What a windy day! Of course, today is the day the tree chopper guy comes to school with his load of wood chips to put down in the prairie garden. Being flexible is one of the cardinal rules of teaching, so instead of having bells today, the 6th and 8th graders and I grabbed buckets to disperse the pine wood chips. The dust was really bad. Everyone complained and complained until someone had the bright idea to get science goggles from the classroom. Worked like a charm. Now our pathway through the garden is covered with wood chips.
We finally dissected the chrysalis left in our butterfly habitat. One of the 5th graders had found two monarch caterpillars in the prairie garden and stuck them in this habitat of his. They both turned into chrysalises (very neat to watch). But only one turned into a butterfly (a girl we released about a week ago). So this morning I pulled out my dissecting tools and gloves and we cut that sucker open. Much different than everyone was expecting. My kids thought there'd be tons of blood. Nope. It was very dry and crispy. We could see the silk (or maybe it was mold?) and a few crunchy parts, possibly the leftover legs or feet. Who knows. It looked kind of like a rock. And everyone had so much fun watching me dissect it, now they want to dissect a full-grown pig or a frog or some other creature. They'll have to wait for life science to do more of that.
I need to head to the volleyball game. Last one of the season! (For those of you wondering, I'm feeling much better today. I took it easy after school and went to bed early. Now I'm up to about 95%.)
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