A week on caterpillars & butterflies

Another great spring theme:  Caterpillars & Butterflies...  

Circle Caterpillars - To make these cute caterpillars, the kiddos laced circles onto a pipe cleaner, then added a face.

Caterpillar Life Cycle - We chatted about each part of the life cycle, so hopefully each kiddo can tell their family the stages of a caterpillar's life.  Egg, caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly!

Band-Aid Butterflies -  I showed my three year olds how to create these cute butterflies by sticking a band-aid half way on, putting the gauze under then sticking the other half of the band-aid on. 

They each did one butterfly, then promptly decided caterpillars (just the band-aid) were much easier to make.  Ha!

Free Play - I found these sweepstake entry forms at Goodwill for cheap.  I pulled them out for the the kiddos today, along with mini clipboards.  The kiddos had a blast writing tickets for each other and what not.

Classroom Plant - Our plant is growing and growing.  This is the one that has been upstairs (left picture).  I was surprised it's not as tall as the downstairs one.

 

Clothes Pin Caterpillars - The kiddos picked their pom poms and I hot glued them on.

Cocoons - We decided our clothes pin caterpillars needed cocoons...
 We decorated tp rolls for our cocoons.  They're pretty fabulous.

 

Clothes Pin Caterpillars - Becoming Butterflies - The next day we took our clothes pin butterflies out of their cocoons and made wings for them.  I had some sparkly red tulle that we folded into a bow and taped in the middle.  This way the kiddos could clip on the wings and take them back off if they wanted.

 

Craft Stick Caterpillars - Finger prints...

 

Circle Time -  We tried out a cocoon (sleeping bag) today.  The kiddos loved it way more than I thought they would.  They took multiple turns, crawling in, changing into a butterfly and then bursting out and flying around the room.

Symmetry - Butterfly Wings - We talked about symmetry in nature (butterfly wings, animals and people).  Then we created symmetric wings by doing the old fold the paper in half trick with paint.  Simple, but cool.  We'll add butterfly body parts tomorrow.

Pretzel Butterflies - Using almond bark and M&Ms we created these yummy butterflies.  Sadly I didn't get a good close up picture and they've all been eaten.

Pencil Sharpener & Spiral Graph - Two kid favorites!  Both take a bit of practice to get the movement, but so fun once they've got it.

Sponge Butterflies - These turned out cute!

Our Symmetry Butterflies - Finished - We added a quick body to our butterflies.

 

Snack Sillies - In theory we were creating butterflies from our bagels.  But we also ended up with mustaches!

Jenga - The kiddos discovered (and LOVED) this game this afternoon.