My oh my what a week it has been!! All of the ladybugs have all gone through metamorphosis and are now adult ladybugs who are happily eating aphids in our terrarium until we release them. All of the caterpillars entered their pupa stage at about the same time and we now have eight butterflies who are drying their wings and getting ready to fly. Once the remaining two butterflies emerge we will plan a time to release them into the garden.
While we were observing our ladybugs and caterpillars go through metamorphosis the children solved simple math problems (below) to help them track and better understand the process.
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| Ladybug Math |
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| S.Y. found this guy in our tree so he has joined our terrarium. |
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| Ladybug pupa and larva |
In addition to all of the insect and bug excitement we have continued our study on plants. Through out the past few weeks we have been reading a series of non-fiction books about the different parts of a plant and the role they play in the life-cycle of each plant. To prepare for our field trip to
Suzie's Farm we read Tops and Bottoms and learned about all of the different parts of the plants that we eat. Did you know that broccoli, artichoke and cauliflower are all flowers?
Our trip to the farm was absolutely amazing. Our tour guide, Amria, was fabulous and I will let my photos and videos do the talking.
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| Ready with their harvesting bags! |
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| On our way to the farm! |
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| Harvesting the kale |
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| And finding ladybugs! |
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| Worm? Caterpillar? Not sure. |
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| Smelling the rosemary, lavender |
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| or mint. |
J.B. ate his way through the tour
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| Licorice-stem/leaf |
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| Kale-leaf |
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| Squash-fruit/flower |
The signs were amazing!
It was no surprise that the strawberries were a hit!
And the beets and broccoli were too..
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| Our amazing guide!! |
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| My harvest! |
