In between testing and preparing to test, we enjoyed a fun unit on insects. Here are just a few highlights from our learning about caterpillars and butterflies....
After reading the usual caterpillar to butterfly books, we listened to an adorable song Butterfly, Fly by Janice Buckner. It tells the story of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. Here are the little ones starting out as an egg on a leaf.
The caterpillar grew and one day he began to get sleepy so he built himself a cocoon. The picture on the left shows the students helping their partner build a cocoon by wrapping them in tissue paper and the picture on the right shows a caterpillar somewhat wrapped in his "cocoon". The song then talks about how the caterpillar wakes up and discovers that he can fly....the kids LOVE breaking out of the tissue paper cocoons & then fluttering around the room! (Sorry, the pictures all turned out very blurry so I didn't post them). I have some butterfly wings that are each the size of a piece of 12 x 18 construction. Normally, I would have them decorate them before this activity and they slip the wings on their arms after breaking out of the cocoons but time was limited due to the testing.
We also made coffee filter butterflies that turned out so pretty! I'll post a picture of them when we get the bulletin board put together tomorrow. During our math centers, we used dot art painters to make c-ADD-apillar booklets. My little darlings loved this activity! They used 2 colors to create a caterpillar and then wrote the addition sentence to show how many circles they used in all. (I gave them a couple of addition sentences to create at first and then they were able to make up their own after they got the hang of it. When the paint dried, they added feet, antennae, and a face.
So cute!
These are just a couple of things we did this week. I can't wait to tell you about our bumble bee learning tomorrow! As for now, I am exhausted and ready for bed!
