Week One Photos

These photos go with the post Week One Notes (week of Sep 5).

Zac makes a welcome sign in the driveway for the first day of school

our first project:  collecting monarch caterpillars from the swamp milkweed in the pollinator garden

luckily, my largest terrarium is exactly the length of 4 paper towels

we will be changing out the paper towels often!

everyone brings a tube of milkweed and the rack holds them beautifully 

everyone is really excited about the new colored pencils!

the older children carefully put theirs in rainbow order

sketching caterpillars in the new nature journals

the Straight Line is our form for today

the older children sketch the caterpillars too

monarch frass is one of the droppings in Plop Trumps Extreme!

so, of course, we have to play

and there's plenty of playtime for dolls, sidewalk chalk, the mud kitchen, tree climbing, and more!

hard at work mulching the fairy village, which we are putting in the pollinator garden (between the milkweed and the Joe Pye weed) so that the butterflies can visit the fairies

drawing pill bugs

the Circle is our form for today

at the end of the day, we write everything we did in the plan book, and color code each activity by subject area

yellow - Language Arts

orange - Cultural (History / Geography)

red - Fine Arts

purple - Practical Life

blue - Mathematics

green - Science & Nature

brown - P.E. & Health

this helps us see if our day has been balanced

the new Mapping the World with Art books

getting the kangaroo pouches all organized

these hang so nicely on the backs of the chairs

the older children update their plan books more independently

beside "map" they have to write which exact map they drew that day

taking apart that broken stump gives us perfect pieces to start the fairy houses

making a floating compass

examining tree rings

how old was this tree?

Concentric Circles is our form for today

painting with water on a blackboard is very satisfying

there's a lovely moment of anticipation before you begin

you can make your tree grow as big as you want

you can even count the rings as you paint them

the caterpillars are very happy

the stage 5 instars eat constantly!

when they are ready to go into their chrysalis form, they hang in a J shape

some hang on the milkweed stalks and some prefer the terrarium lid

in preparation for Chrysalis Day (when the first monarch goes into its chrysalis), we stain the costume green by getting into it and rolling all around 

grass stains are the perfect color!

several Js turned into chrysalides when we weren't watching but finally we catch one in the act!

the old caterpillar skin is shed and the chrysalis is below

the green softness with the ex-caterpillar inside wiggles and pushes and moves around just like a kid in a sleeping bag

after a while the chrysalis hardens into its final form and gets its golden dots

we find a fungus which perfectly matches the illustration in A Log's Life

helping to carry more mulch

map drawing

the final push to finish the Fairy Village and Gnome River

this Fairy Village project is so fun, and it also supports our lunchtime read aloud, The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly, which in turn supports the youngest children in having a bedtime read aloud story

this week the youngest children reviewed Form Drawing from grade 1, and next week we will begin to read the alphabet book from the Tiptoes series and review Capital Letters from grade 1

beautifying the village with flowers and berries

I demonstrate leaf rubbing

Patterns with Straight Lines is our form for today

when we were learning about tree rings, one little girl mentioned how trees have a liquid somewhat like blood that moves through them

so I thought we would do the Celery in Colored Water experiment!

what happens if you split the celery and put each half in a different color of water?

we try it to find out!

the older children brainstorm what < compass > might mean before we look it up

we catch another caterpillar in the process of going into its chrysalis... and everyone comes running

ending the week with a Bubble Party to welcome the fairies to their new homes!

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