Butterfly Unit Study Completed. YAY!

Wednesday 26th February 2014

When we filled out our exemption so we could home school. I asked Miss Personality about what things she would like to learn about, and she choose butterflies.

I also asked her what kinds of things she would like to learn about.

So we put together a list of things that she could learn about, to do with butterflies.

In the past when we had done unit studies, we had made posters to present what she had learned.

This time we I thought it would be better to turn it into a book. That way she can go back and read it when ever she wants, and it is easy to transport if she feels like sharing it with anyone, and the best part easy to store.

I was going to laminate it and put rings through the side, to make it into a book. But then decided buying a clear paged A4 book from the Warehouse Stationary would be a better option. They had a deal the other day, in there back to school sale, where they were selling a 20 page book for $1.47. Compared to buying laminating sheets, it worked out the best option financially.

We started off this unit study by buying 4 junior swan plants from The Warehouse for around $5 each, then re planted them into 1 large plant pot.. I bought a few, as when they get to caterpillars, they can eat all the leaves off a plant pretty quickly.

Then we put it outside and waited for the monarch butterfly to find it. Monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on swan plants. We went out daily and made observations on if there were any eggs, then if there were any caterpillars, how many caterpillars were there.

Miss Personality took photos using my iphone and made a visual recording of out findings.

We noticed that some caterpillars were disappearing, so to make sure we got to see the full transformation, I brought the plants inside to protect 3 caterpillars. Through our studies we discovered where the caterpillars had been disappearing too.

We watched them go from this.........................................

To this.......................................................

To this....................................................................

To this :)

While observing all the changes that were happening to our caterpillar, we started to research on the internet for the answers to our questions.

First we looked into the life cycle of the swan plant itself. What are the different stages of growth, how does it grow and what are the different parts of the plant called.

Miss Personality cut out and pasted these pictures that we found on google images, in the order that they happen.

Miss Personality is not a huge fan of writing, so when we did this part we used a word document to put together her questions and answers that she had researched on the internet.

Then Miss Personality drew and labeled the parts of the swan plant.

Miss Personality and I brain stormed all the words associated with swan plants, butterflies and caterpillars. Then she created this word find with some of the words.

Then we moved on to answering some questions that we had put together about what we wanted to learn about caterpillars and butterflies. Miss Personality researched the answers by reading different websites on the internet. Again this document was created using word, and she typed out both questions and answers.

Then I used a bunch of photos off google images, of every stage of the butterfly life cycle. After researching what each stage is and when it happens in the cycle. I got Miss Personality to cut out the pictures and then put them in the correct order of events.

Miss Personality likes doing art work of all different types.

I found a picture on google images, and asked her to paint a picture of it.

She did such an awesome job. I then got her to look for a labeled diagram of a monarch butterfly, so she could correctly label her painting.

Today I got Miss Personality to do a acrostic poem about the butterfly, using words that we had brain stormed about for a previous activity.

I had also asked her if she could paint a picture of a caterpillar. This time I used one of the pictures we had taken of caterpillars as they had been changing, as an example. She did a fantastic job with this painting also. I got her to look for a labeled diagram of a caterpillar, so she could label her picture as well.

As a part of the unit study, for Miss Personalities birthday,we visited a place called Butterfly Creek. One of the main attractions was their butterfly garden, where we got to see lots of different butterflies, as well as have some land on us. It is a great place to visit with children and would recommend it to others.

There is a black butterfly on top of Miss Personality's hat. Had to be careful as you left, to make sure there were non attached to you as you left the area.

Miss Personality was starting to lose interest in this unit study, so we decided to stop there. 

There was still plenty more we could have added, but I think we both learnt so much about butterflies and had lots of fun with it all too.

Modifying Our Day's Plan.

Monday 17th February 2014

I had decided last week, to change things slightly.

I was going through one of those moments when I thought I wasn't teaching her enough.

You know that panic that slowly creeps up you, until you go OMG!, what if I fail.

I don't have those moments very often, and hadn't had one for a while. But for some reason I was thinking about her getting older and feeling doubtful about being able to keep extending on her in a way that is like school.

Then I have to remind myself - THIS IS NOT SCHOOL! STOP COMPARING!

Any way Miss Personality had a late start as usual, but with an added attitude that comes from staying at grandma's for the weekend. We all went to grandma's for the weekend and she had got to spend time with her big sister, big brother, his girlfriend and their gorgeous little baby girl. The excitement of staying at grandma and grandad's as well as being unsettled in a bed and house that wasn't what she was use to. Added up to a little girl that didn't go to sleep till 11pm every night we were there. But that's okay, doesn't happen very often and now we are home, we can get back into our own kind of routine :)

By the time she had breakfast, done her personal jobs and was ready to start her day of learning, it was about 11am. 

She read off the list of planned activities and chose to start off with English. I have divided her activities up in to some of the key learning areas of the curriculum, so that I feel reassured she is doing enough :)

I have found she likes to have a planned day to a certain degree, but she gets to chose when she feels like doing it. We both win :)

She did some literacy on the website - Study Ladder. She chose to do some reading and comprehension, by reading a short piece on 'The Legend of Santa'. It stated where Santa's office was, so Miss Personality had to find it on the world map on the wall. After she read the short piece she then had 10 questions to answer.

She went on to do some spelling and vocabulary exercises on word families 'ick and eck'. Grammar on nouns and then did a list of words related to her butterfly unit study on the website - Spelling City.

Miss Personality moved on to Geography. On the website - Study Ladder they have a section on languages and culture and then another section on maps. For languages and culture, she got introduced to Spanish and counted up to 10, then had to match the word with the number. Then for maps she had to study a map that was given, that had the name of each country and the capital. Then it asked 10 random questions. Miss Personality found this hard to memorise every country. So we modified this activity. For each country she was asked to identify the capital, we used google maps to find the country and then found it on our wall map. Then she used google maps to find the capital and then identify it out of the 4 options she was given, and chose the right one. She enjoyed this process so much that she wanted to do the 10 questions twice, as each time they asked a different 10 questions.

Miss Personality then moved on to Maths, but after she started realised it was lunch time, so we stopped for lunch.

She then did Study Ladder - Maths and did some practice on the 3 times tables. She got bored from this and moved on to Science - Butterfly Unit Study. She had to answer the questions, how many different kind of butterflies in the world, then how many different kinds in New Zealand. She chose to put these into a word document. Then she had some small maps of different countries that I had printed out, and she had to match the pictures of the butterflies from those countries, after looking at the website I have found this information from.

I noticed she started losing enthusiasm for this, as to her she had HEAPS to cut out. I have noticed if visually she notices something, like too many pages or too many words, she starts telling herself that she can't do it. I tried to keep encouraging her to finish cutting the pictures out. Then she went on to the websites and started matching the butterfly pictures to the maps. She was really waning now. Asking if she could do it tomorrow. I tried to keep her motivation going. But after she had slowly sorted 3 maps out, in transferring them to another table, she dropped them on the floor, getting them all mixed up again. That really tested her motivation and she was very disheartened. I got her to pick them up and then she kicked the same little toe on the same foot that she has kicked so many times in the last week. She lost it then, ending up in my arms crying with despair.

I took this for the signal that it was, and that was she was still tired from the weekend. After she had her cuddles I suggested she finish her apple she had been eating, in bed, with her feet up and watch a dvd in her bed.

As much as we have a plan (kind of), there is always room for change, as there is no point pressing on if the momentum is lost.

Tomorrow is a new day :)

The Rest Of The Day...............................

Tuesday 11th February 2014

After everything calmed down, the rest of the day just flowed, with Miss Personality just getting on with what was expected. She was still in charge of making her own choices off the list. I doesn't matter what order they are done in as long as it gets done.

I was using the computer first things this morning, so Miss Personality chose things off the list that didn't require the computer.

First was doing a word find out of her book of 'Furry Critters".

Then she chose to do a page out of her maths work book on adding up double digit numbers. Again this is more revision for her as we have done it before. The great part is that while doing these two activities she didn't need me to sit with her, like she has in the past.

Then she played a round of mum's fantastic multiplication card game :) Can you tell I am proud,lol.

By the time she completed this it was time for lunch.

She had left over butter chicken and rice from the night before.

She then chose to read to me a story out of the book I read her yesturday on Maui and the Sun. 

Then it was mum's turn to read a book. I chose Excalibur by Hudson Talbott.

Since the laptop was free, Miss Personality moved on to checking her butterfly questions from yesturday. She used the internet to research each answer, just to double check she had got them right and included enough information for each answer. Then she attached it to an email to dad, so he could print it for us. Miss Personality is presenting her butterfly unit study in a book. So these questions will get put into her book. We decided this would be best, as before we had done big posters to present her studies, and they are hard to store after they have been taken down and put away. Thought that a book would be easier to store. 

Since Miss Personality got everything completed in plenty of time. I was okay with her spending some time on the ipad before she went to her Musical Theatre class. She has a fascination with watching minecraft tutorials on you tube. Any one else have a minecraft addict in their house?

Later after Miss Personality had finished her dinner. She went outside to check on our swan plant. We have a few more baby caterpillars again. I have been going out and picking off the eggs, so our plant can catch up and grow some more leaves. But I must have missed a few. Any way Miss Personality took off with my iphone so she could take this picture. The iphone takes such awesome photos. This chrysalis will emerge sometime tomorrow. But it is interesting to see so much details of what is going on inside, even though the chrysalis has a lot of green in it and hasn't gone see through yet.

Butterfly Unit Study

10th Monday February 2014

   

Miss Personality had been keeping a close eye on another chrysalis, as it looked like the butterfly would emerge soon. As soon as she got up this morning she shot outside to check on it. At some point around lunch time Miss Personality excitedly came running inside yelling at me to come have a look. What we found was a butterfly fresh out of the chrysalis with very short squashed up wings. Miss Personality was a bit concerned about it as it also had a fat bottom. I then reminded her, from a book that we had read, that when they first emerge, they need to pump the fluid inside their body, to fill out the wings. So I said we will come back later and have a look. Sure enough when Miss Personality came back a little while later, it's wings were at normal size. Miss Personality came out side many times to make sure it was okay and to watch it finally fly off when it was ready.

A while ago, Miss Personality and I sat down and put together some questions about swan plants and butterflies, that we would like to find the answers too. Miss Personality has already answered the swan plant questions, so now it was time to move on to the butterfly ones. Miss Personality had already asked me if she could just make a guess at what the answers to the questions could be. I said yes, at it is an interesting way to see just how much knowledge she actually has on butterflies. Tomorrow she will go onto the internet to research and check her answers to see if they are correct. The one that aren't right, she can then correct them and we can print out the questions and answers and put them in her book we are putting together.

Are you doing a unit study at the moment? What is it about? How did you decide what to put in it?

Butterfly Observations.

Sunday 9th February 2014

When Miss Personality and I sat down and discussed what she would like to learn about, she said butterflies.

27th December 2013

So we started off this unit study by buying some swan plants as mum knew this would be the best way to attract the monarch butterfly.

8th January 2014

             

         

Tara went out to check the swan plant and discovered we had 6 teeny tiny caterpillars, that had only just hatched out of their egg.

14th January 2014

                 

Our swan plants are planted in a large pot outside. We noticed when we went to check on our caterpillars, only 3 were left. So mum decided to bring the swan plants inside, to increase the chances of the remaining caterpillars surving.

21st January 2014

                        

While observing the remaining caterpillars Miss Personality and I noticed that some of them had shed/ molted. When they had molted their skin, they ate it. Which probably sounds gross, but was really interesting to observe. These caterpillars do this about 5 times between first hatching out of their eggs, and when they change into a chrysalis.

26th January 2014

                           

Miss Personality has developed a routine of inspecting the caterpillars every morning when she gets up. She discovered that one of the caterpillars had curled up and over the next 24 - 48 hours it changed into a chrysalis. At first the chrysalis was bumpy, then slowly smoothed out.

27th January 2014

             

                                                                       

We spotted another one had changed, and this time we got to see what the skin looked like after it was shed.

Once all of the caterpillars had transformed into chrysalis's, mum moved the pot back outside.
Over the next few days we noticed more eggs getting laid on the swan plant. Mum chose to remove them, so that the swan plant could grow new leaves, as it was looking a bit bear, after these 3 caterpillars had been feasting on it.

5th February 2014

                            
 

Noticed some colours and shapes appearing on the chrysalis shell.

9th February 2014

                                               

One chrysalis has turned transparent, and you can clearly see the colours of the monarch butterfly inside. One of the other chrysalis have some colours appearing, but the shell has a lot of green still in it.

                                            

Two hours later the butterfly had emerged. We watched it slowly stretch out it wings and move around till it was ready to fly off.

The other chrysalis has got heaps darker and looks like it will come out soon too.


Most of these photos were taken by Miss Personality on mum's iphone.