A Photo Update!

One of our beautiful butterflies before its release into freedom!

The children said their goodbyes, it was time to let our tiny friends go!

Mr. Gries helped us with their departure!

Some of those butterflies wanted to stay with us, I think... :)

Here, the children are sitting outside in our brand new outdoor learning space! There is a teacher table and several benches for the students to sit on outside. Thank you to Ian Haider and the scouts who helped him provide us with such an amazing place to learn!

Our teacher/actors came back for a final performance! They selected several of the children's poems to act out for all of the second graders!

Some of the children came up to help!

The children absolutely loved their time with Mrs. Willhite! She brought the concept of poetry to life for our class. What a tremendous learning experience!

Dr. Jerome took a final tour of the schools as she prepares for her upcoming retirement. The school gathered together to celebrate her and wish her well!

Another fun experience the children had was a visit from 2 middle school students, Danny Ryerson (Katie's older brother!) and Patrick Shelton. They are award-winning science olympiad participants! They came to Dryden to share their excitement for science and to display their robot, Fat Albert, and show us how it works!

Our Arlington Heights Landmark Projects!

The children did a wonderful job of researching their Arlington Heights Landmarks! The pictures they drew to accompany their facts are beautiful, too! Thank you so much for taking the extra steps to take photos of the kids in the location of their landmarks- it really helped them understand where these landmarks were/are, and how our town has changed over time... Thank you!!!

Recent photo update!

Here are some photos that show some of the things we've been up to lately!

Ms. Willhite is our teacher/actor that has been back for a few visits to talk about poetry and acting with the children.

We have been reading poems together, writing poems, and acting them out! The children are learning to be expressive using their bodies, their movements, their voices, and their imaginations!

Ms. Willhite is really bringing out the creativity in the children! They are LOVING these lessons! Coming up next week, all of the teacher/actors are going to be performing a few poems that the 2nd graders have written as a class, and independently!

More caterpillar observations! They doubled in size right before our eyes!

The caterpillars started to make their way to the top of the cup. They are just about to make their chrysalis!

Thank you to our Dryden volunteers! We celebrated all of our parent helpers by making note cards, a placemat, and clapping and saying "THANK YOU!" as they made their way to the volunteer celebration in the LMC last week. We are so grateful and lucky to have so many amazing parents and helpers who care so much about our students and teachers!

The children worked very hard on their Mother's Day cards last week! Everyone added such cute personal touches! We hope you enjoyed them!

Another star visitor from my family- my niece Delaney! When she heard her brother got to meet the students in my class, she decided that she, TOO would come and meet our class! Delaney is in 2nd grade too, just like us!

Group picture! :)

All of the caterpillars made a chrysalis! It was time to move them and attach them to the ceiling of  our "Butterfly Mansion!" Thank you to Mrs. Schellinger for donating this enormous butterfly house to our class- there will be plenty of room for all of the butterflies once they decide to make an appearance!

The children have begun using another math program that District 25 has purchased for us. It is called "Dream Box." It appears to be fun and games for the kids, but it is full of specific Common Core based math skills that I am able to track on my computer as they practice their skills. They absolutely love it!

Here is Chloe sharing a poem she had written with the class about a gloomy day. 

A few friends helped her act it out!

Today we had our FIRST BUTTERFLY SIGHTING! The children were so excited! We had predicted that a few might emerge over the weekend, so we were ecstatic to see one before the end of the day today! How many more do you think we will see on Monday?!!

Look at those smiles!! :)

Have a wonderful weekend!