Make Way For Ducklings!

Our class has had a great time watching as a duck created a nest and laid eggs in one of the Big Woods courtyards! It has been exciting to watch how she cared for her nest! The most exciting thing though was watching the babies waddle around after they had hatched! Since the duck nested in the courtyard, there was no way for her and the babies to leave! Last year, they made a duckling parade through the school. It was so cute but very stressful for the mother duck. This year as they were rounding up the babies they managed to safely grab the mother duck, get the babies into a box and transport all of them safely to a local pond. Here are some pictures of the roundup! Some are a bit blurry but the babies were moving so quickly it was hard to get a good picture of them! This was perfect timing as we discussed life cycles in science!

Rounding Up The Ducks!

The Adorable Babies!

Author Tea

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED OUR AUTHOR TEA!!

It was a HUGE success! The kids had a great time sharing their stories! I am extremely proud of their hard work creating their stories and hope that they enjoyed our writing projects! A special thanks to the volunteers who helped set-up and take down our cafe!

Reading Our Stories

Sharing conversation, cookies, and punch!

A fun time was had by all our special guests!

Mealworms Are Marvelous

This is a picture of one of our first beetles! We have had a lot of fun with our mealworms! At first the students were confused because we started talking about insects. They caught on quickly that a worm is not an insect and many asked why we were going to take care of mealworms. What they didn't know is that they would eventually change to a beetle! The day our first beetle arrived was SO EXCITING! Here are some interesting things about meal worms and beetles....

Q: How many types of beetles are there?

A: There are more kinds of beetles on earth than kinds of anything else! Scientists have estimated that there are over 350,000 kinds of beetles. Some scientists estimate that beetles account for at least a million of the earth's six million animal species.

Q: Where do mealworms live?

A: They live in a lot of places, most of them cool and damp. Unfortunately, they also like to live in your cupboards! They can also be pesty in stored grain. The mealworm is really the larval stage of a black beetle.

Q: What eats meal worms?

A: Lots of things can prey on the larval stage of mealworms. Two examples are birds and other insects. Mealworms may also be sold in pet stores to feed to lizards and other pets.

Q: How are mealworms born?

A: Mealworms, like most insects, hatch from eggs. The adult female mealworm lays about 275 eggs, which hatch in one to two weeks. And out pop tiny mealworms!

Q: How does a mealworm turn into a beetle?

A: Beetles can be a lot like butterflies. They have a larval stage, a pupal stage, and an adult stage. In butterflies we usually call those stages "caterpillar," "chrysalis," and "butterfly." In beetles we usually call them "grub" (or larva), "pupa" and "beetle." So after a year or two as a mealworm, the mealworm will form a pupa and after a few weeks will emerge as an adult beetle. Marvelous!

Thank You PTO!

We have an amazing PTO at Big Woods! They have done many things for the students and staff at Big Woods. Some of the things they do include:

• Organizing Volunteers for Various Events


• Fundraising


• Providing Funds For Field Trip Transportation Cost


• Bringing in Speakers Like Danielle Daniel


• Helping With The Book Fair


• Collecting Box Tops


• MUCH, MUCH, MORE!!

THANK YOU TO THE PTO for all their help this year! Last week I attended a PTO meeting and as I was walking out to my car, the water tower across the street appeared to be glowing as the sunset reflected off of it! I hope you enjoy the picture!

China Presentation

This month is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. We kicked off this month by listening to Dr. Foucault share pictures and stories from her trip to China. Some things we found very interesting were the architecture of the temples, how cars drive on sidewalks and can only be taken out certain days of the week, the toilets, the exercise equipment in the middle of the city, and how people grow pigeons. We also enjoyed seeing what a school in China looked like! Thank you Dr. Foucault for sharing your trip with us!

We thought the pictures were really interesting!

A very interesting presentation!