FIRST GRADERS!!!!!

Last night was Kindergarten graduation! My girls did so well with their program, and I was very proud of them! Over the next week or so, I'll post about last night's event, but I just want to make sure I have all the pictures before I get started! For now, enjoy the happy smiles of the new FIRST GRADERS in their graduation caps and gowns!!

Which side do you think is the REAL thing? :-)

Last Day of School - Plan B

Today was our last official day of school! In celebration, we were going to go to a nearby park, play for awhile, and then have a picnic lunch. However, the raindrops falling from the sky early this morning made me wonder if this was going to happen. I started to formulate a Plan B in my mind. For the first hour of the school day, I had 4 of my girls with me, so I decided to put them to work! They did a great job helping me clean the classroom. They dusted and sanitized everything in sight, but their ultimate favorite task was cleaning the chalkboard. :-)

When the time came to head over to the park, we got into the van, and it started to rain steadily. I figured that was a sign that Plan B was going to have to work! Instead of heading to the park, we headed to McDonald's. This particular one had a great play area, so the girls were quite thrilled with this change in plans. We got to the McDonalds and the minute we stepped out of the van, it began to POUR! We all ran across the parking lot, but ended up getting soaked. Oh well...memories! It made us all giggle, and the girls dried out soon enough as they played.

 

Ella's mommy was sweet to buy all the girls an ice cream treat while we were there!

After we finished playing at McDonalds, we headed to my house to have a picnic lunch on my back porch. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves. So in reality, I think Plan B was a lot more fun than Plan A might have been! It just shows that God knows what is best!

Baby Chicks!!

Thanks to Cally's mommy, we've enjoyed having 9 little chicks in our classroom this week! They are definitely a noisy, smelly, messy little bunch, but the girls love them dearly.

They have named them accordingly: Itsy Bitsy, Fluffy, Emma, Elsa, Anna, Chloe, Zoey, Alyssa #1 and Alyssa #2. Apparently the last 2 look exactly alike to the girls, so they felt they should be named the same! :-)

 

I was able to capture 3 of my girls' reactions to their baby chicks on video. :-) Oh yes, my girls sure can make me smile!

1st Grade is Coming...Ready or Not!

Last week I brought out this flower poster board, which I have discovered makes a great graduation countdown! As you can see, the flowers are quickly being removed - not too many days left to be Kindergartners! The girls and I have been working on our graduation program, and the excitement has been building about becoming 1st graders!

Once May started, we began to really practice what it is going to be like to be a 1st grader. We visit the Elementary Learning Center almost every day, and even do some 1st grade school work. One of the things that is different in 1st grade, is that students get the teacher's attention by raising an American flag. I got each of my girls an American flag, and they have been practicing raising their flag when they have a question.

See, even our buddy, Cheetah, is practicing being a 1st grader!! :-)

My girls love collecting nature. Every time they come in from recess, they are carting rocks, sticks, grass, flowers, feathers, leaves etc. Yesterday's "exploration" yielded a whole bunch of pine cones! They had them spread all over the table, but I condensed them into this nice little container. :-) One of my girls took it upon herself to label the container today. You know what she is trying to say, right?! It makes this teacher's heart glad to see her girls striving to spell out words in this challenging English language we have! The correct spellings will come in time...I am just proud that the attempt was made!

Fun at the Park

On Friday we went with the elementary students to a nearby park for the afternoon. It was a lot of fun to climb, explore, slide and swing with our friends!

 

Butterfly Release Day!

Today we released our butterflies into their natural habitat. :-) They have actually been rather busy butterflies, constantly fluttering all about their pavilion. Definitely the most active butterflies I have had yet! This being the case I thought for sure that the second we opened up the pavilion today, they would take off flying, never to be seen again. Was I ever wrong! The girls opened it up and...nothing. They all just sat there contentedly on their flowers and orange slices, in no hurry to move around. It worked out great though! The girls were able to pick them up, and enjoy watching them fly away in their hands. Some of the butterflies actually stayed put for a little bit, which just made my girls' day! I was able to get some cute pictures. Here are a few of my favorites below...if you would like to view the whole album, you can go here to my Facebook photo album.

Butterflies & Giggles

Over the weekend the other 4 butterflies emerged from their safe, little chrysalises!  After the enthusiastic greeting they received this morning, they are probably regretting their decision to leave their cozy, quiet homes...

We are going to enjoy observing our five beautiful, painted lady butterflies these next few days!

Butterfly #1!!!!

Late this morning, butterfly #1 finally emerged! Unfortunately,this process is rather quiet so we were not able to catch the actual moment it came out, but the girls were excited to see her when they got back from afternoon recess!

1 down...4 more to go!

 

Of course, we have been patiently waiting for these butterflies to finally start emerging. (Ha!) To encourage us along in our caterpillar-to-butterfly journey we received a special gift this week from a special lady - cute little butterfly clips!