DBG Cottonwood Study

Today at DBG Seedlings, we studied the Cottonwood tree, a common tree around Arizona. We learned that aphids eat the cottonwood leaves and the "stem mother" lays eggs on the stem of the leaf. The leaf forms a "gall", which nourishes the aphids. We walked around the Botanical Garden looking at the chrysalis that the caterpillars from last week had made on the milkweeds. Soon they will turn into Monarchs. We collected some of the dried Cottonwood leaves with galls attached and looked at the aphids inside. We even had a snack made of cheese and mini bread sticks that looked like a Cottonwood tree.

Petting Prince the king snake. Bon Jovi the gecko did not want to come out from under his rock... so we didn't get to hold him. Jasmine wasn't too sure about Prince, but she eventually did pet him.

Eating the Cottonwood snack

Painting

Making a lizard out of play dough

Creative Drama Class Play

Today was the Drama Class play, "Charlie's Search for a Friend" by Dom DeLuise. Jasmine was the bee and her line was "Hey, it's a cute little butterfly:)". Earlier in the class, they made butterfly decorations for the stage.

Jazzy and her butterfly
Part of the "program".

Last hip hop class for awhile....

warming up

dancing

Jasmine's hip hop/jazz teacher, Alex Martinez- a teacher at the Skyline Academy for the Arts in Chandler, AZ.

Desert Botanical Garden Monarch Day

Today in DBG Seedlings class, we studied butterflies. We measured butterfly wingspans, looked at butterflies with the magnifying glass, went into the Monarch Exhibit and let the Monarchs land on us, made a butterfly craft, and we even did a butterfly dance and song. Even the snack was shaped like a butterfly. We looked at Desert Milkweed plants that the Monarch caterpillar eats and read a book about Monarchs and Milkweeds. Next week, we study the Cottonwood tree.

watering plants in the garden
sorting cards for "B" words
Adam from Dayspring PreSchool is also in our Seedlings class.

Ballet Recital

Tonight was the Ballet/Tap performance for the Tempe Parks and Recreation ballet class. Afterwards, we had a cupcake party... oh boy, more sugar!:)

Jasmine and her teacher Ms. Jana
Line up after the show
Party afterwards

Arizona Foster/Adoptive Families Campout

Every year, AzFAP has a "campout" at Camp Friendly Pines in Prescott for adoptive/foster families and any friends that want to come along. This year, the theme was "The Jungle". We had the car/tires checked out, bought our snacks at Trader Joe's, packed all our "gear", and left on Friday after school. We were really supposed to be there around 2PM, but I didn't want Jazzy to miss her school Halloween party. Prescott is about 150 miles north of Phoenix, so when we got there, it was dark. Not a light to be seen. Luckily, they assigned us to the same cabin as last year, so I had a slight inkling where it was.

All weekend, we made lots of jungle crafts, ate lots of kind of junky food... pancakes, syrup, sausage, hamburgers, french toast,.... sort of "camping" food... as well as lots of Halloween candy. We played all kinds of games with the other kids and slept pretty soundly in our little cabin. It was definitely colder this year and windy, so it was in the 50's during the day. We met a few new people and lots of old friends from last year who had added even more on to their family.


Eating
Miss Einstein in the morning before combing her hair
crafts made by Jasmine
Eating again

Halloween Party/Parade at Dayspring....

On Friday, Jasmine's class had a Halloween party and parade. We almost missed it because of our campout, but we decided to attend anyway. Jazzy is a ladybug..... same as last year. I figured that since it still fits,... might as well wear it. The only problem was it was 92 degrees, and that costume is thick and furry! Too much candy already to start off the weekend.

Jasmine's class in their costumes
Pounding pegs into a pumpkin?!