preschool - Butterfly day

This week we talk about butterflies. I was pretty happy that it was my turn to teach. How fun are butterflies?   You can't talk about butterflies without reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  I usually don't choose the books that the kids have probably heard a hundred times, but they did have a lot of fun with this one.

I love this big book.  It was a gift to Bee when she was just wee from my brother and his wife.  I think that it is from Barnes and Noble though, if you are interested.  The little puppet can even fit through the holes.   The kiddos all really liked it.

We did a little sorting and counting with this little felt set I made up to go with the fruits from the story.  I love having these fabric numbers to use with varying counting activities.

This is actually the first thing I showed my little three year old friends.  They are butterfly pictures that I took this past week when we went to The Butterfly Palace. 

This is the first book I read to the class.  It's From Egg to Butterfly by Shannon Zemucka.  This was a good book, I would have read any short non fiction with real pictures though. 

I picked up this life-cycle model set at Toys R Us recently.  I  know they will get used a lot.  I used this set while we sang the Butterfly Song by Dr. Jean.

We looked at some additional butterflies and caterpillars on these flashcards.  I bought them at Target in the dollar section a few summers ago.  I love punching a hole in the corners and ringing them up.  They get looked at and don't get lost.

Of course I showed the kids the butterfly in a jar.  Several wanted to show their parents at pick up time.  The teachers loved seeing it too. The kitty was happy that I got it out again.

With just learning a few signs, the kids easily signed along to the song Caterpillar Dream from Rachael Coleman of Signing Times.  It's on the Great Outdoors DVD and CD.   Then, we used little butterfly finger puppets to move and dance along to the following song:   (I'm apparently too lazy to type out what is in the picture tonight- actually hubby and I have a bet as to whether I can finish this post in the time I estimated.   If I loose I have to go make us both frozen hot chocolates.  I'm thinking I should loose on purpose.)

I planned for us to to this song/activity with the puppets, but we didn't get to it.

Here are the little finger puppets.

It's felt wings hot glued on to...

the finger tips of yellow rubber gloves.  I picked them up at the dollar store.

We also made this little book, which didn't turn out logistically as I had thought.  It turned out ok though.   

The first page is:  A little egg lay on a leaf.   (a finger print is the egg)  I actually typed lays.... I never got that one, lays, lay, lie... I don't know which is right.

 (I think you can see the text now...I'll stop reading it for you)  A full finger print is the caterpillar.

The kids upside down hand in a fist is traced for the chrysalis.

Traced hands are the wings and the fingerprint is the body of the butterfly.

The parent that brought snack brought these cute butterfly snacks.  

They are made with a clothes pin and a snack size zip lock.  They are like the ones we made last year. 

I set this out after snack.  It is the brochure from the butterfly place we went.  I google imaged several of the butterflies from the brochure and made cards.   It's just a little matching game.  If my kiddos were writers, I could have numbered the cards and had them write the names as they identified them.

We also had on hand a Melissa and Doug bug puzzle which had been a gift to Lou and a bug pattern/matching set which was a garage sale find.

Last year we hatched butterflies, but I'll probably get them again next year.  We get to talk about butterflies in the 4 year class too.

I am linking up to some of these fine kiddo related parties:

Wednesday's A story + art = A Great stART  @ A Mommy's adventures,   Wednesday's Kids Get Crafty @ Red Teg Art's Blog, Tuesday's Show and Tell blog hop ad ABC and 123,  Tot Tuesdays at Delicious Ambiguity,  For the Kids Fridays @ Sun Scholars