Our studio got caterpillars for the Gardening Quest this year! We have been watching them carefully and learning about the stages of a butterfly. In order to take care of the caterpillars, they needed to do research. So they partnered up and did research on the different stages to present it to the class!
Once our butterflies emerged out of the cocoons, they were so excited! They made nectar to feed the butterflies with a mixture of sugar and water. The Eagles also looked up different fruits that butterflies can have!
The Eagles are starting a Maintenance Garden Checklist! They have planted their seeds and each Eagle is responsible for at least one of them. They decided that each Eagle will water their assigned plant and observe to take notes to share to the group.
When we started our butterfly journey, we had 5 caterpillars. Four of the five have emerged from their cocoon, the Eagles became concerned about the fifth caterpillar. They had a discussion with each other:What's going to happen to it?How do we save it?Should we help it out of its cocoon?Do we kill it and put it out of its misery?We should use it as a science experiment and dissect it!We wonder what the Eagles will do with the little cocoon...This lead into our launch this week about The Lesson of the Butterfly!A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Life's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. Remember nature needs no help, just no interference. There are processes of life, things we all go through. The struggles are a part of our journey and are preparing us for what awaits. They are preparing us to fly.The Eagles had a discussion and they were able to relate to the butterfly. The struggle of leading, decision-making, and mentoring is what helps us transform and emerge from our cocoons.
This week for Writers' Workshop, we looked at different images to see if they can remember the story from a picture!
The Eagles were able to make out what story it was based off of the pictures! In our discussion we asked the Eagles:What contributes more to making a picture book memorable: the pictures, or the story? Do the illustrations you chose make your story memorable by themselves, or do you need to focus on the words to make your story memorable?The Eagles worked on what they needed to focus on for their books and continued drafting.The Little Eagles have been working on their first draft for their final letter of the year!
This week the Eagles went outside for PE and played different activities like volleyball, softball, jump rope games, and parachute games! These games will help the Eagles with their teamwork and cooperation.
The Eagles used inspiration from the Art Board to help them with MakerSpace this week!
We use peer approvals in our studio in 2 ways:
This is a tool they use to help with peer accountability throughout the year!
