Animals, Plants & Earth Day

Spring is always a fun month in terms of curriculum because we get to focus on plants and animals.  It's the time of year when eggs are hatching and flowers are blooming.  We take full advantage of all that is going on around us and try to experience it while it's happening.

Thanks to the generous contribution from Ayla's mom, we currently have a cup full of caterpillars that we are watching very intently.  We have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly for the past week and we are now about to witness the metamorphosis stages first hand!

Once each caterpillar forms its chrysalis, we will transfer them into the butterfly pavilion where they will emerge as butterflies.  We will eventually release them outside to fly free.

Today will celebrated Earth Day!  We learned the importance of taking care of our Earth and what we can do to help.  The flip books we created taught us the three R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

To do our part in keeping the air clean and producing more oxygen, we planted our own seedlings that we will eventually plant in the ground to grow oak trees.  The kids are very excited about the thought of growing their own tree!

Earth Day is the kick off to our two week unit on plants.  The kids will be learning about the life cycle of the plant as well as the parts of a plant.  We will be growing our own plants from a germinated seed and examining all the parts of the seed and plant.  We will be making observations and collecting data through out the weeks as well.

To add a celebratory touch to Earth Day we did the usual...

CUPCAKES!