We love our Garden

The children just love to spend time in the garden.  They ask to go see it almost every day.  It has grown a lot since these pictures.  The children have been painting and drawing garden pictures.  It is very much a part of our school day.  It will be very exciting when the children return in August and are able to see how many things grew over the summer.  We will harvest and plant some more things as soon as the children return in Kindergarten.

Mole and the Baby Bird

We had a very special Circle Time led by Mr. Calili.  He came and discussed how the children felt after releasing the butterflies last week.  He then read the story of Mole and the Baby Bird.  

It is the story of a young Mole that finds and cares for a wounded baby bird.  As the bird recovers, Mole's mother tells Mole that soon the bird will fly.  Mole really wants to keep the bird and even builds a cage for the bird. Then one day, Granddad Mole takes Mole for a walk to the top of a hill.  Mole feels the wind blowing and pretends to fly.  When Mole returns home he sees the baby bird in the cage and decides to set him free. 

After listening to the story, the children requested that Mr. Calili read them the story in Hebrew, which he graciously did.  The children enjoyed having Mr. Calili read to them.  They made comparisons to Mole with the baby bird and the Ganon children with the butterflies.

Below is a YouTube video of the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbz9xg0Zr-o

Newsletter - May 22

Newsletter - May 15

Releasing our Butterflies

Today our class released our butterflies. The class had watched the Painted Lady butterflies grow for weeks from caterpillars.  

The class voted on where we should release the butterflies. The courtyard by the EC garden was the winner. 

At first the butterflies did not want to leave their butterfly garden home. 

The children watched, while trying to stand still and quiet. They did not want to scare the butterflies. 

Then the first one flew out and we watched as it flew around and around. The class laughed because the butterfly appeared to fly straight to the playground. 

Then two more butterflies flew out and straight up in the sky over the building. 

The fourth butterfly flew onto my finger (but only for a minute).

The last butterfly flew out and stopped on a tree for a short period before it flew away. 

One girl, as we were walking back to the classroom, said "I am happy and sad right now."  I think most of the class would agree because we were sad to see the butterflies go, but also happy to see them freely soar into the blue sky. 

When we returned to the classroom, the children drew pictures of the stages of our butterflies. 

Grass

We have been growing some grass in our class. The children have been impressed by how quickly it grew. We decided to use scissors and cut the grass during centers. One child enjoyed the activity so much that he said "I hope it grows fast, so we can cut it again."

Butterflies

After much anticipation, the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalises. The children are enjoying watching the butterflies fly around inside the butterfly garden on the provocation table. We have been feeding them sugar water each morning. We plan to release the butterflies on Friday.