Caterpillar To Butterfly

 Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: caterpillar, butterfly, molting, metamorphosis, chrysalis, proboscis, antennae,  wings, small/big, bigger, same/different, fast/slow, patterns, circles, change, fly, 

We've been watching our caterpillars change into butterflies during the past few weeks in Miss Jeana's and Miss Kazia's classroom.  So Miss Carrie brought out a book that talks about caterpillars to butterflies titled From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman and Bari Weissman.

It even had a preschool class who noticed during snack time that the butterfly was emerging from the chrysalis.  (Note from Miss Carrie: Once a child has experienced an activity, reading a book about that activity is often more engaging because the child has real word experience from which to draw.  )

Then Miss Carrie showed video clips of caterpillars and butterflies (Video Touch-Bugs is the name of the app). We watched different kinds of caterpillars.  Some caterpillars had patterns (yellow-black-yellow-black).  Some had spikes or fuzz.  One caterpillar had a red head with black spots that looked like a lot of eyes. We saw one caterpillar molt it's skin to form a chrysalis.  Then a butterfly emerged from the chrysalis.  We watched the wings that were shriveled up and wet, straighten out and dry.  Then we watched video clips of butterflies.  Some were orange and black.  Some had circles on their wings that looked like eyes. We watched a butterfly's proboscis curl up and straighten out.  They use the proboscis like a straw to drink nectar out of the flowers.  We watched a butterfly drink nectar and wondered why their wings kept moving so fast.

Last,  Miss Carrie brought out scarves and we could pretend to be butterflies.  We talked about what colors we chose for our wings and if they were the same or different.  We talked about moving our wings fast or slow.  Some friends pretended to drink nectar. After large group, during Outside Time, our teachers released some of the butterflies that we watched in class.

DO THIS AT HOME: Get outside and go on a butterfly hunt.  Use your looking eyes (we use the term "looking eyes" in class all the time so the children are familiar with this) and find some butterflies in your yard, at the park, or on a walk.  Talk about the colors, the size, and fast or slow.  If you can, take a picture of the butterflies you find and talk about them with other family members at home.

I Can Rhyme

 Transition Song: The Circle Time Song by The Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: rhyming, same/different, Wh-questions

Materials:  Silly Sally by Audrey Wood, rhyming books (particularly board books), Scholastic Rhyming 3-Piece Puzzles.

This week, Miss Carrie talked about rhyming words.  Rhyming words sound the same at the end, just the first sounds are different.  We talked about cat/hat, band/hand, house/mouse, and see/bee.  

Miss Carrie read Silly Sally.  There are parts of the book that say the same thing every time.  We helped Miss Carrie read those parts.  We listened for rhyming words.

Then Miss Carrie brought out enough books for everyone.  There were rhyming puzzles, too.  We could choose if we wanted to read a book or try puzzles.  Some of the puzzles had pictures we didn't know.  Teachers could help us with those words.

DO THIS AT HOME: grab your favorite rhyming book and read it together.  Pause as you read the second rhyming word of a pair, then ask "What rhymes with (1st rhyming word).  Then help as needed.  Find rhyming words in every day activities to point out.  Blue shoe.  Make cake.  See bee.  Cat hat.

May Week 3: Traffic Signs

Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kibommers

(no phoneme this week)

Materials:  Laminated Traffic Signs, paper plates

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: stop/go, fast/slow, turn, one way, do not, steer, beep, negation

This week, Miss Carrie brought out traffic signs.  Many of us knew what the STOP sign was.  We practiced spelling S-T-O-P.....STOP! and G-O......GO.  She introduced arrow signs that meant turn this way (not that way).  When you see a sign that is yellow, it means caution or slow down.  Look, there is an S in SLOW and an S in STOP.  Hey, there is an O, too!  We used paper plates for steering wheels.  After a while, Miss Carrie said "Everyone STOP!".  then we could decide if we wanted to hold the signs or keeping driving.  We beeped our horns and started up again.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make your own traffic signs and hang them around a room or rooms.  Everyone can pretend to drive.  When you're out and about, look for traffic signs.  Knowing that a sign says stop, even if your child isn't reading the word STOP yet, is reading environmental print which is a pre-literacy skill.

May Week 2: Old favorites and an art show.

This week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, we revisited favorite songs we've sung with Miss Carrie throughout the school year.  Favorites included Wake Up Daily Routines, Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy, Five Little Ghosts, H-E-A-R-T, One Finger One Thumb, and Must Be Santa.

On Wednesday, we went to the art show.  The show features art from other students in the school.  There were so many things to see and talk about!

There were a lot of themes featuring space.

Everyone LOVED this exhibit!  Not only did the art glow, so did our clothing!

We learned that the containers that hold flowers are called vases.

Miss Jeana and Miss Jen now have bugs encapsulated in little cubes to observe and explore.  All the children commented on these bugs and how they were like the little bugs in class.

Is it a city?  A neighborhood?

Some children observed that this was sunset.

So many liked the train pictures.

Some children liked the planets the best.

We tried to pose like an artist but the pictures were too tall for many of the kids.

These masks are made from jugs.

Frogs or monsters or aliens?

We practiced our /s/ sound while looking at the suns.

If you can find a kid-friendly art exhibit, it might be worthwhile to check it out.  The children loved to see the art and we had so many attempts at communication as well as expanded communication.