Water and Insects

What do they have in common? Well, they were our last two units in Kindergarten.

Our water unit was really fun. Probably my favorite to date. Our character verse was "Jesus gives my spirit living water to drink". The week was broken down into a day for liquid, a day for solid, a day for gas, and a day for dissolving and evaporation. Toward the beginning of the week we set out two jars with the same amount of water in each. One was covered and one was not. Then we checked the jars each day to watch the evaporation. On the liquid day we poured water into several different shaped pitchers to see that liquid takes on the shape of what it is in. At the end of the day we put that water into the fridge to use for our "solid" day. We saw that the ice the next day didn't change shape when poured into a pitcher. Then we put some ice in the refrigerator and some outside to see which would melt first. On our gas day we measured out water in a pan on the stove and let it boil for a while. We observed the steam (evaporation) and then measured it later to see that it really did evaporate. We had a really fun week of learning, and we even used our "hand" octopuses from the week before for a mural of the ocean.



Our next week was Insects (which may be the kids favorite so far). We had an ant farm a few weeks back. It didn't last too long, but it was fun to watch the ants. I'm happy to say I have no amusing stories of any escapes.

We spent a day studying ants, a day on lady bugs, and a day on bees.

Aunt Teri sent the kids a lady bug land. We sent away for the larvae, and wouldn't you know, they arrived right on our lady bug day! We are having fun watching them grow and we are looking forward to setting them free in our garden once they turn into lady bugs.

Here Danny is releasing the larvae into the lady bug land. I imagine they had quite a trip in the mail and really love their new digs.


Here are my little scientists observing the larvae and making sure they are all moving. We were worried about a few at first, then read that the larvae molt, so the curled up ones we saw where actually old skins of the ones that were doing just what they were suppose to do.


Here is the larvae a couple days ago. They have grow much more... I'm so happy we don't have a snake unit (this year anyway!).

Just one more thing before I step away from the computer for the day... We went to Apple Valley last week to visit Grandma Butler's desert property. We met my cousin Christie and her family up there for a picnic. On the way home we decided to take a side trip to peak at Silverwood Lake. This is as close as we got, but it made for an impromptu photo shoot.

I'm so blessed!!

I hope to post soon about how we have set up our "little" school this year, and some of the things I've done to try and keep me organized.