myGanBlog: Hungry and Busy...two words to describe some bugs

A look at this week:

We started this week by reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." The children really enjoyed this story. And of course, this led us to many of our activities throughout the week. One of the favorite places to go was to home living where the children had the chance to "feed" a caterpillar. I really enjoyed watching the children in the block area. At the beginning on the week they went into the area to build things from the story. Some built a cocoon for the caterpillar to sleep in; Jayden, with a little help, enjoyed building a caterpillar and some food for the caterpillar to eat! On Monday the children also had the chance to make their own caterpillars out of egg cartons and paint! On Tuesday we took the art activity a little further and the children made cocoons out of paper rolls and then they decorated a butterfly that is rolled into the cocoon so it can come out when it is ready! Starting on Wednesday we added the story, "The Very Busy Spider." The children enjoyed making a string spider web after we finished the story. Then they went into the classroom to do more bug activities. In writing the children wrote about what they do to stay busy at school. In art they did spider web rubbings and they also made shiny glue spider webs! Some children enjoyed returning to the block area where they tried to use the blocks and string to make a spider web. Other children enjoyed the math activity where they used "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book to remind them of the order of the foods that the caterpillar ate. Then they had to match the day, the number, the food name and the food picture for each day. Throughout the week the children also enjoyed doing the bug pattern block cards. These are always out in the classroom, but sometimes they are forgotten about so it was nice to see the excitement over these again! I think the most exciting part of the week for the children was snack time on Wednesday. When they saw me take out the paper plates they started asking me what we were making. I put out 5 plates on the table and they all started telling me that we had a plate caterpillar on the table. So we got wiggly eyes and a pipe cleaner antennae and made it really look like a caterpillar. Then I added the fruits (one type of fruit per plate) that the caterpillar ate in the story. After we "fed" the paper plate caterpillar we cut up the fruit and each child got the same amount of pieces that the caterpillar ate of each fruit! It was a very yummy snack!

Listening in:

While the children were feeding the pretend caterpillar lots of foods this week in Home Living, Tyrus walked up to me and said the following:

Tyrus: Teacher, the caterpillar has a tummy ache. He needs his leaf. Where is his leaf?

Lizzy: I can make a leaf! I can draw one!

Levi was very proud of his cocoon he made. However, when I called it a cocoon he responded by telling me: "I built his bed!"

Looking Ahead:

Next week we are going to continue to talk about different bugs. We will be reading the book, "The Grouchy Ladybug" and "The Very Lonely Firefly." We will be talking about time and learning a little about a clock as well as talking about friendship and feelings. We are also going to do a fun project where we will be able to "grow" our own bugs!