Caterpillars and Sea Creatures!

We've been talking about signs of spring.  Last week we made a chart of what happens in the spring. Each child shared an idea and I wrote it on the board.  Then we read it back together. (As I write their ideas and we read them back the kids love telling me letters that they recognize...most often it's letters that are in their names...I so enjoy watching and listening to the kids as they begin their literacy journey!)  

Ask your child which one is their idea.  When we put it together it created a beautiful poem.

In Spring...

Snow melts, Maple Trees wake up,

Flowers grow, Trees grow leaves.

In Spring...

Rain comes, the grass turns green,

Birds lay eggs, The Easter Bunny comes.

In Spring...

It warms up!

Baseball starts, soccer starts,

We love spring!

During circle time on Tuesday, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  After we read the story, we opened up a box that came in the mail.  It turned out the box had a container of hungry painted lady caterpillars inside.  We put them in our butterfly garden to watch them grow! 

Max was our "Maple Leaf " this week.  His mom came in on Tuesday and told us how much Max likes visiting aquariums and learning about sea creatures.  She brought in a poster with pictures of some of the aquariums that Max has visited.  Then she read us a story called Curious George Visits the Aquarium. After we heard the story she helped all of us make our own aquariums! 

Here we are making our aquariums.  

Here's what our aquariums looked like when we were finished.

Thursday, Max brought in a special snack that looked like an aquarium.  It was blue jello, with Swedish Fish inside and whipped cream on top...yum!!  Thanks Max for helping make our week so special!

We heard some stories about spring and caterpillars on Thursday.  Then we went outside to play for a while...we were all so happy to enjoy the spring weather!!

When we were outside we looked at a pussy willow tree and felt the smooth, furry flowers on the branches.  

Back inside, we went to activity time.  Our activities this week included making a butterfly booklet to help us remember the life cycle of a butterfly, balloon painting to create a caterpillar, using scissors to help a caterpillar "eat" a leaf, playing with cars, building the marble run, playing with play dough, using letter stickers to create designs, building with blocks, and putting together a floor puzzle that had pictures of insects. We had a very busy week!