Butterflies, Living Flag and Egg Update

Thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky!

 Hi!

Another week of learning fun is in the books, and it was jam-packed! It started off normally enough, but ended with a bit of a patriotic bang!

Imagine our surprise when we (my teammates and I) returned to school on Monday to have butterflies! We weren't expecting them for several more days. Clearly, these beautiful Painted Ladies were ready to make their appearance to the world. When the kiddos arrived, they were thrilled! We had planned to release them when we returned from our field trip, next week, but Mother Nature decided these fluttering beauties were going to get their own special day. We released them on Wednesday a few minutes before recess began, and the kiddos had fun chasing them with orange slices the remainder of recess! 

No butterfly release is complete without a butterfly life cycle headband!

For Constitution Day, I had an idea to do something different this year. Over the summer, I did some research and found a link to a story about a school that made a living flag. Yes! I loved the idea. I shared my idea with my teammates who also loved it. I passed it along to administration who also loved it! So, on Thursday morning, dressed in our red, white, or blue shirts, our 700+ students lined up in the bus parking lot to create our great United States flag! We recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the Preamble to the Constitution. I had goosebumps! One of our fearless, and I do mean fearless, PE teachers hopped into a cherry picker bucket and was lifted high into the air to snap a picture. 

Photo Credit: Nancy Monroe

Of course, no Constitution Day is ever complete without a reading of We the Kids by David Catrow, along with the drafting and signing of it by the entire class. Here's our final product. We signed with a turkey feather and used an ink well created by local potter, Roy Overcast.

As mentioned in my last post, we are incubating duck eggs. This week, we candled the duck eggs. The children are so excited. They keep asking me who is going to get the "chicks" when they hatch. On Monday, I added a dozen chicken eggs to the incubator. The interesting bit of trivia, related to the eggs we put in the incubator, is that they came from the original chicks we hatched! We'll candle them tomorrow to find the fertile ones and to remove the infertile ones. Here's a picture of one of the ducks being candled.
Can you see the blood vessels that indicate a duckling is growing inside?

Speaking of growth and development, I created a resource all about the basics of cells to use at the beginning of our living things unit. It features cell parts, cells to label, and 4 one-page informational passages about cells. Check it out!

Click Here to See Introduction to Cells

Oh, I have saved the best for last! It has nothing to do with school, but for all of you Ed Sheeran fans, you'll appreciate this! My nieces and I went to see him in concert last Sunday. He is AWESOME! If I were a few decades younger, I'd have his posters all over my bedroom wall. THAT statement should give you an idea of how old I am. I don't think young girls have any posters on their walls these days, but I could be wrong. Seriously, if you're a fan, and he visits your area, make plans to see him. He does not disappoint!