Bugs- Ladybug Day

We declared today Ladybug day at our house.  I brought E's ladybug wings and doll to the living room, and took out all of our fun ladybug books from our bug theme book basket. I also added our nonfiction Ladybugs book by Martha E.H. Rustad.  We read the factual book about ladybugs, as well as The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle before doing our first activity...hatching our ladybugs from the ice eggs.

I took some of the wooden embellishment ladybugs I had sitting around, filled up ice cube trays half way, then let them freeze before adding water to fill them up the entire way to freeze again.  I wanted at least some of the ladybugs to be well encased into the "eggs."

I popped the ladybug ice out into a big bowl and equipped E with a watering can of warm water to help her hatch the ladybugs to get all 10 out.

To get the ladybugs out, we melted, threw, stepped on, picked at and simply waited for the ladybugs to free them from the ice.

This activity also involved a whole lot of counting.  E had a hard time remembering just how many ladybugs she had freed.  Here you can see her using her fingers to count...a great skill she is finally getting the hang of doing, even when mommy isn't helping.

After about an hour outside playing with subsequent bowls of ice cubes and refills of watering cans, we finally came inside to read Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth Summary, which is one of E's favorite books of all time. We started with a pile of 10 ladybugs...

...and as we worked our way through the story, E moved the "lost" ladybugs into another pile at the top of the book.

Finally, E match up each of her ladybugs with the ladybugs on the final pages of the book.  We plan to have another "theme" bug day soon!

Bugs- Worksheet Notebook

Ever since I have been getting onto Pinterest, I have been interested in using a set of worksheets with E from  1+1+1=1.  Here you can find the link to a list of their preschool packs, including the Pretty Bugs packet that I printed out, cut and laminated parts of, and placed in page protectors.

I know some people are very anti worksheets, but the truth is, once kids are in a formalized school setting, they are expected to show skills on paper.  I think the pages serve a great purpose as filler activities to supplement the activities we are doing.  

This particular activity involves graphing.  E rolls the die (or spins a spinner) and charts which bug the die lands on.  It was great for her object correspondence, as well as getting used to writing in a particular box or area of the graph.  

We have played or E has completed about half of the worksheets from the packet, and has had a blast doing them.  It is great seeing her work through some of the sheets on her own, and the games allow us to work on various skills together, too.  My labels for this post will reference the packet as a whole.  A big thanks to the creators of the worksheets!

Bugs- Books and Journal

We started this activity by reading Ugh! A Bug! by Ned Crowley and Bug Parts by Charlotte Guillain.  Both  nonfiction books have a lot of close up photos of real bugs and describe the bug and insect parts.   

Before reading the books, I had created a journal entry fill-in-the-blank page to fill in with numbers. I had planned on using a sticker page to have E pick out the correct number to fill in the blanks, but then we found these number stamps which she chose to use instead.  She actually remembered a lot of the facts from the books to fill in on her own.

Here is the final entry.  Unfortunately I did not leave enough room for the stamp numbers, but it still worked out okay!  We definitely need to continue with the journaling....such a great activity.

Bugs- Sensory Bin

 To get excited about studying bugs, I created a new sensory bin representing a word we have been spending a lot of time talking about-- habitat.  The fillers in this bin include two one foot squares of fake grass (I found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby with the Easter items), pebbles, and green poly fill.

 I included two plastic posts which I filled with a coffee bean/split pea/colored spaghetti mix left over from another sensory bin.  I then cut apart a silk flower bush and a silk leaf bush and "planted" them into the pots. Utensils include tongs, magnifying glasses, and a cardboard tube.  Finally, I added a couple of bags of bugs from the dollar store, along with some self-stick ladybugs and spider confetti.  

 As soon as we opened the bin, E wanted her bug viewing container to collect the bugs from the bin. Her favorite was finding the little lady bugs, which I had placed "crawling" in different spots throughout the bin.

 Here she is counting some of the bugs before placing them into her viewing container.

And here she is making the ladybugs crawl on her feet!  Looks like she needed a pedicure!


I just can't emphasize how great these bins are.  They are fun to put together, a great way to learn, and very entertaining!

Filler Activity- April Fools' Day

For April Fools' Day, I found this adorable book at a discount store called Garden Ridge. If you have a store by you, it is worth a look through their books. Books there are typically less than $5, usually closer to $3. I would much rather spend a few dollars on a book than close to the same amount on a card!

Anyway, this book called Lettuce In by Tina Gallo. Each page is a knock-knock joke with a door flap. Knock-knock jokes are great exposure to the concept of puns and multiple meanings. Some of the jokes are too difficult for E to fully understand, but she definitely finds humor in the ones that are based on sounds (such as "Boo who?). We have read this book at least 10 times since the first reading. She now understands the sequence of a knock-knock joke, and has memorized most of the book!

Springtime- Matching Cling Activity

I found this great sheet of clings at the dollar store and thought it would be perfect to use to help match the season name with the signs of the season. We first spread out the word clings on the window. Notice the horrible weather outside!

Then, E began pulling the picture clings off of the sheet to group with the words. Since she can't read (yet!), I had to do a lot of reminding about what each season word said, and we had to talk about what we read and about the seasons in the book, as well as discussing our own experiences ("Today is the first day of spring. Could we go out and build a snowman today? Do you remember when we played in the snow? What season does snow happen?).

If I was to do this activity all over again, I would probably talk about each season individually. For example, I would have E pick a word cling, then I would ask E to find the clings that go along with that season. Changing the activity just a little would help to eliminate the challenge of the word clings being confusing for a nonreader. I'm sure we will enjoy these clings over and over.

The Five Senses- Review and Phonics Activity

For the first part of this activity, I created two sets of note cards, one set with the five senses written out, and the other set with pictures of the body part used for those senses. I had also picked up the rubber face puppet that E is holding to use with this activity. I used the funny puppet to read the letters and then the words on the cards to E using a fun voice. It was her job to match the picture card with the word card. This acted as a review for all that we have been talking about. Some of my pictures were not so great, so the puppet would ask her to point to his body part if she was confused by the picture. E enjoyed the puppet part of this very much, and matched up all the cards between giggles.For the second part of this activity, I had sorted through a box of lettered short bread cookies to find the letters that match up with the senses words on the cards a few days beforehand. E then would take a cookie our of the container, tell me the letter, and look for a letter to match it up with. We had never done an activity like this before, but she did a great job. She had a few letters she didn't know, and a couple she couldn't match up, but I was very surprised with how easily she accomplished this task. Of course, she kept asking if she could eat a cookie.

And, as she completed a word, I did let her eat the cookies for that word. I love the built in motivation and reward of this activity! What a fun and productive half hour!

Filler Activity- Dr. Suess' Birthday!

After a visit to the library where we learned about and discussed Dr. Seuss and his works, we pulled out a couple of Dr. Seuss books to celebrate his birthday. There are some other amazing activities to go along with his birthday out on Pinterest, but we decided to keep it simple...this time.