Book: "Handle with Care" An Unusual Butterfly Journey" by Lori Griffin Burns. Photos by Ellen Harasimowicz

Today we read this great story about a butterfly farm in Costa Rica.   The story follows the journey of the Blue Morpho butterflies in the pupa (chrysalis) stage that was shipped to the Museum of Science in Boston to continue their metamorphosis to butterfly. The photographs are close up and vivid.  It is well worth a read just to see the pictures.

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Today we read "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynne Cherry while eating lunch.  
What a great story and the illustrations are wonderful.  
At the end of the story we discussed what we learned; trees give us oxygen.
We especially enjoyed meeting the jaguar and the parrot.
We learned that there is an abundance of animal and plant life in the rain forest 
as well as people,and that they all depend on each other for survival 

We also read "The Red Eyed Tree Frog" by Joy Cowley, which prompted the following questions. 
Are these frogs nocturnal?  Yes they are.
How rough are tree trunks in the Rainforest? It varies, many trees have enormous roots and buttress', trees are enormous rooted in shallow soil as it rains a lot. There are also a lot of vines entangled throughout the rainforest.
Which snakes are poisonous? 
To be continued........

"Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth" by Eric Carle

January 5, 2015

It was our first day back at school after a two week vacation.  As we were eating lunch I decided to read "Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth" by Eric Carle.  
I had not mentioned that I am going to Costa Rica and began reading the story.  
After I finished I posed the question, "Where do you think the story took place?"  

There were a variety of responses, a forest, a park, the woods, the jungle and 
finally the rain forest. Well where are the rainforests?   
We looked at another book by Allan Fowler called "Living in the Rain Forest"  which 
had a map of the world and the rainforests shaded in green.  We discovered that rainforests are located in South America, Africa and parts of Asia.

I told my students about my impending trip to Costa Rica and some of the things

I would be doing while there.  They were very excited and told me to watch out for  
bats that suck your blood,  monkeys that throw things at you from high up in the trees, 
and the bugs. They were also very interested in the blog.

Even though sloths spend most of their life in the trees eating and sleeping they move on the ground slowly approximately 6.5 feet per minute.