Presentation at NECC

Susan and I have been accepted to present this project at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in Atlanta in June. We are excited and proud to share what you all have done. Thanks for such a great project.

Exciting News from Hope

Greetings,
I just received this message from home and would like to share it with you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
~Susan

I just received word that I got grant money to go on a Monarch Teacher Network sponsored trip to the Monarch Sanctuary region of Mexico in February! We will be visiting the schools in addition to the sanctuaries. I wish I could take our kids but we decided that they could write books. (Which would be translated into English and Spanish) If any of our Butterfly Buddies would like to participate I would be happy to bring their books, too! I will of course take lots of pictures!

And a Ladybug project in the spring sounds AWESOME!!! I can’t wait!!!!
Best Regards,
Hope

Journey South

Hi to all,
Hope the school year is going well.

Our class was participating in one of Marci McGowan's amazing Internet projects, Autumn Across America. We had been thinking about Autumn in Arlington, Massachusetts, our community, when something incredible happened!

One of my students counted over 280 monarch butterflies flying over our own Peirce School playground after school. In investigating their migration, I found a fabulous project through Journey North, entitled Symbolic Migration.

This beautiful butterfly is by Jamie and it's on its way to Mexico!! To see all the children's work go here: http://geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/monarchs.html and to view all our work for the project, see: http://geocities.com/ljacoby_2000/aaa.html. You'll find links to information on Symbolic Migration on this page, as well.

Best,
Lanise

Butterfly Jeopardy

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Originally uploaded by Lanise.

Hi to all,
Here is one of our student projects - Butterfly Jeopardy.
It had every hand in the room up and anxious to answer!

A Dance With the Butterflies: June 2006

We Are Looking for our own Caterpillars

Hi all,
Just wanted to report that my class took the news well that their caterpillars might have died over the weekend. They were happy that I had ordered more caterpillars. They were eager to go out and look in their gardens for caterpillars. At recess they were out in the garden that we planted about a month ago. They didn't see any, but they found evidence that something had been eating the new leaves on the various plants.

I was happy that this didn't discourage them from creating their own projects. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm and excitement for this project. They loved the work that Hope's students did and can hardly wait to see their own work posted.
It was a good day for everyone!
Norma

Options for Students and More

Hi to all,
As I've said to a couple of people, the devastation of caterpillars dying or dying in chrysalis has become a grave concern with this unit in recent years.

ALL the most popular companies from which to purchase larvae are "farmers" and with this has come too much inbreeding, and with this disease. I'm greatly concerned with what's happening in terms of the environment. There almost needs to be some guidelines that these companies should follow.

A word to all who are having some problems - it's NOT YOU, it's what the companies are doing. They aren't bad people, but they are clearly driven by the popular demand for these beautiful creatures!

On a totally different note...I worked hard to provide multiple product options for my kids. When I presented them this week, MOST of my kids wanted to do "traditional" offerings. I was shocked at first, but then thought - are they wanting to do what is comfortable??? On an up note, several asked if they could do something different, to which I said "YES!" Now I know I'll always be sure to incude an "Other" option on differentiated assignments.

I'll let you know how it goes.

A Dance With the Butterflies: June 2006

A Dance With the Butterflies: June 2006

I just went to school to check up on our caterpillars and discovered that they are all dead. At least I think they are dead. They aren't moving and the one that on the top of the lid was on the bottom of the container. I am so upset! The children are going to be so sad. I will try to get more, but I don't think they will emerge in time:(

If I can find more butterflies, I'm wondering how many to buy? I want to be able to have some of them emerge.

Norma

Hope's Project

After putting together Hope's web page for our project, I took the time to view the other activities she did with her students. Needless to say, it took my breath away! Just listening to her little ones talk about butterflies validated all the work I've been doing with my online friends and colleagues. I'm going to be a featured speaker in Georgia next November and can't wait to share how our group has been blogging for understanding. Hope told me that our blog has introduced her to so many new technologies and it's such a pleasure to see how they were used with her pre schoolers in such a creative way.
Thank you, Hope!

A Dance With the Butterflies

A Dance With the Butterflies
I am thankful that we aren't the only class with most of our larvae dying. We are down to 4. 2 are against the side of the vial. The children are praying. Despite this, it has been fun studying butterflies. They are delightful little creatures. We have had a few visitors, cabbage white butterflies and a couple moths. Yesterday, one student caught a moth and though it had antennas like a butterfly, it definitely had a broad body. It is great to watch the students examining and arriving to insightful conclusions.
Blessings,
Lori-Anne