Pete the Cat's Belly Button

Well our Pete the Cat, who has been going on many adventures with the families all year,

had an adventure himself 

last weekend,

He had minor plastic surgery.

This story started when we got Eric Litwin's new book,

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.

It's a wonderful book, which I mentioned in a previous post.

I have heard parents use Pete's philosophy with their children

when they are upset about losing something.

"Would Pete cry?"

And amazingly their child calms and moves on.

Or a parent told me a story of overhearing her daughter searching for something

at home in her room.

When she couldn't find it she said, "things come and things go".

Wow, what power a few words can have.

Back at school, 

I found this yellow shirt that fits Pete and used velcro

to attach the buttons to the shirt.

So as we read the story the buttons can be removed.

Well when we got to the part in the story where we see Pete's belly button,

the children commented that our Pete didn't have a 

belly button.

After a little brainstorming, it was decided that someone would sew a button

on Pete.

Van and his mom Karen volunteered to be the doctors.

Van searched through our button box till he found a button.

After a full recovery, Pete was back at school showing off

his brand new belly button.

Ready to share his story with our big buddy class,

the grade 3s.

Waiting for Chrysalis

It's hard waiting.

Especially for something as exciting as watching caterpillars change to butterflies.

So this week while we waited for the caterpillars to form their chrysalis

we made our own chrysalis.

A family had collected this container of pussy willow seeds

and they reminded me of fuzzy caterpillars.

So we wrapped them up in string for our 'pretend' chrysalis.

 It takes sometime and patience to wrap our 'pretend' caterpillars.

 And even trickier to attach them to the inside of the container.

It has helped us learn patience and understanding for our 'real' caterpillars.

Not as complete as the real thing.

This is the first year that we've actually seen a caterpillar 

in the midst of forming their chrysalis.

If you look pass the long middle caterpillar to the one right behind it,

that one is partially formed.

By the end of the morning it was complete.

 We're still waiting on a lot more caterpillars to change.

We went outside this morning to collect some twigs for them to climb on

and to make it look a little more natural.

Butterflies for Snack

No we didn't do anything crazy like dip butterflies in chocolate,

reminiscent of the Galloping Gourmet.

We made our own using pretzels, celery, dip and raisins.

The recipe.

Sorry not the clearest picture.

I forgot to take a separate picture of it

and I haven't learned how to put a word document into my blog.

The children enjoyed counting the items needed

and putting them together.

Then the best part - eating.

Play Trays Week #17

Here they are...

Butterfly life cycle cards with matching toy pieces.

Hidden butterflies.

There were only four butterflies hidden.

Some children kept looking under the same cone.

It was suggested that the cones be turned over after

looking under them.

 Frog counting cards

with little frogs to match.

And finally...

 Poking coloured sticks into an old cheese shaker.

Snail Moving

The snails moved into their garden today.

14 snails!

We kept nine.

I love snails, 

as I'm sure I've said on every post I've done about snails.

I love watching them move gracefully along

balancing their home on their back,

tentacles stretched with eyes searching.

Children are intrigued by snails.

 How they move,

how they feel when they are touched

or when they touch us.

How they can hide so quickly for a creature

that moves so slow.

And why do they look different?

Some have one stripe while others have many stripes.

 Our babies.

We'll probably won't see them again because

they are so small

and they'll be lost in the tall, tall grass.

The children love taking care of the snails.

Making it rain.

Oops I'm a Week Behind on Trays

Here are the trays from a week ago.

Little shaped containers which the lid comes off.

Works on fine motor and mathcing but also shapes.

The next tray contains a flower shaped ice cube tray with flower rings

 and a tweezer.

 Works on colours, patterning, sorting

 and fine motor.

But also curiosity and wonder.

I have a set of these books, all with different topics.

Each page contains a riddle and a matching puzzle piece.

 Focus is on literacy, puzzle solving,

and matching.

This final tray is a favourite.

 Coffee can with lid that has holes cut into it.

The holes are the same size as the hair rollers.

 The children figure which hole the curler fits into best.

It was interesting to watch the trial and error of figuring out the right hole.

Even if the smaller curler fit into the bigger hole they would keep trying till they found the correct hole.

It also lends to sorting.

I found this last idea over at Alljoinin