Full Day Kindergarten With Ms.Versteeg and Mrs. Stock: 2014

Today, during outdoor play, we made an exciting observation.

Our observations:

- "The Caterpillars are sleeping on the bark"

- "The caterpillars are crawling up the tree"

- "The caterpillars are trying to eat the leaves"

We wonder:

- Will the caterpillars turn into butterflies?

- Where did the caterpillars come from?

- Are they going to eat all the tree leaves?

"The caterpillars are going to go on a leaf"

"The caterpillars want to eat all the leaves"

"They are crawling in a line"

our caterpillars on a leaf art

Ms. V found caterpillars on her tree at home. We observed the caterpillars at the science centre this week.

Our New Learning:

- "Tent caterpillars eat tree leaves"

- "Tent caterpillars turn into moths"

- "They go in a cacoon"

- "They make tents on trees"

- "The tent caterpillars come from an egg and then turn into caterpillars".

This week, different caterpillars have been at the science centre!

Our observations:

"The caterpillars are bigger than the tent caterpillars"

"The caterpillars have spikes on them"

"The caterpillars have yellow dots"

"The caterpillars are eating the soy blocks"

We wonder about caterpillars:

- "What will the caterpillars turn into to?"
- "Will they grow bigger?"
- "Where did the caterpillars come from?"
- "What do they eat"?

Our new learning about the butterfly lifecycle:

First, the caterpillars ate lots of food and got bigger.

Next, the caterpillars went into a chrysalis.

Then, the caterpillars moulted into a butterfly.

Finally, the butterflies came out of the chrysalis.

Lastly, the butterflies collected nectar from the oranges.

Our new learning about butterflies:

- "Butterflies come from a chrysalis"
- "Butterflies drink nectar"
- "Butterflies need to dry their wings when they come out of the chrysalis"
- "Butterflies have red fluid on their wings when they come out of the
chrysalis". It is called meconium.
- "The caterpillars turned into painted lady butterflies!"
- "The butterflies have yellow spots on their antennas"
- "The butterflies have orange, black and gray wings. They have white spots
    too"
- "Painted Lady Butterflies look like monarch butterflies. Painted Lady
   Butterflies have a gray body and monarchs are black"

Today, we went to the park to set the Painted Lady Butterflies free!

Today, we found a bee in our yard!

Our observations:

- "The bee is drinking nectar"

- "The bee is getting food from the flower"

- "The bee has yellow stuff on it from the flower!"

- "The bee is getting pollen"

We wonder:

- What other insects drink nectar from flowers?

We started a new garden in our kindergarten yard in the fall. We planted tulip bulbs and pumpkin seeds in our garden!

The winter season is over. All the snow has melted and we can see our garden again!

We wonder:

-What will we find in the garden?
-Have the pumpkin seeds grown?
-Have the tulip bulbs grown?

Our observations:
- "The pumpkin seeds started to grow"
- "The pumpkin plant died"
- "There is grass growing in the garden"
- "Some pumpkin seeds did not grow"
- "The tulips are growing"
- "The tulip stem is coming up"
- "There are pine cones in our garden"
- "There are leaves in the garden"
- "There are warms in the garden"

"This pumpkin seed did not grow"

"The pumpkin plant died"

"The pumpkin plant started to grow"

"There are worms in the dirt"

"The tulip is growing!"
"There are 10 tulips growing"

"We can plant a rock in the garden"

Will a rock grow?

Is a rock a living or non-living thing?

"There are ants in the garden!"

"It is a biting ant"

Why are there ants in our garden?

Are ants good for our garden?

" The tulip is 4 blocks long"

"This tulip is 5 blocks long"

Most of our tulips are 4 blocks long now

"This tulip is 8cm long"

Our new wonderings about gardens

We wonder:

- When will the tulip grow into a flower?

- Are the worms good or bad for our garden?

- How will we take care of our tulips?

- What other plants can we plant in our garden?
- Will ants hurt our garden?

- What type of plants do butterflies like?
-What things grow in a garden?

We will continue to observe our garden this spring to find answers to our questions. We will also learn how to care for our garden.

New Learning:

This week we found a ladybug in the garden!

-"ladybugs live in gardens"

-"worms live in gardens"

We wonder:

What other living things live in a garden?

Our Butterfly Garden Plan

On Earth day we made garden plans with our learning buddies. We decided to make a garden that butterflies will like. Our learning buddies helped us research the type of plants that butterflies like. We will continue to draw garden plans at the writing centre!

Earth Day Fun

Our learning buddies also lead a fun Project Wild game for us. We learned about shrinking habitats in our environment.

Our New Learning:
- The animals and insects live in plants
- A good habitat has lots of plants for food
- A good habitat has lots of plants to give animals and insects shelter

Our Indoor Garden

We made an indoor garden in our classroom this week.

We wonder:

- How long will it take for the seeds to grow into flowers?"

- Will the flowers grow faster inside or outside?

- How can we take care of the flowers?

- What flowers will grow best? The flowers by the window or the flowers hidden from the sun?

Observing our plants at the science centre

Our observations:

- "Our flowers are growing already"

- "I see a sprout"

"I see roots growing"
"I see it is trying to be a flower"
"I see the plant growing bigger"

"These are the roots"
"Mrs Stock said they are like a straw. The roots drink up the water"

Outdoor Play

We wonder:
What do we need in our imaginary garden?

"we need flowers"
"we need roots"

"we need a bird bath"

"We need fire flies"

"our garden needs sun and rain"

We had so much fun measuring our tulips that we wanted to find other things to measure during outdoor play.

We wonder:
What other things can we measure with a ruler?