Life Cycles

In my class we're learning about life cycles so of course we focus on butterflies.  We always purchase caterpillars from Insect Lore, but this year I realized that I had milkweed growing in my own back yard.  And milkweed = monarchs.  Sweet.

These little guys have now been successfully transferred to my classroom.  That involved a harrowing ride in which I swear one was trying to escape from the open baggie I was using for transport.  

Now they are all chrysalids.  Awesome.  I love monarchs when they become a chrysalis.  Have you ever seen one?  They green with flecks of gold.  So pretty.

And they are just a bonus.  We got our Insect Lore order Friday so we'll have a plethora of butterflies in the York classroom.  :)

Native Americans! Plus, coming up next - Earth Science!

 

Last week we had . . . kind of a mad rush to finish up my Native American unit.  You know, it’s always better to test before a long break than to wait.  It worked out well, though, because it coincided perfectly with Thanksgiving celebrations.  You’d think we did that on purpose or something.  ;)

Here are a few things we did for Thanksgiving/Native Americans.

We made booklets about Woodlands and Plains Indians (from my TPT Native American unit that you can get {HERE} if interested) plus Amy Lemons’ uber cute Native American craft to go with it.  I cannot, for the life of me, find a link to this freebie, but you should definitely check out her blog {HERE}.  It’s my favorite!

I really dug on a few faces the boys drew.  They cracked me up.

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim and made pilgrim hats out of chocolate wafers, icing and a peanut butter cup.  Super easy and delish!

Also, I had my kiddos write from the viewpoint of a turkey telling people why we should eat something besides turkey.  My favorite one was this one.

He really struggles with writing – especially conventions (I’ve got my eye on him) but his voice just cracked me up in this.

Here’s a translation if you can’t decipher it all:

Save a turkey.  Eat more duck.  We turkey are tired of being eaten.  Stop eating us and eat duck.  Please help us by eating duck.  Ducks are good.  We turkey are disgusting.  Do not eat us.  Eat duck.  From the turkey.

You should see my blog post {HERE} if you want that writing prompt as well as another plus a cute turkey craft for free!

So after all that Native American/Thanksgiving fun, we’re moving on to Earth Science.  I feel like it’s hard to find a lot of good resources for this unit, so I put some together myself.  If you want to check it out, click {HERE} or on one of the pictures below, which are a few things included in my unit. 

 Oh, and btw, if you haven’t heard, there’s a ha-uge sale at TPT starting tomorrow.  It’s a Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday sale.  I’m giving 20% off and TPT is giving an additional 10% off for a combined total of 28% off! 

 

Thanks for the button, School Supply Addict! 

 I have a really cute Winter packet if you want to snatch that up while it's on sale.  You can click {HERE} or on the picture if you want to check it out.

Here are a couple of things I’ve got my eye on for myself.  What are you lusting after?

 

Life Cycles

This week we wrapped up our life cycles unit.  This is a really fun unit for the kids because we watch butterflies go through most of their life cycle.  A little bummer this year, though - only one of our caterpillars actually made it to being a butterfly.  Here is that lucky guy:

To review the life cycle of chickens we made foldable pyramids like so (fold on the lines, cut on the dashed lines):

Then, on the inside of the pyramids students drew and labeled the life cycle of chickens.  They turned out really cute and I was surprised by how my kids didn't struggle with constructing the pyramids.  

 

So fun!

Leap Day Sale!

You may have heard already, but just in case you haven't heard, TpT is having a huge sale on Wednesday!

It's up to 28% off everything!  I am quite a newbie at all this so I only have a few products that I charge for, but if you've been eyeballing anything this is the time to snatch it up.  My products will be 20% off plus TpT is giving an additional 10% off which equals 28% off!

This is the perfect time to grab the Matter packet that that I just made. Or you could check out my Economics or Valentine's Day activity packets.

At the very least you can come grab some freebies from my store. I have a sticky note usage page for reading, a economics vocabulary page, a St. Patrick's Day songs Power Point, and a states of matter sort page.

An idea if you're in the bargain shopping mood but none of my products ring your bell is Amy Lemons' Multiplication Situations unit.  I bought it recently and have been doing activities from it.  So cute!

And if you're a TpT seller yourself, head over to Amy's blog to link up to the "tpt leapy linky" party!



On another note, blogger is about to make me lose my mind.  I had a ton of trouble getting this post to be published.  I had lots more pictures and such but had to remove them to get them to post.  Any suggestions on how to have more success with blogger?  Please?