Eric Carle Creations: Part Four

The Very Busy Spider

After learning about sooooo many insects, it was fun to compare / contrast them to another critter...one that we sometimes mistake for an insect!  

We used Eric Carle's story of The Very Busy Spider as a springboard to this week of activities about creepy, crawling spiders.  We learned all sorts of fun facts about these arachnids:  their special body parts, their eating habits, their life cycle and so much more. 

It was fun to put this week's lapbook together.

And it looked great when it was finished!

We added some extra fun this week creating our own spiders and some cool webs for them to "live in". 

Creating this painted web was a great exercise in following directions and creating lines.  

Then we added a cut paper spider of our own creation.

It looked great when complete.

But even better when we wrote a sentence about it.

These munchkins are such great writers!

We also had a blast making these funny spider hats. The munchkins had to pose with their "fangs" out!

It wasn't all just art and crafts, though. 

The munchkins did some great reading with a pocket chart. It focused on working with the word family "all". 

We also put together a little emergent reader based on Eric Carle's story.  It focused on sight words and reading fluency.

The munchkins also enjoyed this fun activity, in which they added their own "self-portrait" onto a spider body!  Too funny!

They added a speech bubble to finish off this cute activity.

And we had some of our usual Wednesday fun creating a yummy spider.  We did our best to make him accurate, right down to his eight legs and his eight eyes!

What a fun way to get to know these sometimes-less-than-cuddly-creatures!

Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.

Eric Carle Creations: Part Three

The Grouchy Ladybug

After letting our butterflies go, we moved on to a new Eric Carle story: The Grouchy Ladybug.  This little story is a great way to reinforce and master the skill of telling time and to introduce the concept of compound words.  It is also just plain fun to learn about these cute little critters!

We created a lapbook to add the BIG lapbook we are compiling for the whole insect unit.  This one contained all sorts of fun information about ladybugs:  their life cycle, their favorite food, their body parts and a mini book about what insects. 

We learned all sorts of interesting facts for the paragraph that we wrote at the end of the week, too.  (Did you know that a ladybug is "born" with no spots?)

Aside from all that, we spent quite a bit of time learning compound words.  The munchkins had so much fun making their own, even if especially if they were nonsense! 

We played several center games that reinforced this concept.

And we made our own little insect book based on compound words.  It's amazing how many insect names are compound words!

Like...

grasshopper

butterfly

dragonfly

firefly

ladybug

The munchkins had fun reading this one when it was complete...especially reading the pages mixed together to create their one compound word insect names (like butterbug, firehopper, and ladyfly).

The munchkins were quick to pick up on the pattern and sequence that Eric Carle used for the story of The Grouchy Ladybug, so it was fun to use this pattern as a reinforcement of our telling time skills.  Although this story only focused on time to the hour, I have to say, my munchkins are exceptional time tellers.  Many can tell time to the five minute increments, as well as work on elapsed time!  Wow!

We had some fun ladybug clocks to play with...

and we made one to take home, too.

Besides all that, the munchkins had fun making C-V-C words with the ladybug pieces.  Those had to be REAL words!

But what was Wednesday's specialty this week?

It was a ladybug, of course...

Yummy and almost healthy, too!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Happy Birthday, Munchkin!

Happy Birthday to You!

Unitl next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.



Fly Away Butterfly

Our Butterfly Release

We were all so excited when four of our caterpillars made it to the final stage of their life cycle, but that also meant it was time to say good-bye.  It would be hard, especially now that they all had names!

Flower, Flyer, Lizzy and Buttercup

Luckily, the weather was perfect, so we gathered our preschool friends outside in the play yard to let our beautiful butterflies go. 

The munchkins noticed immediately how eager the butterflies were to be released.  The minute they were in the sun, they spread their wings wide and floated to the top of the canopy.  It only took a few minutes after unzipping the top before two had found their way up, up, and away!

Good-bye!

The third one stayed around for a bit after finding his way out of the canopy. 

 The munchkins followed him around as he landed on flower after flower, but it wasn't long before he, too, was up and away. 

We tried to catch him, but it was no use!

It took a while for number four to go. 

He needed a little nudge and then...

Good-bye!

Notice the little crossed fingers? 

We wish them all well...

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.