Wednesday, May 26, 2010

This morning was our music showcase. It started at 9:15. Adam and Lauria got to play the big instruments. Sasha, Nancy, Jacob, Victoria, Dylan M, Anthony, Drew, Sasha and Eesha played the metalophones and xylophones. Emma, Meaghan, Hunter, Amanda, Anthony D., Stephen, Sarah, Dylan A., and Arlo played the glockenspiels. Anthony thought the funniest part was when one of the kids called out the song that we were playing. Adam was happy that his mom, grandma, and grandpa could come. Eesha’s favorite part was singing the Stop Polluting song.

After the music showcase, we came back to the room. We stopped to get drinks first. Then we reviewed some of the big ideas that we learned about mealworms and life cycles. Ms. Stern told us that we’re going to be learning about another life cycle that didn’t include animals or insects: plants. We let our brains do a lot of talking by writing down all of the information that we know about plants. Some kids knew a lot and others knew a little bit. Next, we thought about questions that we had or things that we want to learn about plants.

Sarah shared some of her travel journal from her trip to Savannah, Georgia. She had the funnest time ever! During the long car ride, Sarah wrote in her journal just like Junie B. Jones did in Aloha-ha-ha.

After art, we came back to the classroom to pack up like we usually do. Ms. Stern warned us that kids who were talking would be very upset. We were going to have a surprise but she wouldn’t tell us what it was. Kids kept trying to figure out what it was. We ended up going to the staff lounge to sit in the air conditioning to cool down for a little bit. Ms. Stern told us that there was a second surprise somewhere in the room. After a few guesses, we finally figured out that it might be in the freezer…and it was! We ate ice pops while Ms. Stern read two more chapters of Junie B. Jones: Captain of Field Day. Lauria had fun eating the ice pop and reading more of the Junie B. book. Sasha was so happy. She thought she was going to eat it in two seconds!

Yesterday, Adam was sitting at Ms. Stern’s computer researching the weather in China. He saw a spider near the computer. Ms. Stern caught it and put it in a container. Everyone wanted to know what the spider looked like and what type it was. After doing some research, we think that we discovered that it is a jumping spider. At the end of the day, lots of kids wanted to take it home to keep. Unfortunately, Ms. Stern said no. The very active spider is our new addition!

Speaking of new additions…our beetle eggs have begun to emerge! We have teensy tiny mealworm larvae that continue our life cycle!

Stay cool!