Caterpillars

Our caterpillars arrived yesterday so we celebrated today by doing many activities about them.

 Our caterpillar observation station.

 At the craft table we made egg carton caterpillars.

 Talking about the various varieties,

 their colours and decoration (spots, stripes, etc.)

These caterpillars are to play with

but this is to build and eat.

Yum!

As they were munching I brought over this book 

and grandma read it.

Each day we'll document our real caterpillars growth.

Raising butterflies is a very exciting experience.

Drip & Twist Painting

Drip and twist painting attracted many children to the art table today.

I got the idea from Deborah over at Teach Preschool.

But added our own little twist to it.

 We used eye droppers to drip the paint on to a paper plate.

 Creating new colours as we went.

 Then used a little cup to press the paint and twist.

 Add some more

and twist again.

I like how they got into the rhythm with the eye dropper in one hand

and the cup in the other.

Alternating back and forth.

They are beautiful.

Even without a twist.

 Or big twists.

Some children did 4 - 5 pieces of work.

All ages gave it a try.

Play Trays Last Week

 Counting bugs.

Five containers with numbers written on the outside of the lid.

On the inside of the lid there are dots to correspond with the number.

I provided tweezers to use to pick up the bugs.

 Matching bugs.

I drew two coloured dots to help show that the bugs match.

 Although some families thought it had to be colour coordinated to the colours on the bugs.

Ta Da!

 Matching coloured chopsticks.

 The tray is simple with lots of holes.

 Each hole is big enough to hold 2 chopsticks together.

 But it takes coordination to get them in the holes.

Snail Garden 2012

It's that time of year when we see and talk a lot about bugs.

What is the attraction for children?

Is it because bugs can be so small?

Or wiggly?

Colourful?

I'm not sure but many children that come to the program are interested.

 

Each year we build a garden for snails to live.

This week we started.

I have been inspired by many 'fairy' gardens I've seen on pinterest

so decided to ask the children to design the garden

instead of just planting grass.

We started with our container filled with potting soil.

(Yes there are a few plastic bugs in it.)

We brainstormed ideas of what could be in the garden,

fences,

rocks,

pond,

toadstools,

 moss, etc.

Then today we put it together.

A bench for a chat with visitors, a moss bed, a pond surrounded with pretty glass stones 

and flat stones for easy sliding.

It also has toadstools and wooden boulders.

 But it needs grass.

We sprinkled wheat grass and lawn grass seeds all over.

 The bottle was empty by the time I returned.

Now we wait for the grass to grow.

Then invite a few snails to move in.

Big Flowers

Art today was painting really big flowers.

 I found these colourful pot scrubbers at a store.

 They are made of foam and are easy to grab.

I matched the colour of the scrubber to paint.

And the children printed on large coffee filters.

They make a pretty bulletin board.

Planting Seeds

It was buddy day and we planted seeds together.

Our new school has greenhouses and a garden so we are preparing to have these seeds grow through the summer and harvest when we come back to school in the fall.

These seeds will start inside so we can care for them and watch them sprout.

Then move them out to the greenhouse before ending up in the ground.

We started by decorating the tube

(not that it will matter because the whole tube will go in the ground).

 This process helps the bond strengthen between the two ages.

They are becoming comfortable fitting into each others classrooms and space.

 

The conversations and stories that I overheard are assisting in building friendships.

Next we filled the tubes 3/4 full

before adding the seed.

Then topping it off with more soil.

The children chose between pumpkins or sunflowers.