Here is a slideshow of pictures from the last two weeks of us enjoying pet shop activities. One of our favorite activities was playing the game with the dog. We had to roll a die and count the dots on it. Then we had to find the part of the dog's face with the matching number. We have done some really fun activities this week and we cannot wait for you to see the pictures from "shopping" in a pet store. Miss Stephanie promises she will post them over the weekend!

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How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?

This (very short) week, we started our Pet Shop theme. The pretend play area turned into a pet store and the construction zone turned into the building site of a new pet store. The discovery center is the fish section of the pet store and the kids practiced scooping up fake fish in water with nets and depositing them into a bowl. We read a book called "Mama Dog, Mama Dog, What Do You See?" that was about mom and baby animals. Check back soon to download a copy of the book that you can print at home.

Enjoy the pictures from centers time this week and stay warm in this very cold weather!

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Marble Painting

This week all of us took a turn at marble painting. We needed to make new placemats for snack time and we decorated them with paint using marbles. It was really fun to roll the marbles around. Sometimes those silly marbles jumped out of the tray and made paint lines on the tables and chairs! We were laughing a lot. The adults liked to tell us that we were "losing our marbles"...whatever that means! Our new placemats are going to have our first names and our last names on them. Last time our placemats had our names and our birthdays. It was fun to listen for our birthdays when Miss Stephanie passed out the placemats for snack. Now we get to listen for our last names!

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Lost and Found

Does anyone recognize any of these???

Along with the snow, winter also brings cold weather, which leads to cold weather gear. We have accumulated 2 black hats and a pair of red striped gloves that none of the kids have ever seen before in their lives. =) If you recognize any of these as belonging to your family, just let me know! We would love for them to find their way home!

Strawberry Pretzel Jello

Riley's family (T/TH) took a recipe from our class cookbook and made it this week. They used the recipe that Paige (M/W/F) and her family submitted! It was delicious!!! Here are some pictures of them making it. If anyone else makes a recipe from the class cookbook, we would love to see the pictures!

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a fun winter break and is enjoying themselves with family and friends! As you spend time relaxing and surfing the Internet, don't forget to check out our DonorsChoose.org classroom proposal.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=206522&verify=2103277921&zone=0

See you next year!

Gingerbread Man Family Activity

On Thursday night (before the ice hit), we had our Gingerbread Man Family Activity. We had a lot of fun and the families that came listened to the story of the Gingerbread Man, decorated ornaments together, socialized, and ate yummy treats. I hope that your ornaments stay safe and don't get eaten by any sneaky foxes! Have a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable winter break!

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You can't catch me!

Last week (sorry for the late post!) we participated in a smelling activity. We also got to do some tasting! We each had a list of the ingredients used to make Gingerbread Men. Miss Stephanie passed around the ingredients one by one and we checked in a box if we could smell it or not. We also got to taste most of them. Some of the ingredients had a smell, but not much of a taste, like flour. Some had a really good smell but not a very good taste, like cinnamon. Miss Stephanie forgot her camera when the Monday/Wednesday/Friday class did it, so there are some pictures of them participating in other activities!

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Gingerbread Man

Sorry this blog post didn't happen over the weekend. Miss Stephanie said it was Monday morning before she knew it!

Here are several videos from our Gingerbread Man fun last week. Our pretend play area turned into a bakery and we spent a lot of time mixing, rolling, and cooking gingerbread men! We also made gingerbread men in the discovery zone. You will also see that Mr. Rich visited us in the morning class and we all were very interested in what an audiologist does! This is a long slideshow because we had a lot of fun telling Miss Stephanie on video what we were doing!

P.S. Don't forget to tell Miss Stephanie if you are coming to the family activity night on Thursday, December 18!

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Updates

There is an updated Family of the Week schedule in the Important Documents column for those who are new to my class.

The December family project/activity information is available here. Please make sure to turn in those recipes by December 3!

Scholastic orders are also due by December 3-either on paper or you can order online.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Enjoy a few days off, eat some yummy meals, and have fun at those Black Friday sales!




P.S. M-F families....don't forget to check out the Inde Therapy kids blog (link on the right too) and see what we are doing in the Motor Room and Fine Motor Group every week!

Work Time

This week we talked a lot about foods and food groups, however, Miss Stephanie did not do a very good job taking pictures of those activities! She did take pictures of us working in the centers and also some videos so you can see a little of what we do during work time. She also wanted to remind you that next week there is no school for Parent-Teacher conferences and Thanksgiving break. She wanted to make sure to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

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DonorsChoose.org

You may remember signing a permission form for Donorschoose.org at the beginning of the school year. DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit website where public school teachers (like me!) submit proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become a reality when concerned individuals choose projects to fund. Donors who complete project funding or give more than $100 receive photos and personal thank-you notes from the kids they helped.

I want my students to have as many great learning opportunities as possible, but sometimes the items I want are a little out of my price range! To address this issue, I turned to DonorsChoose.org. You have seen the firefighter, police officer, mail carrier and doctor costumes in our pretend play area. Those were items I received through people funding a proposal at DonorsChoose.org! I also recently received a video camera that was funded through DonorsChoose.org and I look forward to taping our school day to share with you!

My newest project proposal, Little Ones Need A Place To Sit, is now posted at DonorsChoose.org! Check it out at:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=206522

Take a look! This is a proposal for a large learning rug for our Circle Time. Also, please consider forwarding this link to friends and family who might be interested in making a donation to this wonderful wsebsite. Lots of companies and individuals make donations to charities every year, why not this one? The donations are all tax-deductible!

Leaves are Falling

Enjoy the pictures from this week!

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Apple Week

Here are pictures from our learning this week. We painted with apples, made apple trees with our arms, and counted apples on trees with M&Ms and Trix and then put apples on those trees with our fingerprints.

Don't forget to click on the calendar and sign onto Google Calendar to see what is coming up!

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Picture Day Order Forms Update

On the Picture Day order forms, it states that they are due, Tuesday, November 11. We don't have school that day! They will be due Thursday, November 13.

Dates This Week

It is a busy week at Independence School!
We have several important dates coming up this week:

Picture Day for M-F and T/Th is Tuesday November 4
Picture Day for M/W/F is Wednesday November 5

The Jaxco Fundraiser is due Thursday, November 6
(You can use the magazine sent home or go to the Jaxco website www.4jaxco.com , register, and shop! You know I like anything I can do online!)

The Independence T-shirt order forms are due Friday, November 7 (I can't wait to see everyone sportin' some Independence wear!)

In addition, you may have noticed the new calendar on the right side of the page. I am going to be using this calendar to help keep you informed of important events. I will always send them home in a newsletter or note, but this way you have them all in one place. You can register for a free Google account to view the calendar.

Farewell to the Castle

On Friday, we celebrated the end of our castle unit and Halloween. First, some people brought treats to pass out to their friends and we trick-or-treated in our room. Then we went trick-or-treating in the school. We got fun treats from the people who work in our school. After that, we attended the Pumpkin Ball. First, we sat to listen to the story of "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything" that Miss Erin read and Miss Stephanie put the pieces on the flannel board. After that, we were able to make crowns, eat snacks and dance! We had a lot of fun participating in all of the activities and we loved having our families there to join us!

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This week, we went on a treasure hunt. During work time, someone came in our room and mysteriously left a clue. We followed that clue and it led us to 8 other clues all around the school. We had to "read" the clues to figure out where to find the next one. For example, one had a picture of "girl, toilet paper, toilet, and paper towels" and we figured out we had to go to the girl's bathroom! The last clue showed us a picture of "Circle Time" and when we got back there, we found a fairy had left us treasure on our spots!

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Enjoy pictures from our other fun this week. We played with "Mr. Pumpkin Head", put our hands in pumpkin goop, and made sand castles in the Creation Station!

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