Monarch Butterfly

I never found a Monarch butterfly in San Antonio once this blog was assigned, however, I did see all of these Monarch butterflies down in Port Aransas a couple months ago.

Simple Machines @ Home

Simple machines can be found in every room of your house. 

The doorknob to a door is an example of wheel and axle. As you turn the knob, it rotates on an axle and unlatches the door.

Shoelaces are an examples of pulleys. As you pull on your shoelaces, they move through small holes, which reverse the direction of the force causing your shoe to tighten on your foot.

 The handle on the toilet is an example of a lever. Whenever you push the lever, it flushes the toilet. 

Fan blades are examples of inclined planes. As the blades spin around, they push air along their slanted surfaces.

A lightbulb is an example of a screw. You turn it clockwise to screw it in and counter-clockwise to unscrew it. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle @ Home

At my house, we have a separate blue trashcan for recycling. The recycling gets picked up every Friday, while the normal trash in the brown trashcans gets picked up on Tuesdays. We try to recycle the best we can. I reuse the plastic trash bags from HEB to dispose of my cat, Macy's, stinky litter on a daily basis. Another way I reuse, but on a semi-annually basis, is by redistributing old clothes that I will no longer wear or use to someone who can. I also use a Brita Water Filter to reduce the cost and waste of bottle waters. I want to get better at recycling different items in their appropriate bin! 

Science in the Classroom

 The day that I go to my second grade classroom is the same day that they go to the library, so their schedule is a little different than normal. Therefore, I have yet to see any bit of science instruction take place in the classroom since I have been there. They were working on 'Diary of a Spider' last Wednesday, which I thought could be turned into an entire unit on spiders if you wanted to incorporate some science in the classroom. There are a couple of science posters posted around the classroom though. There is a poster on the phases of the moon, there is a poster on science process skills, and there are different bugs in jars representing the different numbers on the number posters. 

Living Organisms: @ home and in the hood!

While I was exploring my house and my neighborhood, I found lots of weeds! The picture on the left is a picture of a wasps nest, and the picture on the right is a bunch of leaves and acorns. Kids could explore the different kinds of social wasps and their nests. Then they could take it a step further and look into insets. Kids could explore the changing of seasons from Summer to Fall. They could also discover what an acorn is and where it lies in the food web and then do a study on squirrels. 

And below is a picture of my kitten, Macy! She is a living organism in the home. Kids could do research on mammals and their characteristics!

                                  

Project Wild Blog

A tropical storm decided to grace us with its presence the day of Project Wild. I was very impressed that the staff continued on with the workshop as best they could. There were a couple activities throughout the day that we could not partake in or had to be altered, but we made the most of it!

Although the nature hike had to be cancelled along with the "Oh Deer!" activities, we still got to experience a majority of the activities the staff had planned for us. We took a couple of "hikes" through two books that they gave us at the beginning of the workshop, Project Wild and Growing Up Wild. Speaking of those books, I cannot wait to put those to use in the classroom! Both of those books are amazing! As shown below is a picture of a page from Growing Up Wild. On every page it gives you fictional and non-fictional books that are related to the topic, the materials and prep you need for each lesson, the procedure, art projects and songs that relate to the topic, a creative snack, and much more! 

Another activity that we participated in throughout the day was Bingo, but it was 'Wild Bingo' with lots of wildlife questions and statements. We had to go around and get people to sign a square they knew the answer to or that related to them. I learned several wildlife facts that I never knew from playing 'Wild Bingo'. 

The activity shown below was one that an instructor led from Project Wild. All in all, it was a good day. I wish the weather would have been better so I could have received the full experience, but I did leave the workshop with lots of new ideas!