The best learning comes from real experiences. Kindergarten scientists observing real caterpillars crunch and munch their way through many milkweed leaves. As they became big, fat caterpillars, all four of them eventually made a "j" and formed their chrysalis. The thin golden line on the chrysalis was so cool to see! So far, three of our four butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis. On Wednesday (9/17), we noticed two of the chrysalis were black and by 9:45, the butterflies had come out! We let the butterflies go in the science courtyard on Thursday morning. That very morning, right as the kiddos were coming in to the room, we caught the third butterfly coming out of its chrysalis! That was the best real-life learning experience we had! Mrs. Conger, a substitute, released the third butterfly on Thursday afternoon near the playground (sorry, no pictures of that one). We will be watching to see if the offspring of our Monarch Butterflies return to our release spots in the spring! We are still waiting to meet our fourth and final butterfly.
Kindergarteners had a fun time using balloons and paint to make a black/white/yellow pattern (also named ABC pattern) on a green leaf. After the paint dried, they added faces and legs to their caterpillars. Our patterns are proudly hanging in the kindergarten hall. We will send them home as soon as the display is taken down.
We practiced our fine motor skills by carefully coloring a picture of a Monarch Butterfly and cutting it out. Figuring out the correct way to hold scissors while also being able to cut the paper is a little tricky, but these hard-working kindergarteners tried their very best! I didn't get a chance to snap photos of them using their finger puppets to recite "The Visitor" poem from our red reader. I hope they showed you at home!
Thanks to Nikolas and his mom, we had the perfect snack during our caterpillar/butterfly study! We thank you for taking the time to make the delicious grape caterpillars and fruitloop butterflies.
The sensory table was filled with black beans and kidney beans to look like soil. Below the beans were hidden picture cards to represent the four main stages of the butterfly's life cycle. I found these really cute images for FREE on another blog (sorry, I can't give credit because I don't remember where I found them) and cut them up. The kiddos had a super fun time using their sense of touch to dig through the beans and find all four picture cards. After identifying the four stages, they came to the table to put their cards in order and describe the life cycle to me. These kindergarteners are so smart and were even able to use our butterfly vocabulary to describe the chrysalis!
[pictures of the kids to come soon!]
lifecyclesequencingcardsbutterflyandfrog.pdf |
After becoming confident in our knowledge of the life cycle, the kids read and colored a mini-book to take home for their very own! They were so proud of their work. Taking the book home made it super special for them. I also found this as a FREEBIE from an awesome blog.
butterflylifecyclefreebie.pdf |
Through out butterfly unit, we read and acted out poems, sang songs, and read many fiction and non-fiction books.
One of our favorite fiction picture books was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We read the pictures, read the words, and retold the familiar story. We even made our very own retelling books! I hope you found them in your child's SMART Folder this weekend. A great way to become involved in this story with your child is to have them color the pictures in their retelling book while they use their own words to retell you the familiar story.
The kiddos were partnered up to play this fun life cycle game called "Roll, Say, Color". Partners took turns rolling a number cube and finding the matching numeral on their playing mats. Both partners practiced saying the name of the butterfly's life cycle stage aloud. Finally, they are able to color the stage on their game boards.
butterflyrollsaycolorgametivity.pdf |