Art:
We did a LOT of art projects. There were so many different ideas and options here! At this age art is so much more than JUST art... it's a sensory experience, it helps Riley's hand eye coordination, we identify shapes and colors and letters and numbers, she listens to me tell her different facts about different bugs. Here are just some of the things we made:
We had to hit up the library for this one. We did have a few "bug" theme books, but not enough to last for a week, and I wanted some more interesting ones, so off to the library we went. Plus we were focusing on butterflies and caterpillars this week so I wanted some books relevant to those.
Little Miss Muffet, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bringing Home Baby Bumble Bee, The ants go marching... so many more I can't even keep track! We sang "Shoo fly" a million times because we kept getting so many flies in our house and they are driving me craaaazy!
She has a magnetic bug catching puzzle which was a total hit, and she now knows: cricket, firefly, dragonfly, caterpillar, butterfly, bee, spider, ant. Puzzles are great for pattern recognition and hand/eye coordination, as well as great for learning different kinds of bugs! She is a pro at the wooden puzzles, so we're trying out some harder 4 piece puzzles. She picks out the pieces that go together, and asks me to help her do them, but she will often put in the last piece.
We made a trip to the local plant nursery and picked up a swan plant for Riley. It's a plant that attracts monarch butterflies, and the one we bought had a caterpillar AND a cocoon on it already. So we planted it in her very own pot, and checked on it multiple times a day. We watered it and talked all about caterpillars and butterflies and everything in between. She LOVES it. She runs out and goes "caterpillar, where are you?" "No touching caterpillar, no touching cocoon."
We watched A Bug's Life! for our movie night this week, which was pretty fun, Riley loved pointing out all the bugs she knew. Riley also loved watching this kid's youtube video about caterpillars, which you can see HERE if you are interested.
Overall, lots of activities, and lots of fun!! Next week's theme: EASTER!!!