Dear Parents,
This week we made ants on a log for snacks. While we pretended the raisins were ants on our celery, someone said, “And there’s a spider on my grapes too.” There was a real spider on her grapes. We all had turns observing him up close and then we set him free in the yard.
We used paint to decorate our butterfly wings and then pressed the two wings together to get the same pattern on the other wing. We left them to dry and read in our butterfly book that real butterflies have to wait for their wings to dry after coming out of the chrysalis.
We used magnifying glasses to examine our real insect collection. We have bees, a house fly, a dragonfly, a rhinoceros beetle, a roach, and a cicada. Some children talked about finding ants and roaches at their house. “Mama smashed it,” someone told us. Another person said, “All the ants left my house.”
When looking closely at our insects the children said: “He’s spikey on his legs.” “Looks like he has on a hoody.” “His legs are furry.” “The wings look rusty.” “His legs are sharp.” And, "This one is fluffy on its head."
We marched from the big room, down the stairs, out the alley, and through the gate singing The Ants Go Marching. We luckily arrived at the gate when we were singing eight. We talked about someone who studies insects being called an entomologist.
We curled up into pretend chrysalises and slowly emerged. Using our butterfly wings, we flew around and around the big room listening to slow, medium, and fast music. The butterflies knew exactly how fast to fly. When most were tired, we played in the big room with wheels, blocks, and pretend food. One butterfly flew for five extra minutes.
While playing in the big room, a rather large insect ran out from the stage. Many children gathered around and we caught it in a clear plastic cup for observation. “It’s a roach!” someone shouted. “He’s cute!” said another. We sat for more than ten minutes while everyone commented and watched his every move. We played La Cucaracha at the same time. It was a sight for sore eyes.
Afterwards someone drove around in our toy car delivering roaches to everyone.
On Friday we made insects with our play dough while our friends were at music with Alex. There were butterflies, earthworms, ladybugs and a queen beetle with her crown amongst our creations. We read about butterflies and bees, and talked about what insects eat. We took turns reading and counting in our Ten Little Ladybugs book.
Have a great weekend!
Therese and Nicole