Playgroup

We have missed our friends from playgroup so much since we moved. We were so happy to meet up with a couple of the families yesterday for lunch. The kids (and us mommies) had a great time catching up.

Butterfly, Butterfly

Today we read:

Butterflies
I Like Butterflies
Flying Colors

Because butterflies taste with their feet, we also read:

The Foot Book
What Neat Feet!
Feet

We let the girls make footprint paintings.


Then, I gave each of the girls a party blower - so they could understand a butterfly's mouth part.


After that, the girls drank some applesauce (butterflies drink nectar through a straw-like proboscis)



Butterflies feel and smell with their antennae. I wanted to make antennae for the girls by using headbands with pipe cleaners attached, but I didn't feel like going to the store, so they just held straws on top of their heads instead.

B is for Butterfly

Yesterday, Arin and her cousin did school together. Unfortunately, the first chance that we had to do school was very close to naptime, so school time did not go as smoothly as we had hoped.

What we read:

Butterfly Eggs

Goodnight Sweet Butterflies

Butterflies

Butterfly Count

The Butterfly Alphabet

Then, we did some butterfly crafts. We made a handprint butterfly - which really doesn't look that much like a butterfly. So we redid it today and it looked a little better.

Then, the girls put butterfly stickers on the letter B.

An Afternoon with Friends

We had an opportunity to come back home for a visit this week. We have been having so much fun. Arin has spent a lot of time with her cousins and friends. Yesterday, we visited Jaxson and Tyson. The girls had a blast playing with them. Arin and Jaxson fed the ducks and the fish and splashed in puddles together. Thanks Lynn and Mrs. Lee for having us over!

Caterpillar Cookie

We finished our caterpillar week by reading Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar and then making a caterpillar cookie. I had only planned on spending half of the week on caterpillars and the second half on butterflies, but it took so long for our books to come in at the library (some still aren't here), that we are now devoting a whole week to each subject. Arin can now tell and recognize the life cycle of the butterfly (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly (then the butterfly lays the eggs)) without any assistance.

More Caterpillar Fun

We continued our caterpillar study yesterday by reading Creepy, Crawly Caterpillars and Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer.

After reading, we made a bouncypillar which we found here.

Then, we played an addition game. On our walk, earlier that morning, we collected a few fallen leaves. When we came home, I wrote simple addition problems on the leaves (1+1, 2+2, etc.) Then, I cut pipe cleaners into small pieces, which Arin bent into shapes to represent caterpillars. I couldn't find the tweezers this morning, so she used an alligator hair clip to pick up the appropriate number of caterpillars and lay them on the leaves. She really enjoyed this game. She seemed to like the bouncypillar craft too, but once she played this game, there was no contest between the two!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & the Days of the Week

Today we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Because it mentions the days of the week, I thought this would be a good time to review those with Arin. We also read Today is Monday and Day by Day a Week Goes Round.

In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, he eats a lot of fruit. So for breakfast this morning, Arin cut us up fruit and made a fruit salad. She used watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and cherries.

After breakfast, she painted the bottom of an egg carton, which we later turned into a caterpillar. We got that idea from No Time for Flash Cards.

While we were waiting for the paint to dry on the egg carton caterpillar, we sequenced food in the order which the caterpillar ate it. I also wrote the days of the week on each piece of food.

We also sang a days of the week song, to help Arin remember the correct order.

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

Days of the Week(snap, snap)

Days of the Week

Days of the Week

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

There's Sunday and there's Monday

There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday

There's Thursday and there's Friday

And then there's Saturday

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

Days of the Week(snap,snap)