Bug Garden

Wow over a month since my last post - sorry but life has been full.

We've been having a lot of fun exploring bugs. We decided to grow our own bug garden this year instead of bringing in sod.

We planted grass, lettuce, wild flowers and wheat grass seeds. After about a week it was ready for bugs to move in. Families brought in slugs, caterpillars, centipedes and millipedes, worms, wood bugs, an earwig, and snails.



We included rocks, sticks and flowers for a more natural environment.






The children used a spray bottle to imitate the rain and when the grass gets too long they use scissors to cut it.

more caterpillar crafts

Wow last week was so busy that I didn't have a chance to post anything and I got behind on my emails and spent yesterday clearing out over 200 messages.

Just wanted to finish off showing you the crafts we did for caterpillars.

The first was the second stage in the life cycle of a butterfly. Caterpillars.

We made them out of egg cartons.

They had fun mixing the colours before painting their caterpillars.


Close attention to detail.













Pipe cleaners and beads were added for antennae.

Then they could finish them off with pieces of yarn and more beads on the bodies.



The following day we made caterpillars in their chrysalis.

Starting with a toilet paper tube, gluing tissue paper on it then hot gluing a a pom pom on the inside.

Peek a boo caterpillar.

butterfly larvae hatching

Today we started a week of crafts to do with the life cycle of the butterfly.

We started with the butterfly larvae hatching from the egg. Materials needed include paper plates, watercolour paint, brad fasteners, googly eyes, round paper circles, hole punch, scissors and glue stick.

The children had fun just painting (note to self - have a week of a variety of painting). One little guy was thrilled that he could poke a hole in into the paint block.

After painting you need to cut the paper plate in half, punch a hole in two of the corners and put in the brad fastener.

Then glue the round paper circle on the inside of the plate. Add on googly eyes and any face you want.

I'm a hungry, hungry caterpillar.

games

We've been focused on "What comes from eggs?"

Here are a few games that have been out to explore.

I found these tiny coloured foam eggs at a dollar store and the egg cups that match.
The children enjoyed sorting the colours.
Although the little ones wanted to eat them.

Another matching game - stuffies to photos - of creatures that come from eggs.


Now we're getting into butterflies and this sorting game can sort by colour or shape.

Nature art

Yesterday we went for a nature walk and came back with a piece of art.

I had seen this idea on a couple of different nature sites and wanted to show the families how easy it is to collect and display outdoor finds.

The frame is made from cardboard. I painted one side. Then cut mactac, clear adhesive, to fit the frame.

Press onto back of the cardboard frame.

Out for your walk and when something is found just stick it on the front.

It's a great window display.

Bread dough

Ah what a wonderful feeling it is to work (and play) with bread dough.

This morning I brought in frozen bread dough rolls - let them thaw - and put them out with flour.



The kids jumped in with poking and squishing and rolling and making their creation.







More flour had to be added after playing with it for sometime.






Mmmm they smelled delicious.

Happy Earth Day

We had an amazing day today.
The sun was shining and we had fun checking out our frog eggs and butterfly larvae.

At the art table I had placed
scraps of laminating in the
shape of circles. Plus small pieces of green and blue cellophane. And, of course, lots of glue.

I found a book called
The Earth and I by Frank Asch.
http://www.amazon.com/Earth-I-Frank-Asch/dp/0152063951

It has beautiful colourful illustrations and simple text.





Today was the first day for our Spuds (in a tub) to be put outside.
The children wrote our class name on the tub, then wheeled them down the hall and to the front of the school.

Finally we got together with our grade 4 Big Buddies to share books and plant flowers outdoors.