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Butterflies & Seeds!

Hey there!  I hope you enjoyed your relaxing and peaceful weekend!  Back to school we go… 25 days I believe left for me!  Not sure why I am counting…it’s not like I’m looking forward to summer 😉  I have been slacking and forgot to post our last two close reads; butterflies and seeds to plant!  I know a lot of you are getting familiar with the close reads or even trying them in your own classrooms!  I will try and not ramble on about things I’ve said before!*If you are new to close reads be sure to click on the right side of the screen >>> “close reads” and you can see a lot more details about how I implemented close reads and more on our daily routines for them!

First up….butterflies!  We read this nonfiction storia ebook!

Monday: State essential question…reminding students that we will be referencing this question for the week!  Also, before reading the book for the first time the students will do a turn & talk with their partners.  I like to give them a moment to tell their partners everything they already know about the theme!

I record their answers on the bubble chart!  After the “cold read” I will have the students turn & talk once more and tell their partners something new they learned!  I also record a few of those on our bubble chart.  Before leaving the carpet I like to give a “teaser” for our purpose for reading the following day!

Day two is always vocabulary!  I read the text again and we discuss unknown words. We share our the words and do a few turn & talks with our partners!  We also have actions for each of the words.

Days 3-4 are our text-dependent questions and collaborative questions!  Day five is our cumulative writing…this week we were focusing on one of our vocabulary words, migration!

Migration means to me that butterflies move and move to another place and lay their eggs.  Then they move back to their normal place.

Migration means butterflies travel to Mexico or Canada.

Migration is when the butterflies go to Canada and Mexico.

We also work on our close read “theme” during our content study and in writing as well some times!  I like to bring our alternate texts for them to learn additional knowledge!

Below are a view snapshots from our week on butterflies!

Label a butterfly- life size!

Also, a life size version of the butterfly’s life cycle!

The kids also made their own version of the butterfly life cycle!  Easy peasy…we all know that I don’t do anything too crafty…so if I can do it, you can too!  For this activity we had 2 different versions of noodles and beans for the egg!  The paper plate had a line drawn down the center.  The kiddos colored their leaves and glued the noodles/bean down to match the life cycle!  You can snag the FREEBIE leaves/butterfly life cycle labels below!


Download the freebies below!

LEAVES

BUTTERFLY LIFE CYCLE LABELS

We also did this adorable butterfly craft…again super easy!


Supplies:
Coffee Filters
Markers
Water Spray Bottle
Pipe Cleaners

Directions:

Lay the coffee filter opened on a piece of paper, students color the coffee filter with markers, teacher will spray the coffee filter, dry {mine took about 2 hours to dry}, then wrap the pipe cleaner around and twist for antennae.





My sister has these adorable butterflies soaring in her room!  This shortie cannot handle a project like that 😉


This past week our close read was all about seeds to plants!  We had a lot fun this one…as always!  Same format as before… that’s what I love about close reads!  The routines and format is the same..however, the kids never get bored with it because the content is changing!

                                                      

Day one bubble chart!

We also worked on the parts of a flower!

The excitement of the week for sure came from our experiment!  We posed this question, do seeds need water?  The kiddos seemed to think they knew the answer right away, but great scientist always test their hypothesis!  We planted our own grass seeds and water ours.  However, we had one cup that didn’t receive any water.  Each day we recorded our findings!  

It was a nail-biter, but after a three day weekend WE HAD GRASS!

{love the snake? haha that is this week’s close read}

We wrote our conclusions……

                                  

We ended the week like any true scientist…eating dirt and worms!
Interested in close reads?  This bundle has been a top seller!

And here is a little snap shot of my Easter weekend….my sister, niece Lolah, and I! 🙂
Have a great week and remember…..

just keep swimming!

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Filed Under: KinderCurriculum

Comments

  1. Tiffani Mugurussa says

    April 22, 2014 at 4:36 am

    Thanks Tara for sharing. We are finishing up our plant unit and starting butterflies tomorrow. I'll be sharing your close read ideas with my staff as our entire school will be starting butterflies this week.
    ✿Tiffani Time 4 Kindergarten

    Reply
  2. Miss Kindergarten says

    April 22, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    Oh my freaking gosh Tara, stop being so darn amazing all the time!!!!! Where is that little parts of a flower page from?? So cute!!! And the setting on the bottom one is adorable!!!

    Reply
  3. Jennifer White says

    April 22, 2014 at 6:04 pm

    LOVE!
    Jennifer
    First Grade Blue Skies

    Reply
  4. kindergal says

    April 23, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    Hi Tara! I love your close reads! I plan on starting plants soon and really like your science experiment sheet. Is that included with the nonfiction purchase of the close reads?

    Reply
  5. Reading Recipe Pals says

    April 28, 2014 at 2:27 am

    Love your writing strips.

    Reply

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