Virtual Book Club Summer Camp Fun!

   The 1^st week of my summer vacation has been sweet!! I have already read THREE novels and I added at least 8 more to my Summer Reading List! 

What can I say?

   When I am not cuddled up with my Nook, I am playing and learning with my little munchkin. Along with our Sweet Snack unit, the little munchkin and I joined the Virtual Book Club Summer Camp for some fun themed activities.

   This week was week #1 and it was Bug Week!

   All week long, I was able to squeeze in some activities revolving about Bugs.  This was quite easy, since we have been learning about the letter Ii. Instead of using the word “bug”, we used the word “insect” and talked a little bit about what makes a bug an insect.

   We began our mini unit of Insects by reading the book, “In the Tall, Tall Grass” by Denise Fleming. She learned the names of different insects and what they do.

   I wanted to give her some fine motor practice, so I had her cut slits on a folded green paper so that when she was done, it looked like grass. Then I gave her insect stickers that were left over from my classroom unit on Insects.  She took off each sticker and placed the insect stickers all over the grass paper; some were flying on top of the grass and some were hidden in the grass.

   In total, she counted 20 insects in the tall, tall grass!

   To encourage more counting practice, I created this Insect Counting activity. Click here or on the picture to pick up your own copy!

   One of the recommended activities for the week was an Alphabet Bug Spray activity!

   I simply drew some bugs (yes, my drawing are horrible) with chalk and using some water sprayers I found at the Dollar Tree, she squirted the bugs away! 

 After we got rid of all the bugs, she got a little carried away and decided that mommy’s car needed a car wash! And then came after me as I ran inside!!

   We did another outdoor activity this week… Fly Swatter painting.

    I glued some pictures of insects onto a large sheet of paper and had her use black paint and a fly swatter to SWAT away all the insects!

   Now, let it be noted, she is NOT a fan of anything creepy and crawly, so I think these two activities could have been therapeutic for her! Hahaha!!  Look at that smile of victory!

   I think every day this week, she engaged in Insect Play. Unfortunately, it has been so rainy for the last part of the week,  and she hasn’t had much play time outdoors since Tuesday…so there was no fun insect playing in the sand table this week. But that didn’t matter to her! Today I believe she engaged in insect play for almost 40 minutes…until she got hungry for a snack! Here she is showing off her insect collection (fake of course)

  And one other activity we did was about sight words. I created 2 mini sight word books in an Insect Theme for her to work on the sight words: “The, I, See”.  I showed her the sight word "see" and after reading the book, I had her go back and circle the word "see" on every page.

(I will be putting these mini books in my TPT store this weekend—they need a few tweaks.)

   Anyway, as you can see, we had lots of learning fun going on this week as we joined in on the Virtual Book Club Summer Camp.

  Next week’s theme is a Gardening Theme. The little munchkin and I have exhausted this theme already! So I probably won’t do too much with this theme in the coming week. PLUS my aunt, uncle and cousins will be arriving here on Sunday, with my mom to follow on Wednesday, so I know I will be too busy to squeeze in more than I already have planned for my little munchkin!

More Insect Fun- plus a FREEBIE!

     There was all this buzz in the classroom about insects and I knew the munchkins knew what insects were, but after reading several books and discussing different types of insects, I decided to try and trick them!

   

ANALYSIS/CLASSIFYING:

   I made an Insect web and drew insects and some non-insects. (My drawing skills are at the preschool level, so don't laugh!)

   We went through things that we knew about insects ( 6 legs being the most important characteristic) and determined which  animals could be classified as Insects.

BOOK ACTIVITY/EXTENSION: 

   Last  week was also Mental Health Awareness Week, and we  read a perfect book about a certain red insect who had an attitude problem: “The Grouchy Ladybug”.  We talked about what it meant to be grouchy and then each munchkin shared what things make them grouchy!

  I then took my camera and asked them to make their best Grouchy face… and they made a ladybug and I pasted a picture of their grouchy face onto the ladybug. (An idea I saw all over Pinterest and just HAD to do!)

LITERACY: 

   We also worked on our uppercase and lowercase alphabet recognition with my newly  created Ladybug Mats (get your free copy here). I had intended to use a cookie sheet and magnetic squares for individual use, but when I noticed that there were more than 3 munchkins who wanted to play, I decided to make it into a group game. Each munchkin had to search for the cards they needed. It turned out better that way because I was able to see them working together and got a better sense of who was knowledgeable in matching uppercase and lowercase letters and who still needs extra practice!

Now, here is a FREEBIE for you!

   In addition to having them try and spell the names of different insects, I put some spelling mats in our Writing Center.

Click here to grab your copy!

   It is obvious that my munchkins are obsessed with insects right now and my head is still FULL of ideas that I would like to try BUT I do need to move it along... There is LOTS to do to start getting ready for the end of the school year! 

   I think I am going to give it another few days-Especially since I just replaced the sand with dirt and digging tools in our sand table that has been full of insects! (plastic ones of course!)

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!