I am SO excited because I came home from taking our kitty to the vet on Saturday and my box o' caterpillars was sitting on the doorstep.
The life cycle of a butterfly has always been one of my very favorite things to teach. Who can beat the magic of metamorphosis to inspire little ones to write and learn?
At school on Monday, I put the two jars of caterpillars into a different box so that none of my little readers would figure out what was inside. The CAUTION! LIVE CATERPILLARS! mayyy have given it away. They were SO excited when they saw the "mystery box." They took turns gently lifting the box and guessing what was inside. I gave a few hints like "Be gentle, what's inside is ALIVE!" Of course they all squealed and were SUPER interested. What a fun way to kick off a new unit of study!
Eventually they guessed caterpillars and we took our new furry friends out of the box. We spent the day oohing and ahhing over them and squealing every.single.time they moved.
Today my little lepidopterists (aka butterfly scientists) began their observational drawings of the caterpillars. We will do this at least once or twice a week until we release the butterflies.
The word rings from my All About Butterflies unit have been an AMAZING tool for my emergent writers. I am loving how independent and inspired they are when using this tool to write in their investigation journals (also included in my TpT unit, amongst tons of other butterfly activities!).
Pretty dang good writing for pre-k, if I do say so myself!
You can grab all of these activities, plus tons more, all on sale for 28% off {today and tomorrow only}.
While we're at it, here are some more springy units you may want to grab.
and last but not least, a giant bundle of five of my best Spring products {here}.
Happy Shopping!!!
2 comments
Hi Mary! I'm trying to organize a MA blogger link up- are you interested?? Fill out the google form with your thoughts if you are! :)
http://caffeineandlessonplans.blogspot.com/2014/08/five-for-friday.html
Mandy
Caffeine and Lesson Plans
I totally meant "meet up" not "link up"! That's what I get for trying to do things after the baby goes to sleep. :)
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