Gettin' Buggy With It !!

    We are gettin' “Buggy With It" in my classroom!  =)  

    Our big talk a few weeks ago was caterpillars… so much that I was getting quick sick of hearing about them!  So I was glad when all five caterpillars spun their chrysalises and started the waiting game in the middle of that week.

    While my kids wait for the  chrysalises to emerge as butterflies,  I decided to continue on with a study about other insects… It is still underway this week!


STORY ACTIVITY/EXTENSION:
Last week before our 5 caterpillars went into hiding, we read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar 100 (or so it seemed) times and I knew the kids had the story memorized by the end of the week, so I had them make their own mini VHC book to make and take home. 

 Many of them used the book I provided to reference back to, in order to complete their mini book, which I thought was awesome b/c I didn’t even have to prompt them to do so. I like that they referred back to the book to find what they needed to correctly make their own mini book! 

Those munchkins really amaze and surprise me sometimes!

SCIENCE CENTER: 

Our Science Center got some new bug tools, too! And, boy have they enjoyed exploring the different magnifying glasses, insect boxes, pictures and insects that I put in the Science Center. I put markers and paper in the center as well, to encourage them to draw insects or write the names of the insects.

 MATH:

   After reading the book, “Icky Bug Colors” by Jerry Pallota, we worked on some math skills and had  some munchkins practice sorting insects by color. 

I found the Jar Sorting Mats here at Prekinders.

   And we also worked on our patterning skills by making AB, ABB, AAB (and I even got some AAA BBB) patterns with the colorful insects! I had each munchkin choose what type of pattern they wanted to make, to assess their confidence in creating patterns (based on the level of difficulty of the pattern they chose to make.)
    If I felt they could do a more difficult pattern, I challenged them to do so and of course, if they needed extra practice in a certain pattern, I provided a pre-made pattern and asked them to continue it.

   
LITERACY:
 My favorite part of last week was when I showed them many different insects via flashcards, books and magazines and I had them pick an insect and draw it.

   Since many of them have a fairly good grasp on quite a few sounds, I had them do my FAVORITE literacy activity: Invented Spelling… 

I absolutely LOVE to see them sound out letters and “spell” things! 

I think they did an awesome job, don’t you?  =)

   After trying to keep them all a bit distracted from caterpillars and their life cycle,  with other things (like other insects and Mother's Day projects), the waiting game was over!

   By the end of last week, we had 3 butterflies in our little Butterfly Home! It never is the two weeks that they are supposed to stay in the chrysalises. For us, it was more like a week and a day! But whatever, it doesn't matter to us! 

My munchkins were over the moon about our new insect friends!

     

    This week, we are continuing to study insects a little more and we have lots of Insect Fun to explore, before we move on (if the munchkins allow me to)!

    Also, this week, I am working on a new FREEBIE for everyone!

So, stop by tomorrow to get your Insect Spelling Freebie!

Cc is for Caterpillar !

   This morning after breakfast, my little munchkin and I logged onto the computer to check out Online Story Time by Barnes & Noble.

   We have been discussing caterpillars since last week and we were both excited to listen to Eric Carle read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

   And we listened to the story…4 times!

   In order to try to lure her away from the computer, I brought out her copy of the book and my storytelling props that I have had in my teacher stash for quite a few years.

  

  

   As I read the story, she used the book and props to retell the story…and then she wanted to go back online to hear the story again! She shocked me when she went and grabbed each prop as Eric Carle was reading the story! Smart girl! And she proceeded to put the story back in order as the story went on. I loved it! =)

   We also did some more work with the letter Cc- AFTER I enjoyed some Teacher Appreciation blog hopping fun!

   I found an awesome Letter Land Alphabet Pack from Live Love Laugh Kindergarten on sale today at Teachers Pay Teachers and I had to have it!

    My little munchkin worked on the Letter Cc Search activity I pulled out of the pack for her (I can't wait to use this pack in my classroom)

   Since we were on the letter Cc, I remembered a Letter craft I had seen somewhere in Pinterest, so I cut out some circles and drew the letter C on a big green construction paper and had her glue the circles onto the letter C to make a caterpillar.

He looks like a Very Grumpy caterpillar, doesn’t he? LOL

    Another activity I pulled out (Caterpillar Sizing Game) came from The Very Hungry Caterpillar packet from 1+1+1=1.

   We had quite a busy morning, filled with Caterpillar and Letter Cc fun!

   

Now back to my preschool munchkins tomorrow to embark on some Insect Fun!  Stay tuned…!

Online Story Time by Barnes & Noble

I have posted about Online Story Time by Barnes & Noble once before and it has been a hit with my little munchkin, so I want to draw some attention to it again this month!

This month’s book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

  Talk about perfect timing! Not only are we talking about caterpillars and butterflies in my classroom, my little munchkin is excited about caterpillars too! 

SO... click on the pictures above and check it out!  ENJOY!

Caterpillar Craziness !

Caterpillar Craziness has taken over my life!!!

   With the arrival of our caterpillars last week (we received 5 Painted Lady caterpillars through Insect Lore), that is all I hear about—at school and at home!

   But no biggie, I enjoy my caterpillar unit every year! And this year, Pinterest has opened a whole wide world of new art ideas for a Caterpillar to Butterfly unit study!

   We have done some pretty neat art activities on caterpillars!

   Since Earth Day we have been collecting things to recycle and I decided it was time to teach my munchkins how to reuse some of the materials in our recycle bin in our art center!

   On Monday, I grabbed some fun neon Biocolor paint and had them use the plastic bottles as stampers to create circles to make caterpillars. (It was an idea that stemmed off of this Pinterest idea that I did with my munchkin the past weekend).

                                                        As many of my preschool munchkins are interested in writing words, I placed sheets of paper with the word Caterpillar on it and encouraged them to write it on their paper. 

   We added some wiggly eyes and legs once the paint was dry and we ended up with an awesome Caterpillar!  

   Aren’t they super adorable? I love that they really took their time in making them and didn’t go wildly crazy with stamping/painting, which I am sure they were really tempted to do!

   On Tuesday, I placed some popsicle sticks, pom poms and glue at the art table during morning centers and encouraged them to make caterpillars.

  Then today I read the book “Ten Little Caterpillars” and I taped green bulletin board paper on the art table (which I later cut it into a huge leaf shape). I placed some bottles tops from our recycle bin along with some glue and again encouraged them to make caterpillars.

   Today, we watched with amazement as three of the caterpillars were getting ready to form or were forming their chrysalises! (The final two were making their chrysalis as I was cleaning up after dismissal.) 

I LOVE the looks on their faces!

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar two different times this week, I had my preschool munchkins work on a story extension and had them draw pictures of some of the foods that the caterpillar ate in the story. For the most part, they drew things that were in the story and a few of them added in their own foods! 

 Talk about A LOT of caterpillar business going on!

   Now that all five of our caterpillars have made their chrysalis, we will focus on the steps in the Life Cycle of a Butterfly (which many of them know hands down) for the remainder of the week and wait anxiously until Painted Lady Butterflies appear in our Butterfly House!

From Ladybug Love to Caterpillar Craziness !

 Wow....May already?!

While my little munchkin is still obsessed with ladybugs, she took a new interest last week when I brought home my classroom caterpillars!

  We haven’t done too much work lately with the Letter of the Week, so I pulled some out Letter Cc activities.

 She went right to work after breakfast on Sunday morning!

  

Then I combined 2 ideas from my idea board on Pinterest- Caterpillar Art!

              I used this concept and this idea:

Then I gave her a little bit of direction to help make a caterpillar.

And here is what we got!