April Awesomeness...Photos

April was a busy month!

New life....it can't be stopped.  This sweet little sprout was found by my parked car.  There is something so tenacious about this photo.  It's on my desktop and I find myself looking at it often.

This is an example of the writing that we did after our field trip to The Butterfly House.

We made this torn paper project in art class.

Notice the nice sunsets in a couple of backgrounds :-)

This is a sneak peek into something we have made for our mothers!  The children traced their hands to use as a base to hold the bouquet.  They also used templates to trace and cut the flowers.

I'm sure I found this idea on Pinterest.

Some letters are tall, some fall, and some are small.

We used rulers to measure the flowers in this math station.  The activity is from a theme kit that was purchased from The Mailbox site.  A couple of months ago, they were offering a "buy 2, get 2 free" deal AND the kits were on sale for $5.  I am so very happy that I took advantage of the sale.

The activities are colorful, laminated, and perfect for our current learning targets.

After reading "Tops And Bottoms", we discussed how vegetables grow.

We "planted" a paper garden...the tomatoes, corn, and peppers 

are now ready to be added.

We are all hoping that the forget-me-not seeds will sprout soon!  They were planted in an ice cream cone, then the cone was placed in a cup.   Just bury the cone in your potted soil or dirt!

We enjoyed using Dr. Panda's Veggie Garden app on the iPad!

It is also available for iPhone.

Plant A Seed

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I kicked off the week with a stellar book, 

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

The children were captivated by the bunnies in the illustrations.
Which led me to bring in my basket of stuffed bunnies just a wee bit earlier than I'd planned.
Hhhhhmmmm....I hope the carrots aren't missing from the garden tomorrow.

We 'planted' a garden on the white board, taking care to note that tomatoes grow on a vine and corn grows on a stalk.  My daddy always hoed crooked rows in our garden; they hold more seeds!  The children were intrigued by the concept and decided that we should test that theory on Friday.  (Where did I put the yarn ball?!)

The beans went home today, 
to flourish in a vented pot or sunny spot.
Ava's bean was our tallest sprout.  
She was so proud!

Character lessons With Rabbit & Squirrel

In the book, Rabbit and Squirrel experience various misunderstandings .
They are not skilled at conflict resolution!
We discussed what they could do differently and how they could show kindess  
while cooperating with one another.

Next, we wrote a letter to Rabbit and Squirrel.  
(Please excuse my handwriting!  The paper was taped to a door and I was missing an element of leverage.)
The children thoughtfully considered what advice to share.
 I am very impressed with the contents of the letter!

I wonder what the author would think of our letter?

Beans On A Ledge

The window ledges in our classroom are perfect 

for displaying science projects.

Planting beans is one of my favorite activities.  Watching growth in action is always miraculous.

We soaked the lima beans seeds to give them a sprouting head start.

Soil was measured into the cups 
and seeds were strategically placed.
Five teaspoons of water were added 
to the soil in each cup.

Two days later, the beans are beginning to sprout!
Tomorrow, we will record our findings. Would you like to have a copy of the observation sheet?

Click here to print!

"From Seed To Plant"--Freebie!

Click here to print!

(Fran--THANKS! I've almost got it figured out!)