Worms that paint???

Today, we pretended that our worms escaped from their vermi-compost bin. While they were out of their bin, they got into our paint and paper and made quite a mess. (The kids had a great time using yarn the size of worms and wiggling it through paint to pretend the worms were painting. Then, they cut out worms and glued them on top of the paintings along with speech bubbles that relayed what the worms might have been thinking.) FUN!

Here is the chart we made comparing the birth weights of everyone in the class.

We've been doing lots of number talks to help the kids come up with efficient strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems. We have lots of mathematicians in here!!!!! I'm very proud of them!

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. We received our baby Painted Lady caterpillars. Pictures will be coming soon!

Worms, Sand Babies, and Toad Abodes

Since we have been studying worms, I decided to give the kids a challenge...to eat like a worm! The challenging part is that worms have no arms, hands, or eyes! The kids had to put their arms behind their backs and close their eyes. I think they realized that it's not very easy pretending to be a worm (and it can be quite messy)!

What little messy worms you are!

Thank you to everyone who spent the morning helping us make sand babies! We had so much fun (though it was a lot of "labor"). Our 18 babies are just precious! Once they get a little older, we will invite you to visit the nursery and come meet them.

We've actually seen a few toads in the outdoor classroom, so we decided to make "toad abodes" in hope that if we build them, the toads will come! We turned these bland pots into nice homes for toads to live in and hibernate in.

We've just been informed that our painted lady caterpillars are in the mail being shipped to us. Keep checking back so you can watch them grow with us.

A worm funny...

The other day, we read The Diary of a Worm. We talked about the difference between facts and fiction and chose parts from the book as examples of each. I overheard the kids talking about fiction in the book. One child said, "Well, worms can't dance." And another student said, "Yes they can! They can do "the worm." (I cracked up laughing!)

worms!

Our class has been studying worms. We've read lots of books, and here are some of the facts we've learned: Worms have no eyes, ears, teeth, nose, or bones. They have 5 enlarged blood vessels that act like hearts. They have a gizzard to help them digest their food. They are neither male or female but rather a combination of both yet they need a mate to reproduce. They lay an egg sack that contains 1-20 baby worms. Worm casts is another word for worm poop. Worms help the Earth in many ways. They make tunnels which helps plant/tree roots go deeper into the soil. When worms tunnel into the soil, they bring humus (organic material) with them. Their "casts" are great fertilizer! Aren't we glad we have worms?

Here we are preparing our vermicompost bin. We tore newspaper to serve as bedding for our worms. We sprayed the newspaper with water because worms breathe through their skin which has to stay moist.

After we prepared our worm bin, we studied our "red wiggler" worms. We made sure to keep their skin damp by using wet paper towels. We ran a few tests to see if worms prefer light or dark. We found that they like dark spaces!

Though I don't have a picture of this, we used our "Eye Clops" machine to look closely at worm segments. We also took a close look at an egg case that we found. It was amazing!

We are really enjoying learning about worms! We have to make sure that we keep their bin damp, dark, and full of yummy, rotting fruits!

Come back and see us soon.

Friday Froggy Fun!

I thought we needed a little fun today on this gorgeous Friday! Especially since we had to say good-bye to Chloe. She recently moved and will be attending another school. Chloe Bug, we are really going to miss you! We had a small "froggy feast" in honor of Chloe. The kids made "toads and frogs on logs" and oreo frogs.

Below are some pictures of our newest baby rat, Lovey! She is a Hairless Dumbo Rat, and boy is she cute! (Just as a side note, my husband and I get our rats from a lady who has 3 PhDs and provides rats and other rodents to a UAB medical facility for research. She is USDA certified. To enter her facility, you have to wear hair coverings, clothes coverings, and booties over your shoes. I was amazed when I found all of this out! Isn't that neat? She told me tonight that the next rat she is going to bring me has long, curly hair that looks like it's in dread locks. What cool experiences for kids!!!!)

This sweet girl can calm Lovey down like no other!

Here is Lovey taking a "bath."

Mrs. Bucki's class and our class teamed up to play "Tadpole, Tadpole, Frog" which is a form of Duck Duck Goose. When tapped as a frog, the kids had to hop to chase the tapper. Anyone who tagged their tapper got to send them to the pond. So much fun!!!!!

the boys' group

the girls group

Stop back by and visit anytime!

McWane and more

Let me just say that we have such a precious, sweet class! We are having lots of fun learning together and meeting new friends.

The kids in our class love nature and animals! Here are some caterpillars we found in the outdoor classroom. We brought them into our classroom for a week or so hoping that some might turn into chrysalises. None did, and we decided it was best for them to be back in the native habitat.

Here we are making frogs and toads. We researched fun facts about frogs and toads that we will be displaying in the hall for others to read.

The children enjoyed seeing how high they could count on "counting strips."

Our first field trip (to the McWane Center) was awesome! No need for words...See below!

If your family hasn't seen the IMAX "Born to be Wild," you should definitely go see it! It is truly amazing! I'm taking my family!!!!!! Thank you to our chaperones for all of your help! To our 3 friends who weren't able to go...we really missed you!