Exploring Insects

As part of our butterfly life cycle study, we've been learning a little bit more about the difference between insects and other creeping-crawling things.

Insects + Playdough 

I set out a variety of loose parts with our playdough, and many children discovered making prints. 

I love how this is a visual for the parts of an insect: 6 legs, 3 body parts, 2 antannae.

 

It was fun to see what kinds of bugs and insects they created as well.

 

Insect Habitats Sensory Bin

Here they explored making different homes for the insects. 

Insect Number Hunt + Clip Counting

 Exploring insects just seems to lend itself to counting since their characteristics are based on numbers, so I like to expand on that concept with other counting activities as well.

Life Cycle Study, Part 1: Caterpillars

Every year I like to do a live life cycle study.

 Last year we did ladybugs, and this year we are doing butterflies again.

I always look forward to this magical project.

It's amazing how fast they grow in just a few days!

One student asked me to take a picture with the magnifying glass in front, so the caterpillars looked bigger. I thought it turned out to be a cool picture. :) 

The Hungry Caterpillar

Caterpillars are HUNGRY, and I love using this classic book by Eric Carle to inspire some activities. Here is a counting/threading invitation that can also be used for story retelling. 

Caterpillar Craft

In addition to some caterpillar inspired art, we created these simple and fun caterpillars climbing on sticks.

It's been so fun to watch our caterpillars grow and grow!

We are Growing...an Amaryllis

We observed the growth of our amaryllis plant all month long.

 

And explored ideas of growth, size, and measurement. 

We read a silly book about growing.

We practiced documenting our findings with observational drawings.

Although it didn't grow up tall (like I was expecting), we did notice that it started to change color.

And then it bloomed into a beautiful flower.

Our short and beautiful Amaryllis!