This week we focused on celebrating the Earth. This entailed learning different ways that we could each help keep the Earth clean and healthy, as well as learning how to be caring to all creatures big or small.

To honor that concept, we all made butterflies. Using tiny droppers, we mixed food coloring in primary colors on coffee filters. The colors blended together to create a beautiful tye-dyed effect on the coffee filters. When the coffee filters were dry, we slid and squished them into the slit of a cloths pin to create the wings and body of the butterfly. Next we drew a little face on the clothes pin. Finally, we chose a color pipe cleaner and folded and fastened it to form the antennae. The butterflies are flying around our classrooms for all to see.

Later in the week we made ladybugs out of egg cartons. First we painted the our egg cups red to be the base and body of the ladybugs. Next we painted one side black for it’s face and then painted black dots on the body. When the paint was dry, we then punched wholes in the sides of the body and strung black pipe cleaners through to make three pairs of legs. One more pipe cleaner was used to make antennae. Finally we glued googly eyes on the face. These will be crawling around our bulletin boards for all to see.

In science Ms. Donza told a story about a beautiful fish pond that becomes polluted by careless picnickers. The story explained how the more garbage ends up in the pond, the less oxygen there is for the fish to breathe, and eventually the fish will die. This story also helped launch a discussion about recycling, as most of what the picnickers left behind was recyclable.

In Ms. Donza’s group we also discussed our favorite places to be outside and drew a corresponding picture. In Mrs. Beninati’s group we read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss which tells the story of a greedy factory owner who chops down all of the truffula trees in the forest and destroys the entire ecosystem there, despite the Lorax’s warnings. We discussed whether or not that story could happen in real life. We decided that it could, and that it was our job to be like the Lorax himself, and make sure that it doesn’t.

In math we learned about ordinal numbers. First we looked at the words “order” and talked about what an order is. Then we looked at the word “ordinal” and discovered that both words begin with the same first three letters and that this could help us remember the meaning of “ordinal”. We talked about how ordinal numbers are the special way of naming what place an object or a being is in an order. Then we read and discussed the book Henry the Fourth by Stuart J. Murphy. This book tells the story of a neighborhood dog show to introduce the concept of ordinal numbers. After we finished the story each of us had a turn to say which dog (by saying the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th dog) we would have liked to win the show and why.

Earth Day itself was a wonderful day for all!!! We began our day with a visit from the Audubon society. Our presenter brought turtles, a snake, a blue-tongued skink from Australia,  and an adorable, but injured Screech Owl to show us. She talked about the importance of treating animals in nature with care. She also said how important it is that we do not throw food out of our car windows as that attracts animals to the road where they are easily hit by oncoming traffic. She also said that if we see an animal in nature, to look at it but not to touch it as they are not used to humans and can become afraid. The one exception being if we see an animal on the road, that we can ask an adult to help move it to safety.

Next we had a visit from the Garbage Museum. Our presenter taught us all about the importance of recycling. She also taught us the do’s and don’ts of recycling. We now know that any plastic container with a number 1 or 2 in the triangle must get recycled, but all other plastics should either be reused or thrown in the garbage. We learned that we can recycle paper, cardboard and metals. She also taught us that worms are nature’s best recyclers. They eat the natural foods, grass, and leaves and turn it into dirt. This helped us to understand how composting is helpful to the Earth.

Lastly we all came back into our classrooms where we got to plant sunflower seeds with Mrs. Beninati and make our very own bird feeders with Ms. Donza. It was a wonderful day. The most important thing we learned is that EVERYDAY SHOULD BE EARTH DAY!!!!

We look forward to our study of the ocean next week!