Butterflies are Free

The big news of the day was, of course, the discovery of two butterflies in our tank. Today at science we did close observations of a butterfly and a chrysalis of the verge of opening (which did, indeed, open about an hour later.) Children noticed the outline of the wings visible through the chrysalis. We also had a chance to contrast a male monarch from a female since we were blessed with one of each. Ask your child how to tell the difference.

Later we talked about why we couldn't keep the monarchs, and which of their basic needs could only be met outside of the tank. We read a wonderful picture book Gotta Go, Gotta Go, joining in on the refrain "Gotta go, gotta go, I gotta go to Mexico." Later this week we will learn more about the monarch migration to Mexico. At the end of the day we said good-bye to our monarchs with a "shehechiyanu" blessing and wished them a safe trip to Mexico. And, the excitement isn't really over as we have two more chrysalises in the tank.

Today we began Writing Workshop in the Gan, a daily routine where children learn to tell stories on paper. I'll tell you more about this at Back to School Night on Wednesday. The room was library-quiet as children focused on adding details, and sometimes words and letters, to their creations.

Did you look in your child's folder? You should have 5 Rosh Hashanah cards, smaller versions of the collage your child made last week. Some children were excited to fill them in, but most brought home blank cards to send out with you together. I hope you can put them to good use. We also practiced the greetings Shana Tova (good year) and Shana Mtukah (sweet year) as we began to learn a Hebrew song about apples and honey.

I'll have information tomorrow about the details of our apple picking trip. If you offered to drive, thank you, we are grateful for your help. Everyone will need to leave a labeled car seat/booster seat in the foyer unless the child has a parent driving on the trip.

Here's a link to a new photo album.