Painted Lady Butterflies

As you are probably aware, we have been learning about butterflies in our class.
We received 27 very small Painted Lady caterpillars in April, and we watched them eat and eat!  They molted several times, and early in May, they molted for the last time and formed a shell around themselves called a chrysalis.

This video clip shows one of the caterpillars in the last stage of becoming a chrysalis.

 

 

Here are some photos of the chrysalises hanging in the flight cage:

 

 

 

 

  

The chrysalises have attached themselves to the filter paper that was in their caterpillar container.  The chrysalises were transfered to the flight cage. The filter paper is pinned to the flight cage.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of one of the 13 Painted Lady butterflies that had emerged as of Friday, May 17th.  We expect to see more butterflies by Tuesday, May 21st.

 

The butterfly is tasting the juice we placed in the flight cage. Can you guess what part of their bodies butterflies use to taste with?  Their front legs!  





 

Education Week at Nellie McClung P.S.

It was wonderful to see many of the students' parents and grandparents last Monday and Tuesday for Nellie McClung Public School's Open House.  It was obvious to see how excited the children were to show their parents/grandparents around the room.  One of the highlights was the 'caterpillar table'.  We heard many parents say that they have been hearing a lot about the caterpillars at home, too.  As teachers, we love to hear that the children are excited and happy about what is going on at school.

Thank you also for supporting our Scholastic School Book Fair.  Mrs. Gordon-Rak, our teacher-librarian, reported to us that it was a very successful book fair and raised a lot of money for the library enabling us to purchase many more books for the school library.

If you were unable to visit during the Open House last week, you are always welcome to come in to see what is going on in our classroom.  Just contact us to set up a date and time, and we'd be happy to have you come in.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Sending all Mothers, Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers wishes for a very Happy Mother's Day!  We hope you all have a wonderful day with your families.

 

 

 

BookFlix

We have free access to a wonderful site called BookFlix Literacy Resources. 

You can access this site from your home for free at:
http://www.scholastic.ca/education/bookflix_ontario/
BookFlix pairs classic fictional video storybooks from Weston Woods with nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding.
For Grades PreK to 3.  

Here is the login information you will need:
  Sign On:     dsbyork
  Password:  dsby7692

Earth Day is Every Day!

Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day!  The Kindergarten classes at Nellie McClung P.S. will be marking the day by receiving caterpillars of Painted Lady Butterflies!  We will be caring for them and observing how they change into butterflies.  We know it will be a wonderful experience and a great learning opportunity.

A Painted Lady Butterfly

 

Community Safety Village Quiz

As you know, on Tuesday, April 16th, our class went to Community Safety Village at Bruce's Mill Conservation Centre.  Despite the rainy weather, we had a great day, and we learned a lot about keeping ourselves safe.  We have been reviewing the information at school, and the students have been writing about the trip as well.  Thank you to Safety Village for giving us so many souvenirs of our visit!
Lastly, but certainly not least, a big thank you to the parents who were able to join us on the trip!  Your help made our trip a success!

You may enjoy taking this quiz about what we learned at Safety Village with your child!  We would love to receive any feedback about the trip to help us with future planning.

True   or   False:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.  Police Officers and Firefighters are community helpers.

2.  You can recognize a police officer because he/she wears a uniform and carries identification.

3.  You should call 911 if your pet is missing.

4.  You should call 911 if you see people breaking windows on purpose.

5.  You should call 911 if your mom or dad fell off a ladder and is badly hurt.

6.  You should call 911 if you can't find your favourite toy.

7.  If there is a fire in your home, you should hide under your bed.

8.  If there is a fire in your home, you should get down low and go.  Also, yell out, 'Fire! Fire!' for the rest of your family to hear.

9.  Mom or Dad should check to make sure the fire alarms are working in your home.

10.  Your family should have a meeting place outside your home in case there is ever a fire.

11.  It is a good idea for Kindergarten children to touch coffee pots, kettles, toasters and oven doors.

12.  If your clothes ever catch fire, you should 'Stop, drop and roll' in order to put the fire out.  Remember to cover your face as you roll around on the ground.

13.  You should always go swimming alone.

14.  You should always wear a life vest when you are near, on or in water.

How did you and your child do on the quiz?

Here is our answer key: 
1.  True (T)       2.  T      3.  False (F)      4.  T       5.  T        6.  F        7.  F      8.  T          9.  T        10.  T     11.   F     12.  T      13.  F    14.  T

If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact us.


Community Safety Village will be having an open house for children and their families on May 11th!  Admission is a non-perishable food donation for the Food Bank. 


 

A Letter to Captain Gould...

As you know, Captain Gould visited our school recently to let us know what it's like to be an airplane pilot.  The Kindergarten classes were very interested in what Captain Gould had to tell us and show us.  We had lots of questions for him, too, and Captain Gould answered all of them! 

We learned lots of facts about being a pilot.  Here are just a few things we learned ... We found out that Captain Gould had to go to special pilot school to learn how to fly an airplane.  We also learned that all pilots have to carry their pilot licences with them.  Captain Gould flies an Airbus 320 for Air Canada, and that airplane can carry 200 passenges.  On the Airbus 320, the pilots use a joy stick to fly the plane, and there are lots of computers and instruments in the cockpit to help the pilots fly the plane.  

Our class wrote a thank you letter to Captain Gould:

Dear Captain Gould,
Thank you for visiting us.  We enjoyed learning about being a pilot.  We think being a pilot must be a fun job to do.  Thank you also for all the gifts!  We love the post cards and the pilot's wings stickers.  We also love the luggage tags.
We hope you like the pictures that we are sending you.

Sincerely,

The Kindergarten Class in Room 110

Here are some photos from Captain Gould's visit:

All pilots must carry their pilot's licence when they fly.

 

 

 

Showing us some of his map books

    

 

 

A model of the Airbus 320, the airplane he flies for Air Canada

 

Pilots carry things they need in their black bags including flashlights to help them

 inspect their aircrafts before flying.

 

Pilots keep track of all their flights in a Pilot Log Book.

 

 

Showing us a map pilots use to plan their flights

 

Showing us what he packs in his luggage for his flights

 

Many pilots keep photos of loved ones inside their hats.

Captain Gould has a photo of a monkey that is an astronaut for Nasa!