Creepy Crawlies, Part 2

Another day of creepy crawlies!

 

While we waited for all of our friends to arrive, we finished up our caterpillars that we had started last time. Now that the paint was dry, we could write the letters of our name on the circles of the body! We also added eyes, antennae, legs....

Lydia even decided to add eyebrows!

 

 

After circle time we read about the Very Busy Spider.

This spider was so busy spinning its web!

 

Miss Kristen taught us what the different parts of a spiders body are called.

 Some of the names were kind of tricky...

But, one thing we all knew for sure..

spiders have 8 legs!

 

We each got our own black spider body with numbers on it.

We also got a bag of clothes pins, each with a different number of dots on it.

 Count the dots, clip the clip on the right number!

 Hooray! 8 legs!

 

We read another book about more creepy crawlies and spiders.

 By the end we were all pretty wiggly!!! So, it was time to head to a different room.

 

 

We each picked out 4 pipe cleaners....

 ...lined them up evenly...

 ... then folded the stack of pipe cleaners in half and twisted the folded end to make a body.

 We spread out the eight legs, and bent them down at the ends.

 Then Miss Kristen glued a head onto each spider!

 They turned out so awesome!

 

Of course, then our spider needed a web, so he could catch some bugs to eat!

So, we "spun" a web onto a black plate that had notches cut around the edges of it.

 

 

Now time to check out some HUGE creepy crawlies!

Leah McHorse was nice enough to let us borrow her bug collection.

There were some seriously huge beetles and one GIGANTIC tarantula (like a giant hairy SPIDER!).

Several of the children had to ask whether the bugs were going to start moving. We reassured them that they were real bugs but that they were dead now. 

 

 

Then, in true spider fashion, we had bugs for a snack!



 Okay, not real bugs. But some tasty bug shaped cookies.

 Everyone wanted pictures taken with their snack today. haha.

 

 

 

 And of course, if we are going to be a true spider, we have to be able to spin a web.

And so...

 WE DID!

 

 

Then free time outside to finish up another fun day of preschool.

Bugs, bugs, and more BUGS!

It was BUG week at Miss Kristen's house!

 

We started out by coloring pages about "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

 

 

 

During circle time we each got a chance to tell everyone something that we had done over the weekend.

We read a couple of books about some bugs.

First one about a worm that was trying to earn money. He wanted to be an artist!

 

Next it was the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

 We talked about the word metamorphosis. That is what you call it when an animal changes from one thing into another. Like a caterpillar going through changes to become a butterfly! We practiced saying the long silly word.

"MET-A-MOR-PHO-SIS!"

 

We got to act out each stage of the metamorphosis.

We started as eggs.

 Emerged as squirmy caterpillars (that apparently like to squirm quite close to each other).

 Then we hung upside down in our cocoons (or chrysalis).

More cocoons in great places.

 Then after TWO WEEKS (14 days, which we counted), we came out as beautiful butterflies, flapping our wings!

 

 

Then it was time to make our own caterpillars! We used plastic balls and dipped them in paint to make the circles of the caterpillar. But before we could do that, we had to count how many letters were in our own name. And that was the number of body circles we would make on our page.

 

Five green and yellow circles for ROBBY.

 

We all gathered in front of the TV after that to watch an awesome video showing the METAMORPHOSIS of a caterpillar---- from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly!

(Robby was neatly sandwiched between Lexi and Lydia... haha)

 

Time for some more beautiful artwork!!

 

We made butterflies by squeezing different colors of paint onto butterfly shaped paper.

 Fold the butterfly in half and press it down to squish the paint

 

And when you open it, it's a wonderful masterpiece!!

 So much fun!

 

 

We even made butterflies for our snack!

We each spread some peanut butter down the middle of a stick of celery....

 ....stuck two pretzels in for wings...

 ....and two little M&Ms for the eyes!

 So cute...

And of course tasty!

 

Since preschool got bumped to a later time this day, we all got to have macaroni and cheese for lunch together as well!

 

Miss Kristen had asked us to bring some bugs to preschool this day. So, at the end of the day we got out the bugs and looked at them under some magnifying glasses!

 

What a fun day all about bugs!