We Bid You Farewell...

Today we close our unit on insects and move on to plants. Here's a final picture of one of our beetles that taught us so much about the life cycle!

Darkling Beetles Invade Room 202!

We enjoyed a long holiday weekend and came back to find...

Not only do we have Darkling Beetles in our class but one keen observer even recorded a larva becoming a pupa! 

And - check out this super active pupa - we are keeping our eyes on this one - we predict another beetle will appear soon!

Such an exciting day in science!

Art, Meet my friend, Science

I love when art flows naturally into science. We are continuing to observe the life cycle of the mealworm (Darkling Beetles will emerge ANY DAY NOW) and today we used art to illustrate our understanding of the process. 

I really love kids art, and I love meeting my kids' needs by assessing knowledge in so many ways.

Kids really do learn in different ways, on different days!

I'm Molting!

We have molting! The students today focused on collecting pieces of molting from their larva and studying it with magnifying glasses. Then, they taped a bit in their journals to record their observations.

Feeding Frenzy!

We've observed and recorded so much of the life cycle with these (ahem) fantastic little creatures. Larva, molting, pupa... can't wait for those little beetles to emerge.

Honestly, I'm just as amazed as the kids - even though worms and larva give me the heeby-jeebies, they are fascinating! Look at them devour carrots!

Questioning - Can a Pupa Move?

The students posed really excellent questions about the life cycle of our mealworms. One was, can a pupa move?
We made predictions.
Through observation we found the answer...

Life Cycle!

A few of our little friends are in the pupa stage! My students are at music now, but they are going to go bananas when they see this after lunch!

Goodnight, Worms...

I wonder what those little worms will be up to this weekend with the classroom all to themselves. Hmmm.  I left them some reading material and a life cycle wheel to keep them entertained until we come back on Monday. What do you think they're doing right now?

Worm Observations...

We are continuing on with our observation of mealworms and focused on their structure today. Did you know they have claws?

We learned to look closely and notice features of the mealworm. Later, we created a graphic organizer - Parts of a Mealworm.  Finally, we created a life cycle wheel and tested each other on our knowledge so far!

Hello, Worms!

The students were very excited to say "Good Morning" to their worms today. 

It bet these little fellows were a big topic of conversation in about 20 homes last night!

Wormie Wormerson

We began our investigations and observation with a bang! Wow, the students were so excited to use their science tools again - this time to observe a living thing!

Some of our worm friends have already passed on but I'm confident we'll be able to observe the entire life cycle with a good amount of these little fellas!

Mealworms!

Anyone who knows me probably knows that worms are my thing. And by thing I mean the thing that gets me the most grossed out. For some it's roaches or spiders - worms are mine. So, this attests to my dedication to the profession and the fact that it really is for the children...

We've got worms. LOADS and loads of worms (seems like millions) and will begin our observations today! 

The students have no idea but they are going to go bananas when they find out!