Welcome!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to my first blog post!  I know that there are a lot of teaching blogs out there, but hopefully I'll be able to carve out my little niche in cyberspace.

Right now in third grade my students are getting ready for their Citywide Math exam.  Last week they took the ELA and honestly, they are all tested out!  To try to keep them interested in learning I thought that this would be a good time to do our butterfly and ladybug observations.  I ordered the insects (through Insect Lore) on Monday of last week, and they arrived by Friday...super quick!  I wasn't really prepared for them yet but luckily they are pretty easy to take care of.  

Over the weekend I created a butterfly journal and a ladybug journal for the kids to write down their observations.  The students received their journals today and had so much fun at the end of the day writing down their observations and questions.  It was definitely a nice break from math test prep.

Here are some pictures of them writing in their journals and of the insects:

                                        The butterfly larva on day 1.

                            Look at how much they've grown in 3 days!!!

                 I couldn't resist these cute magnifying glasses from
                                Target...from their dollar aisle :)

                                      Observing the ladybugs...

                                                                   ...and the butterfly larva.

                                       A look inside the ladybug house.

If you really like the idea of watching insects in your class and would like to use my journal, you can click here to find it: Butterfly and Ladybug Science Observation Journal.  The journal can be used for anything that your class may be observing!