I am currently wrapping up, what might go down in history as, the longest maternity leave ever. I have been so fortunate that the delivery of my baby girl was during Spring Break which meant my time off has gone through the summer and slightly into the new school year. This time with her has been precious to me. However, I am truly missing the first days back to school with my new students. I will see them very soon (just over a week). In these remaining days, my mind is shifting back into lessons for the year. How can I improve upon what I teach? How can I make it more applicable to my 7th graders? How do we get outside more often? How do we incorporate other curricular areas? Rather than stew about the big picture, I am going to focus on one quarter at a time.
My urge to shop has been squandered for most of my time off from school. But that has changed today. Today, I bought butterfly larvae (caterpillars) that will be delivered the week I return back to work. I like to think of it as a "welcome back" gift to myself. Really, it will be used for my students. A year ago, we built a Monarch Waystation at our school and this past summer, our garden has really blossomed. The milkweed necessary for Monarch's and their migration journey have come back from winter healthy and even new plants are blooming where the seeds were previously dispersed. Rather than hope for a caterpillar to show up on our campus, we will monitor the life cycle from larvae to Monarchs with the caterpillars purchased. My goal is for each class hour in 7th grade to have their own larva to observe and monitor its progress. Once the larvae are ready we will carefully place them on our milkweed plants and watch them grow until it is time for the to form their chrysalis. If we are lucky, maybe we will get to tag our Monarchs before they begin their journey south for the winter!
My urge to shop has been squandered for most of my time off from school. But that has changed today. Today, I bought butterfly larvae (caterpillars) that will be delivered the week I return back to work. I like to think of it as a "welcome back" gift to myself. Really, it will be used for my students. A year ago, we built a Monarch Waystation at our school and this past summer, our garden has really blossomed. The milkweed necessary for Monarch's and their migration journey have come back from winter healthy and even new plants are blooming where the seeds were previously dispersed. Rather than hope for a caterpillar to show up on our campus, we will monitor the life cycle from larvae to Monarchs with the caterpillars purchased. My goal is for each class hour in 7th grade to have their own larva to observe and monitor its progress. Once the larvae are ready we will carefully place them on our milkweed plants and watch them grow until it is time for the to form their chrysalis. If we are lucky, maybe we will get to tag our Monarchs before they begin their journey south for the winter!