I know it has been quite a while since I last posted. Things have been quite busy around here as of late (which is for another blog post)!
Yesterday, I had the privilege of being a chaperone for C's class on the field trip 3 of the Kindergarten classes took together to the Butterfly Garden. It was so much fun!!! We piled the kids onto 2 buses and drove over to Luxembourg! They had been studying butterflies and insects in school, and this was a great way for them to finish that section.
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| A kernel representing a butterfly egg |
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| A piece of uncooked spiral pasta representing the caterpillar |
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| A piece of uncooked shell pasta representing the cocoon/chrysalis |
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| A piece of uncooked bowtie pasta representing the butterfly |
It was about a 45-60 minute drive, and we were asked often "Are we still in Germany?!" (I guess that's marginally better than "Are we there yet?" LOL) I got to be in charge of the orange group (which included C) and was shown by these really cool foam butterfly name tags that his teacher made.
When we got there, we got the speech about not touching the butterflies' wings (which anyone that has studied butterflies in school knows about the oils on our hands damaging the wings and causing them to break and render the insect unable to fly, thereby killing it). There was also a lot of moisture on the ground that they were trying to drink, so we had to be extra careful to watch where we were stepping so as not to crush any underfoot. (And when you're talking about a large group of 5-6 year olds, that's no easy feat!) But C's class, at least, did very well in following both instructions. (There were kids from one of the other classes that I repeatedly was reprimanding for trying to touch the butterflies. I don't know WHERE the adult was...)
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| C & his classmates huddled around a butterfly on the ground |
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| The butterfly on the ground |
The room was pretty warm and (to me) extremely humid (70%, I think it was?), but it was a lot of fun to be in there (in spite of feeling like I was slowly melting!). The butterflies fly free in the building, and they landed on quite a few people. C's teacher had at least 4 different ones land on her, and one even tried to get nectar out of her leg! LOL
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| 1 of the 4 butterflies to land on C's teacher |
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| A butterfly that landed on a classmate's head |
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| A butterfly that landed on a classmate's arm |
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| C's teacher pointing out a bird to C & his classmates |
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| Case of chrysalises & newly hatched butterflies |
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| Fish pond! |
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| Turtles in the pond |
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| A chameleon in a tank |
After the kids were done looking at the butterflies, the case of chrysalises, the occasional display of other varying insects and chameleons, and the fish and turtles in the pond, we walked down along the Mosel river to get to a nearby park for the kids to play and have a picnic lunch.
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| C playing at the park |
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| C keeping busy (& staying awake) by playing a game on my phone on the bus |
By the time the trip was over and we were loaded back onto the buses and headed back to the school, the kids were soooo wiped out! At least half of the class fell asleep on the bus ride. As for me, I managed to stay awake (and knit) the ride back, but after I got home and had dinner, I laid down to take a little cat nap...and ended up sleeping through the whole night! LOL
I definitely want to go back and take the boys to the Butterfly Garden (and get to peruse the gift shop this time around!)...
