This Week In Tot School...

...Butterflies!

We had another fun week! Did you know there are about a gazillion different caterpillar/butterfly craft/project ideas out there? So it was a challenge to narrow it down to just a few as part of our butterfly week. I don't dislike doing crafts, but it's definitely not Will's or my favorite type of activity. Therefore, I'm not sure how much he's really getting out of it. Still, we made a few cute things as a sort of continuation of our art week. Oh, and could you imagine any lesson plan on butterflies NOT including this book? :) We read it over and over and over. Will loves it. He can nearly read it to ME!

Our first night of crafts didn't go so well. Will just wasn't interested in using water paints at all. He DID like making our caterpillars with wooden craft sticks and pom poms:

They turned out pretty cute:

But he quickly got bored of water painting on coffee filters. He let me trace his hand (and I traced my own too) but he just wasn't interested in water painting our hand prints.

Okay, so if we're not having fun, I guess we'll move on. Otherwise, our play time becomes a burden and that's certainly not the goal. One significant reason he wasn't focusing tonight was because Uncle Zach had come over to work out in our basement where our crafts were also set up. Will was much more interested in watching him. He told me he wants to be big and strong like Uncle Zach and wanted to do push ups with him. Zach graciously made room for Will to join him.

I remembered that Will enjoyed stamping the milk bottle cap last week so we made the beginnings of a caterpillar with that too.

Later we moved to the computer where I showed him a cool website for kids: kidsbutterfly.org. We looked at lots of images of butterflies and caterpillars and learned many neat facts such as:

1) Butterflies require an air temperature of about 60 degrees before they are able to fly. Therefore, they often take "sun baths" by basking in direct sunlight to raise their body temperature, since they are cold-blooded.

2) The number of legs a caterpillar has varies but most have three pairs of true legs and five pairs of prolegs on their abdomen. Plus there is a really cool picture of a pretty caterpillar (a black swallowtail) displayed with this question on the FAQ page.

3) The colors on moth/butterfly wings are used in courtship and also protect some from predators. We saw pictures of a couple moths that blend in with their environment.

4) We scanned the photograph gallery and saw pictures of kids with butterflies as well as learned the names of a couple North American butterflies: the Common Buckeye and the infamous Monarch.

5) We learned how to say butterfly in Spanish: "mariposa".

On Tuesday, Will read through The Very Hungry Caterpillar book again and started to color some pictures I'd printed for him, but didn't get very far.

We did however renew his interest in crafts by bringing out the beloved dot stampers. While Will entertained himself with stamping up and sequencing the Very Hungry Caterpillar activity pages (from makinglearningfun.com), I put the finishing touches on several of our projects... googly eyes and antennae for everything! :)

We used painted clothespins for the bodies of our coffee filter butterflies.

And I cut out my handprint butterfly (which looks like it was painted by a 70's flower child) and compared it to the book too!

Will stamped in the milk cap caterpillar and also was inspired to stamp his handprint butterfly instead of paint it.

Finally we painted egg carton caterpillars...

...and I added the eyes and antennae the next day.

On Wednesday, we looked at the lifecycle of a butterfly. Will and I colored the pages of a homemade book (from worksheetplace.com) and I cut and stapled them together.

He colored another one-page depiction of the lifecycle (from kidzone.ws) and I taught him a cute song I found to the tune of "Up on the Housetop":

First comes a butterfly and lays an egg.

Out pops a caterpillar with many legs.

Watch how the caterpillar spins and spins,

a cozy chrysalis to sleep in.

Oh, oh, oh! Look and see.

Oh, oh, oh! Look and see.

Out of the chrysalis, my oh my,

Comes a beautiful butterfly!

We'd been talking about this metamorphosis even before tonight so he already knew the word "chrysalis" (he says it very well and cute). In fact, I substituted the word chrysalis for cocoon when I read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar book because technically, the moth caterpillars make a "cocoon", but the butterfly caterpillars make a "chrysalis". He asked me to sing that song over and over while he was coloring.

Next we looked at adver-net.com/Monemerg.html to see pictures and description of the emergence of a Monarch. VERY COOL how that transformation occurs and how the Monarch inflates its wings and prepares to take flight. Very neat pictures.

Finally, on Wednesday, Will did a butterfly matching file folder game that I made him where I'd taped down the left half and he had to match the right half of the butterfly. I printed the butterflies from here, and "laminated" them using packing tape. :) LOL- I need to invest in some contact (sp?) paper. (Oh, and P.S. - check out my first grown-up link in this paragraph!! I'm a regular Bill Gates, aren't I? Watch, it probably won't work.)

Thursday, we took a break from Tot School and took a bike trailer ride as a family. We also spent much of the evening reading library books on the front porch. Saturday, we paid a visit to the butterfly house in Whitehouse, Ohio. If you remember, we had a bit of a rough ending to our visit the last time. But they have a really beautiful place and property, so we were determined to make a better experience this time. (Ha ha! Links all over the place now that I've figured that out!) They just reopened for the season on May 1st and I've been anxious to go back. As soon as the kids woke up from nap on Saturday, we packed up and headed out. Here was our snack on the way:

Painted clothespins, a few snippets of pipe cleaner, some snack bags and snack mix... presto!

Will and daddy walking up to the Butterfly House.

Just inside, they have a really cute gift shop.

Inside the butterfly house, it's like you stepped into a beautiful (warm & humid) garden.

Will got up close and personal to inspect them, but he didn't touch. Good boy.

Here's one of those Common Buckeyes that we saw online and in our file folder game:

This is a terrible picture with the reflection off the glass (sorry, I was also holding a wiggly one-year-old), but you can still see the dozens of different chrysalides being housed and protected until they're ready to make their glorious transformation. Many of them were getting close, and you could really see the progression between them.

Will didn't know it (and we didn't tell him for fear he'd reach up and accidentally crush it) but a butterfly landed right on top of his hat!

Aww. Yes, I did put my daughter in a butterfly shirt for the occasion... and she's also holding the butterfly hair clip that she just pulled out of her hair... and sitting on a butterfly bench. :)

This one was the biggest one we saw. Probably close to five inches tall!

Woo hoo! Another new vocabulary word! Though butterflies don't really eat (most of the eating is done in the caterpillar phase) they use their proboscis to stay hydrated with water and flower nectar.

This one's kinda' funny to see:

Don't worry. She was only touching the flowers, not a butterfly. And I didn't let her pluck the flower either. :)

Like I said, they have a really beautiful property there. We were hoping to see Duke (the owner) on our visit to see if he remembered us. He was so kind and helpful the last time. Outside, there are many pretty little places for fun photo ops. Will wasn't exactly cooperating, but it's still cute.

And, oh my gosh, I could just eat her up! So stinkin' cute!

Do you see the little butterflies etched into the stone bench? All the details!

Craig's pointing out the head of a frog poking up through the bubbles.

Why do I love pictures of my two guys with their hats on backwards so much? :)

Uncooperative subjects... as usual. :)

Weee!!!

On our drive home, we spotted a little family of geese walking together in a small park. Will and I got out to watch them briefly, though we kept our distance and just zoomed in for the picture. We talked about the Make Way for Ducklings book and wondered if these baby geese all had cute rhymey names too.

And that was our week in butterflies!

But this post ain't over yet...

I'm hoping/planning to post more and more about Sophie's learning activities in our Tot School posts. I'm really just winging it with her as there isn't much out there in the way of suggestions for an older baby/young toddler, but at least I understand the basic concepts that lay the foundation for our future activities. It's really very basic stuff for Sophie, but at the same time it's really very educational.

Here she was just transferring the plastic shapes from the shapes toy bucket to her new, pink beach bucket... and back and forth... while I got dinner on the table.

And here, she found that if she just left one shape in the bucket and shook it around, it made just the right noise apparently, because she did this again and again.

Watching the big, wide world go by is currently one of Sophie's favorite forms of entertainment.

Some of her favorite books include:

This one has bumpy, smooth, scratchy and rough shapes to feel, so she loves the sensory element there.

Probably her favorite (as it was Will's at this age) - lots of baby faces and different expressions.

This one's super cute. I mentioned this "author" in one of our recent book posts because we borrowed another one by her. There are no words. Just photographs comparing animals and babies.

Here's an example. We turn each page (she likes to help turn the pages) and I ask "Where's the (human) baby?" She'll usually slap the page and is almost always correct. Recently, though, she's started "kissing" the baby. So I'll say "Where's the baby? Can you give the baby a kiss?" And she'll plant one on the baby page.

I also recently got out the "family flashcards" that I made for Will when he was just a year old. Casey laminated them for me and it was a great way for Will to learn everyone's names. He LOVED them and Sophie seems to enjoy them too now.

On the backs of each card, I wrote the names of the colors just for an added teaching tool. On this night, Will enjoyed spelling each color aloud to me.

Again, we pulled out the old tissue box with my necklaces in it.

This hasn't gotten old, and it's great sensory fun for Sophie.

Just up from a nap, Sophie watches Will ride his tricycle in the driveway. I think this picture is so cute.

And... more looking out the dining room window.

Okay, that's all for Sophie for now.

Also this week, I spent some time one night reorganizing my Tot School supply storage. My dilemma was that I didn't know what to do with some of the activities we'd finished, but that could be saved for more play in the future. I've also collected enough empty food tubs/jars to require their own basket. And I wanted a small space that I could store things I was working on/planning to work on for the future.

So...I had to clear out more unnecessary stuff from my closet to make room. This is the shelf above my long hanging rack (i.e. for coats and dresses) that used to keep some small purses/wallets. I rearranged my main purse shelf to accomodate and got rid of a few purses I haven't used in forever. And now I'm storing my small containers of manipulatives and tiny pieces.

Here's the storage bin with all the empty containers I've saved for various activities, along with our egg carton counter, our 3-bin tray that I use for sorting, our I Spy jar, and a couple small containers of buttons and dry beans.

A painting supply bin (again, most of the stuff is currently in the basement from last week), along with multiple trays and baskets for preparing activities on/in.

My little storage drawer unit is getting maxed out already! I'm thinking of getting an extra, hanging, shoe organizer thingy to keep some stuff in. :)

And finally, I cleared out all the winter gloves/scarves/hats that used to reside on this shelf above my long hanging rack for all my clothes, and replaced them with (right to left) a basket of completed (but reusable) activities, our M&D magnetic letters, a tub of geometric solids I'm borrowing from Casey's classroom, the tissue box of necklaces for Sophie, and a stack of the following items: cork board, white board, M&D mosaic magnet puzzle, geoboard, foam letter and number puzzles. Oh, and also on the floor below the tray shelf, I have a stack of stuff I'm working on, Our Family ABC's book, a 3-ring binder filled with magazine tear-outs of anything I found interesting or useful (organized by activity, food, gift ideas, resources, and interesting articles), and that blue folder holds most of Will's completed project/art/whatever that's worth saving and that fits in there. :)

It's only going to get worse... I'm either going to need to clear out another closet for all our stuff or start reconsidering how much clothing I really need... LOL. Just kidding.

Next week: I'm not totally organized yet, but it's hopefully going to be a mish mosh of some science activities and miscellaneous fun stuff. Stay tuned!