Chrysalides

We have been watching our caterpillars eat and grow for the past 3 weeks, much longer than it should have been.  Generally it takes a Painted Lady caterpillar 7 to 10 days to go from egg to chrysalis but it has been colder than average here and that is why we think it has taken them much longer.

 

We've been active at the art table making many caterpillar and butterfly arts and crafts.  This one is a traditional egg carton caterpillar.  When they were dry I put them in brown paper bags and hung them in our room by our caterpillar display.  Now that the real caterpillars are in their chrysalis our paper ones will start to break open and previously made butterflies will emerge.

 I created this play invitation for the children to experience caterpillars going in and butterflies coming out.

 The felt chrysalis also found their way into our bug play.

We are excited to continue to watch the chrysalis to see signs of the butterflies ready to emerge.

A Treasure Hunting We Go

Today we went to the beach to search for treasure.  Not just any beach though.  We went to where there are pirate shipwrecks.  The tide was so low that we could walk right out to the wrecks and climb on board.

The weather was beautiful and we had time to scour the beach looking for bits of treasure.

Or crabs.

We found some - gold nuggets, diamonds, sapphires, and 

of course lots of crabs.

 We saw Danger: No Trespassing signs.

We think the pirates are hiding out on the other side.

We imagined sailing the seas.

Looking through our telescopes for ships to plunder.

Then one of our families brought their GPS and we searched for a geo-cache.

Following the arrow, he led the way.

We walked to the end of the trail and there in the bushes we searched.

 We found the cache.

Inside it was a treasure map.

 We read the map and learned that the treasure was hidden back on the beach, under a tree with roots that looked like an 'X'.

 We found it after a lot of looking.

 Gold doubloons, enough for everyone.

May your treasure hunting be as happy.

We Painted the Sea

Our pirate ship has been on dry land now for a couple of weeks.  It was time to add some water and at the art table is where we did that.

I laid out large sheets of white paper and supplied two kinds of paint; water and tempera.

While they were painting I introduced two techniques to use with the paints.
On the water paint they could sprinkle salt and on the tempera paint use saran wrap to cause the colours to mix together.

Lay the saran wrap on top of your paint and smoosh it around.

Move it to another spot and smoosh some more.

Then peel the saran off to see what the paint looks like.

It's always surprising to watch the children's reactions to doing a group painting.  They are so accustom to having their own piece of paper that it takes a minute or two, or rather a stroke or two, to feel comfortable moving around the paper.  That is one reason that I didn't put the chairs at the table.  I wanted the children to have the freedom to move around the table if they wished.

When completed I cut it into waves and mounted it on the side of our ship.

The children will be surprised to see a plank was added so they can jump into the sea.

We need a cannon

Build the frame

Put the cannon through the frame.

Load the balls.

Oh, oh they're not coming through.

I can get it from this end.  No, I'll push this through to get them out.

Yay it works.

Arrgh! It's Pirate Time

Ahoy Matey come and play aboard our pirate ship!

 Steer the ship.

 Join the captain at his table.

Open the treasure chest.

And wear the jewels.

  

Dress up as a pirate and have fun.

Or sail away on our little dingy.

We've had days and days of pirate fun.

Baggie Butterfly

 I found clear, self-sealing plastic baggies
and thought they'd be great to use as butterfly wings.

First, stuff small pieces of coloured tissue paper into the baggie.
When you have enough, seal it shut.

Decorate a clothespin to use for the butterflies' body.

Then scrunch the baggies together in the middle. 

Fasten the clothespin.

Add pipe cleaners for antennae and googly eyes

and they are ready to fly.