Waiting and Watching

The ladies who cleaned out the butterfly garden  found an egg cluster which they said would turn out to be a Praying Mantis someday. Being the wonderful researchers that we are, we promptly went on the internet to find out about the life cycle of the Mantis. We found out the Mantis eggs hatch in the spring and there could be anywhere from about ten babies to 400! So.....if the ladies are correct and this IS a Mantis egg cluster, we will be waiting and watching for quite a while!

Praying Mantis Egg Cluster

We have finished chapters one and two of our math book and are on to chapter three. In chapter three we are reviewing subtraction and the math vocabulary for subtraction. Ask your child if they know what a number sentence is, where to find the minus sign and where to find the difference. Yesterday we did partner practice. Each set of partners used a dry erase board to model a subtraction story told by the other partner. They also had to write the number sentence and find the difference. 

Modeling Subtraction Stories

First Day of School

I'm so sorry I have been remiss about posting photos of the class. These are from the first day of school. The students were each given a baggie containing a sphere of homemade playdough. Each sphere had a drop of food coloring inside, so they had to squeeze the playdough inside the baggie many times to find out what color it was. After the color was all mixed in they were allowed to take the playdough out and make some things. It was really fun!!

Playdough Discovery

I can't believe I forgot to take photos today! The students voted to meet my dog Oscar as their 100 point celebration. I checked with the nurse to make sure no one was allergic to dogs, and then I ran home during block time to get Oscar. He had a wonderful time and so did they. We had our snacks with him. Oscar had his favorite snack, red pepper. Then we went outside and sat in a circle in the butterfly garden so Oscar could walk around and meet everyone. After recess we packed our bags and then Oscar did some tricks and played "Who has a treat in their hand?" Of course I did have an ulterior motive. I plan to use the experience as a writing prompt tomorrow. SHHHHH, don't tell! :-)