Archive for the ‘Caterpillars and Butterflies’ Category
Butterfly Unit Study
Jul
This was such a fun unit! My kids didn’t even know that they were doing science or practicing their reading and writing.
Week in Review
Jul
I can’t believe how fast this school year went by. This was our last week of 2nd grade (which was almost a month ago, I’m finally all caught up!). I very clearly remember the first day of school and wondering how I was going to do this homeschooling thing all year long. But, we made it and we both loved it!
Hailey on her last day of second grade. I wish I could slow down time, she is growing up so fast.
Here are some of the things we did during our last week:
Language Arts:
We finished up our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire. After we read “Little Grunt and the Big Egg,” Hailey created a book about how she would care for a prehistoric pet if she had one.
On the first day of school Hailey made the top picture (which Hunter colored on while I had it hanging up on the wall :-(). On the last day of school, I had her do the same paper and then we compared how her answers had changed or stayed the same.
Science:
Our butterflies hatched! Hailey was able to watch one come out of its chrysalis.
We started with 5 caterpillars and ended up with 5 butterflies that were all able to fly away. One seemed to have damaged wings, but when the time came to fly away it was able to fly.
Hailey put together a lapbook all about caterpillars and butterflies to show what she learned during our unit. Most of the printables are from here and here.
Inside the first flap. The top shows the life cycle of the butterfly.
On the bottom there is a little booklet where Hailey wrote out the life cycle of a butterfly. Then she made a butterfly diagram.
This is inside the next flap of the lapbook.
On the top there are butterfly cards that show many of the types of butterflies. Next to that is some butterfly math. Underneath is a Venn diagram comparing butterflies and moths.
On the bottom of this flap there is a little booklet that shows the predators of butterflies, another booklet that shows the defenses butterflies use to protect themselves, and also a little booklet to show the lifespan of a butterfly.
This is the last page of the butterfly lapbook.
On the top there a book to show the different flowers that butterflies like. There is a observation journal where Hailey wrote about what she observed in the caterpillars we watched turn into butterflies. Then there is a little caterpillar with some facts about caterpillars.
This section has a butterfly Hailey made to show the symmetry of butterfly wings. There is also information about what caterpillars and butterflies eat.
We had an amazing first year of homeschooling!! We are enjoying summer vacation right now and waiting for our new baby to arrive 🙂
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Tot School
Jun
Hunter is 30 months.
Letter W activities:
(Printables for the letter W are from 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler.)
Hunter loves doing the do-a-dot printables for the letters. I have to make sure we do one of these every week.
Hunter colored his letter W paper and then glued some foam Ws onto the window.
I love that Hunter can do these color papers all by himself. He looks at the color word and then finds the right marker to color with.
W is for Worm.
(I usually just do the same letter craft with Hunter that I did with Hailey when she was in tot school… but lately I’ve been asking Hailey for ideas and she has some really creative ideas for our letter crafts and this was one of her great ideas.)
Shapes:
We focused on the triangle again this week- I’ve been doing the same shape for 2 weeks since Hunter does not know all of his shapes yet. Hunter used a triangle shaped block to do some triangle paint stamping.
Manipulatives:
This is another activity that I can just put out on the table for Hunter and when wants to, he’ll just sit down and do it without any help. I put the paper onto a baking sheet and then he puts the magnetic pom poms onto the circles.
Other:
We are continuing out caterpillar/butterfly unit. We ordered some caterpillars and watched them grow and then form a chrysalis.
Every day Hailey read us a book about butterflies. She even used a butterfly puppet when she read on this particular day. Hunter definitely enjoyed it!
Hailey and Hunter painted one side of a butterfly, then folded the other side over to show how butterflies wings are symmetrical.
Hunter’s butterfly on the top and Hailey’s on the bottom.
These activities are actually from a couple of weeks ago, I’m behind in my posting- so this is Hunter working on Father’s Day picture frame gift. Hailey painted half of it and Hunter painted the other half. Later they added some scrapbook stickers of tools but I never took a picture of the finished frame.
Stop by 1+1+1=1 to see what the other tots were up to this week.
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
Week in Review
Jun
I am a couple of weeks behind in posting my weekly reviews, so I am going to do my best to remember what we did.
Language Arts:
We continued our author unit study about Tomie dePaola from Around the Kampfire.
Hailey really enjoyed reading the books we used in our author study!
We read several books that had Big Anthony in them and we talked about cause and effect- how all of the things that Anthony did were the cause, and then the effect was the result of his actions.
On the left, Hailey wrote several things that Anthony did and on the right she wrote the results of those actions.
Hailey also made a post card pretending that Strega Nona had gone on vacation- she decorated the front of the post card and pretended that Strega Nona was in Disney World.
On the back she pretended to be Strenga Nona and wrote a message to one of Strega Nona’s friends- she decided to write to Bambolona and told her about the fun she was having on vacation.
Science:
Our caterpillars arrived at the beginning of the week to go along with our study of caterpillars and butterflies.
Only a few days after their arrival they were already preparing to go into a chrysalis.
By Friday we only had a couple left that hadn’t formed a chrysalis.
We did a comparison of butterflies and moths and learned how to tell the difference between the two.
Hailey and Hunter painted one side of a butterfly, then folded the other side over to show how butterflies wings are symmetrical.
Hunter’s butterfly on the top and Hailey’s on the bottom.
Every day Hailey read us a book about butterflies. She even used a butterfly puppet when she read on this particular day. Hunter definitely enjoyed it!
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
