plants and bugs

Late April we began our study on plants and soil. I like to start a unit of study by charting what we wonder about. I had the kids write what they wonder about on a vegetable. I took all the vegetables and made a veggie garden.

Here is our wonder wall!

We read Dirt: The Scoop on Soil and then explored soil with cute gardening tools from the Target dollar spot and hand lenses.

Then it was onto insects. I ordered live caterpillar larva from Amazon so we could observe the life cycle of a butterfly. We watched the caterpillars grow and change into butterflies.

 We recorded our observations here. I just added this to my insect unit. You can get it here.

I also got this from Insect Lore on Amazon. They are figures that show how butterflies grow and change. I also made a mini unit to go along with this. You can find it here.

I added this to one of my morning tubs. The kids get to read a book on the butterfly life cycle. Then they get to build the life cycle using a mini anchor chart and the life cycle stages pieces. Then they get to make a mini butterfly life cycle book.

 I made one for ladybugs as well. You can find it here.

Building the ladybug life cycle

Ladybug life cycle mini book

weather

I just made my countdown to summer. We have 16 days left until summer fun! I am amazed every year how fast it goes. In April I taught my weather unit.  We made a tornado in a bottle! All you need is a tornado tube like this one from Amazon. I also added a couple of drops of food coloring and glitter. The kids got to create a vortex by twirling and swirling the bottle.

 

When we start a new unit of inquiry we ask questions and find the answers in non fiction books. Here is our wonder wall for our weather unit.

I made these cloud people a while ago from Babbling Abby. I use them every year. After reading and finding out cool facts the kids jotted down their new learning on sticky notes and added it to the different clouds.

We had to brainstorm what Earth would be like if there were no clouds.