Happy Friday, LAST day for The Life Cycle of a Butterfly!

Today was our final day studying the life cycle of the Butterfly. 

The kids learned so much and demonstrated their new knowledge when we reviewed and created a list of some butterfly facts this afternoon...

After our morning routine we finished up some projects and made some fun butterfly masks!

There is a lot to send home today...

Here are my proud daycare kids with their works of art...

 

See more of our week here:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day THREE of The Life Cycle of a Butterfly Unit

Today was day three learning about 

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly.

Today we listened to a song about The Life Cycle of a Butterfly from Mother Goose Time. I have it on disc, so I don't have a link to share, but here is a link for many free mother goose songs:

Mother Goose Time Music 

After much singing and dancing to wiggle the sillies out, the kids were ready to sit still for story time. I read the book "The Lamb and the Butterfly" by Eric Carle which is about a lamb who finds a butterfly and learns just how different they are. As I read we created a chart of the differences between the butterfly and the lamb to get the kid's really thinking compare/contrast ideas.

Then we reviewed what we have learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and read the book "The Life Cycle of the Butterfly" by Lisa Trumbauer which has great realistic pictures of the different stages of butterfly life. After our quick review we were ready for the worksheet where they numbered the different stages and wrote the name of the stage. The kids even colored them!

 Writing with a highlighter is a great way to get kids tracing letters and practicing their writing skills.

After our worksheets the kids assembled an art project created with a paper plate, some pasta, chickpeas, and pre-cut paper leaves and twigs. See their creations below!

 Stage 1: Egg (chickpea)

Stage 2: Caterpillar (rotini pasta)

Stage 3: Pupa inside Chrysalis (small shell pasta)

Stage 4: Butterfly! (bowtie pasta)

Our last project was to glue the butterflies we made yesterday to the finger paintings we created and here is the final product:

See Day 1 from our unit The Life Cycle of a Butterfly here:
http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/beginning-our-butterfly-life-cycle-unit.html
See Day 2 from our unit The Life Cycle of a Butterfly here:
http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-two-of-life-cycle-of-butterfly-unit.html

Day TWO of The Life Cycle of a Butterfly Unit

Day two of our new learning unit:

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Today we got into more detail about the life cycle of the butterfly and some of the terminology used to describe the different stages in the butterfly life cycle. We also learned some of the names of butterfly body parts and how you can tell if a butterfly is a boy or a girl. We watched a short video showing how a real life caterpillar hatches from an egg and goes through the different stages of it's life and we listened to a read along audio storybook about the life cycle of a butterfly, 

by Bobbie Kalman. The kids colored, cut and pasted pictures depicting the 4 stages of the butterfly's life cycle... egg, caterpillar, pupa in chrysalis, and finally butterfly. Then we answered almost all of the questions we had about butterflies on our "Butterfly Facts" chart. 

 

Step 1: Color, Step 2: Cut, Step 3: Paste in order!

 

Practicing fine motor skills like scissor skills and correct pencil grip are very

 important in your child's development and preparation for school.

Learning these things isn't easy for little ones, but practice makes perfect!

 

 I give the kids art projects using a variety of different art materials, so

they have the opportunity to work with different supplies and master their technique.

Some of the art mediums we have use are: crayon, marker, water color paint, washable

chemical free paint, finger paint, chalk, pencil, pen, colored pencils, and more. 

We also practice using glue sticks, kid safe scissors, liquid glue, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, 

and so much more.

Here are the butterfly cut outs the kids colored with markers:

 Here is the finished product from our color, cut, and paste activity:

After lunch (turkey dogs with homemade tortilla chips and pico de gallo) we did some finger painting and then colored with markers on their very own butterfly cutouts.

Here are some pictures of the kids doing some finger painting:

Big kids at the easel with aprons to keep their clothes clean!

 How cute are the girls wearing our little kid smocks and a couple of plastic

headbands I found to keep their hair out of their faces!?

Day 1 Life Cycle of a Butterfly

http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/beginning-our-butterfly-life-cycle-unit.html

Day 3 Life Cycle of a Butterfly
http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-three-of-life-cycle-of-butterfly.html

Beginning our Butterfly Life Cycle Unit!

Today we began our new unit:

The Life Cycle of the Butterfly!

What a day and so much fun! Today we discussed what we know about butterflies and what we would like to know about butterflies. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and watched a video of 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well.

Here is our reading list for this week:

Each child colored their own caterpillar and applied some googly eyes, for fun. Then the kids colored and cut pieces for their very own Very Hungry Caterpillar mobile. We finished off by painting some coffee filters with watercolor paints and made those into some delicate butterflies!

Here are some of our art from today, on our special

themed bulletin board:

And here is more from our day...

Day 2 The Life Cycle of a Butterfly:

http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-two-of-life-cycle-of-butterfly-unit.html

Day 3 The Life Cycle of a Butterfly:

http://amadordaycare.blogspot.com/2013/07/day-three-of-life-cycle-of-butterfly.html