With my three small classes of second grade students, I completed a three-day lesson on the Life Cycle of a Butterfly using a Vocabulary Magic Squares activity sheet and a Series-of-Events Chain/Flowchart. The lesson went very well with all three small groups.
    The children loved the vocabulary "game" using magic squares. They were so intrigued by the fact that you could get the same number each time you added across, down, or diagonally. As an added dimension to the lesson plans, I divided each class into two groups and made it competitive to see which teams could come up with the magic number before the class was over. This increased their enthusiasm and motivation.
    The flowchart was also a success in all classes. The students enjoyed working in groups to locate information to write in the "description" boxes and to find illustrations to help with their drawings for the "picture" boxes. It was interesting to see the creativity of the students as they illustrated where the egg or caterpillar would be found and what color their butterflies would be when they hatched from the chrysalis. I enjoyed watching them add their individual touches to the illustrations rather than just copy the illustrations from the book. Their comments about their illustrations indicated that they were using prior knowledge and prior experience about butterflies. Allowing the students who finished early to check out the butterfly website was a definite strength to the lesson. They learned much more from the website than from the text.
    Due to time constraints, I deviated from the lesson plans in the post-reading activities. Instead of journal writing, I used illustrations from the butterfly website to evaluate their understanding of the life cycle of a butterfly. I printed out a set of the life cycle pictures and had the students, as a whole group activity, put them one at at time in a circular pattern on the board while explaining what was happening at each stage of development. All students were given a chance to add to what the student at the board had said and make any necessary changes. This evaluation was much quicker to assess and it served as a review for the students. I will make note of this for future lessons as a substitute for journal writing to assess learning.
    I also added to the pre-reading activities by bringing a container of caterpillars I had collected from my yard to show to the students. This helped open the discussion to assess prior knowledge and experience. The students enjoyed collecting leaves each day to put in the container for the caterpillars. We are now waiting for the the butterflies to come out of their pouches.
    A school assembly and activities for Easter in the regular classrooms interfered with my class time. I will note in my lesson plans the need to review vocabulary as the text is read together. I did this but I did not not include it in the original plans.