Monarch Butterfly

It amazed me how hard this blog was to accomplish.  It took me just about a week and a half to find one upclose.  I saw them the first week but they were flying too high for me to capture on my camera.  My husband told me to go to the Garden Center on Bandera Rd.  They had tones of flowers so he was pretty sure I would find at least one and he was right.  I was so excited to have finally found one. 

There were two of them in a covered are flying around.  This one kept landing on this particular flower and I got really close to it.  

 

This picture of the butterfly flying looks really cool I think.  I thought it wasn't going to come back so I was getting mad.  I took this pic before I got the upclose pics so I was worried I wouldn't get a picture.

Simple Machines At Home

This is a toilet paper dispenser.  It acts as a wheel and axle.  Toilet paper is the wheel and the axle is the removable part that holds the toilet paper in place.

These two pictures are of my garage door.  It shows how it has a pulley system to lift the door.  The chain is what gets pulled.

This is a ramp to get into my garage.  This is considered a wedge.  

This is my can opener. It turns a can around to open it.  This would be considered a wheel.

This is a picture of my scissors.  They are considered two wedges going in the opposite direction.  

This is a picture of one of my door hinges.  I wasn't sure what simple machine this was so I looked online and it said it was a second class lever.

This is a picture of my stairs.  I also looked this one up on line and it said this was a Incline Plane.

I never thought about the things I use at home that are considered simple machines.  Most of what I use makes my life so much easier. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

When I go to the store I take my reusable bags with me.  This helps me to reuse the bags I have and reduce the amount of plastic bags used.  This also helps me carry more items because they are much larger than the plastic bags. 





I always try to use my reusable water bottle.  It keeps my water cold pretty much all day.  I also find it easy to wash so its not hard to reuse a water bottle.

 To clean my windows I usually reuse newspaper with windex and sometimes vinegar.  I find this as a great use for old newspaper and I don't use all my paper towels.  Plus it helps get the windows clean.

When I have items to recycle I usually take them to my parents house since they have a large recycle bin.  I save our cans and boxes and put them in the bin with my parents items.

Science In the Classroom

This is a picture of the students science journals.  They write in them on a daily basis of the lab they explored that day.  They even draw pictures to describe what they were seeing and their conclusions.  I really enjoy reading their journals and find that they are curious about science and why things happen.

 

The teacher was showing them how earth rotates around the sun.  In the pic there is a globe behind her and she modeled the process and the light buld was the sun.  The children got to visualize what happens.  They were really into this and even made comments and told her what they knew.

Here are some posters about science in the classroom as well as science text books.

Here are some of the science supplies that are used when they need them.

I asked one of the students how they define science and got cute answers.

 Student: "It's about planets and stars and earth."

When I asked the student if they liked science and learning about it she said,

"I liked to learn about the universe and how stars are made."

This students journal was covered with pictures of stars and planets.  I also read her jouranl and was amazed at how creative it was.  When she drew the pictures of the labs done in the past she really put a lot of effort.

Living Organisms at Home/Neighborhood

Where I live I see many organisms on a daily basis.  Since I live in the hill country I see deer all the time.  I have also seen wild boars and a russian boar.  There are also jack rabbits and road runners on our property.  I live 5 min. from Medina Lake and see different wild life around it. 

This is a picture of some daddy long legs on the side of my house.  They have been around the house all summer long.  I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer as summer is ending.  During the summer I have found them in the house as well but only if the doors are left open for a long period of time.

This is a spider with a really cool web.  I noticed this just two days ago.  I really hate spiders but can't help but be fascinated by the designs on its body and how bit it is.  Just last week at a friend place on the lake I saw a similiar spider which was very large that looked exactly the same as this one.

This is my beta fish.  I love his colors.  I brought him home two years ago when a man brought several beta to the school I worked at and was giving them away for free.  I have him on my kitchen counter.  I love to watch his behaviors and find I learn from him.  I liked to compare what I see at the lake to how he behaves.  He is a very aggresive fish.

This is a praying mantis on my humming bird feeder.  This guy has been hanging out here all week.  I have kicked him off several times but he seems to climb back up.  I noticed my other two humming bird feeders are empty except this one.  I have watched humming birds fly by this one but don't land on it.  I blame the praying mantis for scarying off my humming birds.

I was unable to take a picture of the many scorpions that have been in my home I was even stung by one over the summer.  I spotted three last week in the same day.  I think the rainy weather had something to do with that.

Project Wild

Not exactly what I was expecting out of Project Wild.  I felt like we went swimming.  I was excited to get hands on experience but I guess we needed the rain.  I did like the books we got and the information given to us.  I feel confident that I can use the books for later use in the classroom. 

Even though we had a crazy day I feel like we got a lot of information.  I'm also glad to get those books to use.  With all the money we spend at school I feel like we deserve to get things like that.  Project Wild made me think of all the local resources I can use for my classroom.

I also had a good time with my group members.  Even though I was miserable with the rain the people made it a little less miserable.