Skinny Tea Mac Makeup Contest

Skinny tea is having an amazing contest!! Giving away tons of mac makeup!! Enter if you want a chance to win!! Follow this link for a chance to enter!! 

http://skinny-teatox.com/blogs/skinny-teatox/28736193-mac-cosmetics-skinny-teatox-giveaway

Our Caterpillars Arrived!!!

Our baby caterpillars arrived today!!! 

**These are painted lady butterfly larvae

They came with this little package!! 

All the baby caterpillars arrived in this container (approx. 30 larvae) 

I started by laying all of these containers out that are included in the kit. I poked 3 pin sized wholes in the lids. These are little solo containers similar to the jello shot containers!!

I poured the premixed powder into the container and added approx 150ml the first time to create a firm cookie dough texture. I added a bit more water after as I found it was not mixing well. 

 

I put a little bit into each container and pushed it with my thumb to the bottom. I suggest that you make sure it pushed down and some bubbled released as you do not want the mixture to trap or crush the larvae. 

 

Now for the fun part (and a bit tricky). You need to take the lid and netting from the top so you can access the caterpillars. The kit includes a paint brush and a spoon to help guide them into the cups. The kit says 1-2 in each container but i had to do 3 in each as they did not provide me with the right amount of cups for that amount. 

After 10 minutes of harrassing these little guys they are FINALLY safe in their cups. They will now grow from caterpillars to cystalisis'. I finally told my firsties what we were doing! They are very excited for get to watch the butterfly lifecycle!! 

Wish us luck and enjoy the journey!! 

Lifecycle of a Butterfly

This week, I am supposed to recieve larva!! I am so excited!! With my firsties we will get to witness the lifecyle of a painted lady butterfly. I have not told my kids yet! I am planning to use my Scholastic hungry catapillar stuffy that converts into a butterfly for a 'motivational set'. I am hoping to recieve my larva tomorrow! I will be sure to keep you up to date with any changes!! 

This is an example of what a painted lady butterfly looks like...

Mini-Greenhouse Prep

In June I am wanting to make mini greenhouses and watch the lifecycle of a plant with my firsties! I have grown beans in soil but never in a ziploc on the window. I thought I would give it a shot this year. I decided to prep a sample before starting this journey with my students. I will show you what I used and Daily changes of my bean plant! Hope you enjoy the progress! 

Step 1:

Materials needed:

Ziploc bag
Piece of paper towel
Bean 
Some good ol' H2O
Tape

Step 2: 

Wet the paper towel and wrapped the bean inside.

Step 3:

I taped the bag onto my office window. It faces south and gets the most sunlight during the daytime. 

Step 4: 

Wait and see what happens!!

UPDATE:

Day 4:

IT WORKED!! 

Day 6: May 22nd

It continues to grow and I havent needed to do anything to it! No new water as the paper towel is still wet since its in a ziploc bag!! 

DIY Spa in a Jar

Starting a secret friend exchange at work this week! Decided to do a spa in a jar. Reused a jar and costed me less than $10!! I included cotton pads, tweezers, essie nail polish, toe seperators, nail polish remover, pumice stone, nail clips and other nail tools. Added some gems, ribbon and used my cricut! Very happy with the end result! A super easy, practical DIY present! 

Don't be an Angry Bird

For our Saskatchewan Grade one curriculum we need to teach feelings and healthy behaviors. I struggled when planning this unit as I could not think of an exciting thing to motivate my students and allow them to be interested in a topic that can be rather 'dull'. Many students I have taught in the past struggle with healthy ways to deal with emotions. So I decided to focus on some strategies my students could use when their emotions became too much. Hmm.. something that would interest my students and something that would interest them... ANGRY BIRDS!! My students are slightly obsessed with Angry Birds. I found a booklet online that is a very good resource to use for a lesson. It is available at http://www.elementaryschoolcounseling.org/sg-anger-management.html . This website has many great ideas using characters students will recognize. Along with our booklet, we made our angry bird crafts. I chose to create the Angry Bird, Red. I made these templates myself as I struggled to find any Angry Bird templates online that I liked! Hope you enjoy!

Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus

I am a little late but here goes my first blog post...

In January, my grade ones began to learn about addition. I found a great idea from www.frugalinfirst.blogspot.ca and decided to roll with it. I used Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus in my math lessons. My students loved them. I decided to take a step further and make a craft for them.

**Note: This is not my original idea. I was inspired by Melissa and Brittany from www.frugalinfirst.blogspot.ca Please make sure to go to their blog. They have tons of fantastic ideas!!