Our Homespun Haven: Pre-K/Tot School: Insects Week 3

We didn't spend as much time in the school room this week. Littlemiss started resisting reading and math activities, so I have backed it up a bit. She used to beg me to do learning activities about reading and math, so I don't want to burn her out. There is no need to push a preschooler to learn these things. I always have some lessons planned and ready, so I will ask and let her lead next week as well.

We focused more on reading insect books (which she loves), open-ended, exploratory activities, and playing outside. We have a morning routine that we will stick with on the days we do "school." We start the day singing hymns and reading her Jesus Storybook Bible. It's always a sweet time. Jemma's favorite song right now is "Amazing Grace." She often asks me during the day if I will sing it with her. Melts my heart. We then do our calendar time, which she really enjoys too. She likes to see the rhythm for the day before the day starts, and likes getting to run outside to see what the weather is like. Fun stuff that we will keep doing every day. Right now we are doing "school" 2-4 days a week on average. And we don't spend all day together, it is more sporadic learning and activities throughout the day. I like this, because I can manage the house and meals better this way, and it's more natural for a preschooler to sit for a few minutes, run around, play, then be able to sit again.

Science:

We captured a tiny little beetle and kept him for a few days. Littlemiss and I made a little habitat for him. I asked her what she thinks he would need to live in his home, and we came up with some dirt, leaves, small branch, and she insisted he would need some berries from a bush outside.

Glad he survived all the carrying around and swinging of his habitat!

The day we released him we found a fabulous dead beetle. He was gorgeous and the kids were so fascinated by him. He literally fell out of the sky in front of me! Pleasant surprise.

Looking at his head, thorax, abdomen, and legs. We talked about his exoskeleton and how it is like our skeleton, but on the outside of his body.

Reading:

We are reading through "Charlotte's Web" right now. She always wants one more chapter and I've even used reading more than one chapter as a reward for good behavior. I had tried to start reading chapter books to her a few months ago and she just wasn't into it. Love that she likes it now and always wants to read more.

"Reading" to Rory. Sometimes they get really quiet, and I find them like this :)

We did fit in a few reading lessons. Spelling words with the Montessori movable alphabet and printed images from online. We added more letters and words this week to learn.

BooBoo:

I'm really struggling to fit time with BooBoo in during the day. He is included in most of our activities (all but reading and math), so he is with us learning, but I'd like to find more time for one-on-one with him.

An independent activity of his. We are working on colors and matching the colors up. Also great fine motor work.

He LOVED using the dot marker!

Fine Motor:

Our scissors activity was cutting up strips of various butterflies. The butterfly printable is from Montessori Print Shop (where we get most of our Montessori printables from). First she drew grass and flowers, and then cut and pasted the butterflies on the picture. She got frustrated because she wasn't sure how to draw the flowers, but I encouraged her a bit and she made some great flowers.

Making play dough together. Who doesn't love digging around in some flour.

We made black and yellow play dough with gold sparkles. Above is a birthday cake Littlemiss made.

BooBoo kept saying "lellow! lellow!" excitedly. Fun to see him know the name for a color!

Blowing out his birthday candles.

BooBoo usually wanders a bit while Littlemiss plays. He added his "Queen" car to the play.

Putting the bug to bed in the play dough.

Littlemiss colored a bit this week! She hasn't liked coloring ever, but is now warming up to it. Coloring Dora with a rainbow helmet.

Tweezing pom poms into an egg carton.

Playing with these hexagonal manipulatives. Picked them up at JoAnn's awhile back.

Sensory Play:

This was meant to be an open-ended art project, but it turned into more of a sensory project when I added shaving cream.

It didn't take long for Littlemiss to start covering her whole body in it.

BooBoo soon started to copy her, and loved it as well.

I risked the neighbors thinking I'm nuts by doing this in the late afternoon when most of the kids were home from school and the parents home from work. They actually found it entertaining to watch the kids play!

My clean up crew.

Natural Science Museum:

This trip was a fabulous culmination of everything we've learned about insects. It was a wonderful day seeing all the things we've been reading and learning about. Littlemiss walked up to the exhibit and immediately exclaimed, "CHRYSALIS!" cause there were giant models of the butterfly life cycle above the entrance. I couldn't have planned a better day.

Looking at some fabulous insects and arthropods. I had to keep myself from freaking out at the gigantic tarantulas!

All the chrysalis's. Simply amazing.

Beetles!

Admiring all the beautiful butterflies.

In the butterfly exhibit area there was a bee hive. BooBoo kept saying, "Bee! Bee!"

She's admiring the butterfly's proboscis. Pretty cool to see the long tongue unroll and suck up nectar.

They had some dead butterflies to hold. Showing me her butterfly.

There was a man sitting part way through with a plant that had eggs and caterpillars on it. Absolutely amazing! Above the yellow dots are eggs.

Look at that gorgeous caterpillar!

A butterfly landed right on the bench next to us. BooBoo did well not to hurt it and just watched it.

Outside of the exhibit was a gigantic play area for the kids that was a beehive. Littlemiss immediately turned into a bee. Here she is feeding the baby larva's nectar.