The Kindergarteners are learning about life cycles. We have talked about the life cycle of an apple, a pumpkin, a spider, and a penguin. This week we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. All butterflies start out as tiny eggs that turn into caterpillars. They live as a caterpillar for about 2 weeks before it spins a chrysalis. When it is in the chrysalis, it changes into a butterfly. We also learned some interesting facts about the Butterfly. Did you know that butterflies have their taste sensors in their feet? Some butterflies only live about 4 or 5 weeks and others live up to 9 months. Butterflies can’t fly when it is cold out, so they migrate to warmer weather in the fall. We found out that butterflies have symmetrical wing patterns. This week we created the butterfly’s life cycle using noodles, wrote a description of a butterfly we colored, and created a butterfly picture. We ended the week by listening to the story and watching the movie Hermie: A Common Caterpillar. Hermie was a common caterpillar except that he talked with God and God answered him.
Monday:
Ms. Torborg was gone today. Mrs. Dingman was our sub.
We started our morning exploring the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly. We listened to the story, Busy Butterflies, and watched a couple of video clips. We found out that a butterfly starts as a very tiny egg. The egg hatches into a tiny caterpillar. The caterpillar grows for about 2 weeks before it spins a chrysalis. It is in the chrysalis for about 10 days. Then it turns into a butterfly. We created a timeline of a butterflies life cycle. We had to cut and glue them on our paper in order. Next, we were introduced to our 2 new sight words some & what. After reviewing all of our sight words, we read through our new emergent reader, The Life Cycle of a Butterfly. We also completed 2 sight word worksheets for what & some.
In math, we were introduced to estimation. Estimation is a careful guess. You try to figure out how many without counting each one. First we read the story, Can You Guess What Estimation is? Then we watched a video clip from Sesame Street. Bert helped teach us how to estimate. Then we practiced estimating. First Ms. Torborg showed us a bag with 10 counters in it. Then she showed us another bag. After comparing the bags, we determined that the new bag has less counters than the bag with exactly 10 counters. We each tried to make a guess of how many counters were in the bag. We did the same thing with a second bag. This time we determined that there were more counters that the original bag. We also worked completed a Number Bond worksheet.
In religion, we reviewed the Stations of the Cross and then we colored the 11th Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross.
Tuesday:
We started our morning by reviewing the life cycle of a butterfly. We read the story, From Caterpillar to Butterfly plus we watched a short video. Next we worked on coloring a picture of a butterfly. Then we wrote about our butterflies. Many of us wrote descriptions of what our butterflies look like or can do. But since our butterflies are not real, our stories could be as wild as we wanted them to be. Then we turned our pages into another class book. During our reading time, we also completed a short letter sorting worksheet and reading stations.
In religion, we reviewed the Stations of the Cross and then we colored the 12th Station: Jesus Dies.
Wednesday:
We started our morning by reviewing the life cycle of a butterfly. We read the story, Monarch Butterfly plus we watched a couple of short videos. Then we wrote about the life cycle of the butterfly. We each got a sheet of paper with a butterfly outline on it. There were four parts. Each part had a word: first, next, then, last. Our job was to write what happens to the butterfly in each part. For example, first it is an egg. Next it grows into a caterpillar. Then it spins a chrysalis. Last there is a butterfly.
In math, we worked with Number Bonds again. We worked together to figure out all of the different ways we could break up several different numbers into groups. We recored our answers on the board. Next, we used the number bonds to put numbers together. We started with counters in each of the small circles and worked to figure out how many we had all together by moving them to the big circle. Then, we tried using the number bond to solve several different addition problems. Finally, we completed a worksheet. We had to write the missing numbers in on the hundreds chart.
In the afternoon, we created a butterfly’s life cycle using different kinds of noodles. We started by cutting out and gluing the words of the stages on our paper: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. For the egg, we created a leaf out of paper. Then we glued a popcorn kernel on to the leaf. We used a rotini noodle to represent the caterpillar. We could draw a face on it if we wanted. The next stage is the chrysalis. Since the chrysalis attaches to an object, we started by gluing a small pipe cleaner on the paper to represent a branch. Then we glued a small shell noodle next to it to represent the chrysalis. The final stage is the butterfly. We wrapped a small pipe cleaner piece around a bow tie.
We also started our art project. We had to use our water color paints to add color to a big sheet of white paper. We needed to fill the entire paper. We could paint lines, dots, splotches, shapes, zig zags, but we could not make a picture (ie. a tractor, forest, car, flower).
In religion, we reviewed the Stations of the Cross and then we colored the 13th Station: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross.
Thursday:
We spent the morning with Mrs. Dingman in the library since Kindergarten round-up was happening in our room.
In reading, we listened to the story Butterfly Garden. As we listened to the story, we were able to identify the characters, setting, and details from the story. We also completed a word ladder worksheet before we played the game Spin to Win! We also read the nonfiction story, Butterflies. Did you know that butterflies have their taste sensors in the feet? Some butterflies only live about 4 or 5 weeks and others live up to 9 months. Monarchs can’t fly when it is cold out, so they migrate to warmer weather in the fall. We also found out that butterflies have symmetry. That means that they look exactly the same on each side of their body.
In math, we reviewed our 3D shapes. Then we broke into groups to play 3-D Shape Match-Up. Our game was similar to memory. We laid out the pieces the same way. Instead of finding the same picture, we had to find two pictures that had the same 3-D shape. On our turn, we had to turn over a picture and identify what shape it is. Then we could turn over another picture and identify what shape it is. If we had a match, we took the cards and went again. If not, it was the next person’s turn.
In the afternoon, we cut a butterfly out of a black picture of construction paper. First we had to fold the paper and trace the design on half of the paper. Then we with paper folded, we cut it out. The final step was to glue the black paper onto our painted picture.
In Religion, we watched a video and colored a picture of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. As a young girl, the Virgin Mary appeared to her. She did what the Lady asked of her even though she didn’t know what it meant. St. Bernadette is know as the patron saint of illness and her special feast day is April 16th.
Friday:
In math we continued our discussion about symmetry. Then we colored a butterfly. We had to make sure it was symmetrical by coloring the same color in the same spot on each side of the line of symmetry.
During religion, we talked about Holy Week especially Palm Sunday. We watched a movie a short video about Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem. Then we colored a little picture about it.
We ended our day with a story and movie. First we read the story, Hermie: A Common Caterpillar. Hermie was a common caterpillar except that he talked with God and God answered him. (He answered him in his heart.) Hermie and his friend Wormie were sad because they didn’t have spots or stripe, weren’t strong, didn’t carry their own house, or didn’t have perfect spots. But each time they got sad, God told them that he loved them very much and He wasn’t done with them yet. One day Hermie grew very tired and slept for a long time. When he woke up, he had changed into a beautiful butterfly. After the story we watched the movie. Then we compared it to the book.